samatha and vipassanā working together

[cattasalla]

I was thinking this morning about the interplay between samatha (tranquility, or stopping) and vipassanā (insight, or looking deeply), two types or qualities of Buddhist meditation, in my own practice. It's very frequently taught that one should do samatha first, and then, when tranquility is achieved, when one has sufficiently stopped, then one can look deeply and achieve insight (e.g., Zen and Mahāmudrā). Recently, the idea of doing vipassanā first has become popular, with the idea that through the insights gained during mindfulness practice, one can then achieve tranquility (e.g., Insight Meditation/Vipassanā teachings derived from Burmese Theravāda). One thing that seems to not really be talked about, except for by the Thai forest masters, is both of them together, which, iirc, is the first thing the Buddha recommended. In my practice, I'm trying for samatha. I'm trying to achieve tranquility, and stillness of mind. But, the thing is, there are impediments to that--stresses, difficulties, distractions, etc. In order to overcome those, to release those stresses, I need insight into them, into how they work, where the tension is, how it can be relaxed and released, or where there is clinging for something that needs to be abandoned or let go of. So the two work together in my practice. (See Aṅguttara-Nikāya 4.94 for further discussion.)