Cultivation of Moral Concern in Theravāda Buddhism: Toward a Theory of the Relation Between Tranquility and Insight

This article studies the relationship between tranquility and insight in Theravāda Buddhist meditation through the lens of moral psychology. It begins by distinguishing two scholarly positions: samatha-inessentialists, who maintain that only vipassanā is indispensable for liberation, and samatha-essentialists, who argue that samatha and vipassanā are both necessary. Mills first presents Griffiths’s view that samatha and vipassanā are difficult to reconcile because the former reduces mental activity and cultivates calm, while the latter analyzes experience and produces insight. He then turns to Keown’s alternative, according to which the two practices are not rivals but complementary disciplines: vipassanā develops wisdom, while samatha develops the affective and moral dimension of the person. The article’s central contribution is to make Keown’s claim more philosophically and textually plausible by explaining how samatha may cultivate moral concern. Mills considers whether moral concern arises from uncovering a natural human disposition, but finds this argument less convincing. He then develops the Divine Abidings argument, grounded in practices of mettā, karuṇā, muditā, and upekkhā. These meditations gradually establish wholesome dispositions in the psyche, counteract greed and hatred, and support the emergence of anukampā, or sympathetic moral concern. The article concludes that this account gives stronger reasons to treat samatha as an integral component of Theravāda Buddhist moral and soteriological cultivation.