Letting the mind to become peaceful and staying in meditation state of stillness free from many thoughts is called shamata or sustained calm. Recognizing the empty nature of the mind within that state of calm is called vipashyana or profound insight. Uniting shamata and vipashyana is the essence of meditation practice. It is said:
Look at the mind,
There is nothing to see.
Seeing nothing, we see the dharma,
The source of all buddhas.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
from the book The Heart of Compassion: The Thirty-seven Verses on the Practice of a Bodhisattva
translated by Padmakara Translation Group
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Further quotes from the book The Heart of Compassion:
- No more than an empty echo
- Before it is too late
- Start observing your mind
- Never stop thinking about how to gain liberation
- The importance of relative bodhicitta
- The children of the buddhas
- Giving and taking
- Seeing clearly how deceiving the ways of the world are
- The best opportunity to put the teachings into practice
- Neither discouragement nor pride
- Powerful sources of help
- Two types of friends
- The reason you are wandering in samsara
- Phenomena adorn emptiness
- Nothing to be grasped
- A practice based on your mind
- Opportunity
- Phenomena adorn emptiness, but never corrupt it
- Just projections of the mind
- Impermanence dawning in your mind