Kammatthana: the meditation subjects of calm and insight

Kammatthana means a meditation subject: the two kinds, samatha and vipassana, the forty subjects, and how to choose

Kammatthana means the ground on which the mind trains: the object a meditator works with, such as the breath, loving-kindness, or the body and mind as they happen. The word is used in two senses. Narrowly, a kammatthana is a particular meditation subject. Broadly, it means meditation practice as a whole, as when someone says they are going away to practise kammatthana. This page explains what the word means, the two kinds, what each is for, and how to choose.

What kammatthana means

Kammatthana comes from the Pali kammaṭṭhāna: kamma, 'work', and ṭhāna, 'place' or 'ground'. Together they mean the place of work, here the work of the mind. Just as a carpenter needs a bench, the mind needs something to work on. So kamma here is not karma in the sense of past deeds and their results; it is the work of training you are doing now. In Thai the word is read gam-ma-taan.

In the shortest terms, a kammatthana is a way of training the mind with a clear object to work on and a clear aim. In the Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa uses the word for the subject a teacher gives a student to practise, and he lists forty subjects for developing calm.

Two kinds: samatha and vipassana

A common question is how many kinds of kammatthana there are. The standard answer is two: samatha and vipassana, calm and insight. This matches a discourse in the Book of the Twos where the Buddha names two things that share in knowledge.

Dve me, bhikkhave, dhammā vijjābhāgiyā.
Katame dve?
Samatho ca vipassanā ca.
Mendicants, these two things share in knowledge. What two? Calm and insight.
AN 2.31

Vijjā means true knowledge. Samatha is calm of mind and vipassana is clear seeing, so samatha and vipassana are a pair of tools leading to true knowledge, not two roads of which you must pick one. A point-by-point comparison is on samatha vs vipassana.

Samatha: calming and steadying the mind

Samatha kammatthana means keeping the mind with a single object, steadily, until restlessness settles and the mind becomes one. Five things block that calm, the five hindrances. As they quiet down, the mind enters deeper stillness step by step. The texts distinguish access concentration (upacāra-samādhi), close to absorption, and full absorption (appanā-samādhi), which is jhāna.

The benefit of calm is a mind that is rested, strong and supple enough to put to work. The same discourse says calm, when developed, develops the mind and gives up greed. But calm alone holds the defilements down only for a while. Meditation teachers often compare it to a stone laid on grass: lift the stone and the grass grows back.

Vipassana: training wisdom to see truly

Vipassana meditation takes the body and mind as they actually happen as its object. Rather than fixing on one still thing, it follows what changes, until it sees that everything is impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self. The same discourse says insight, when developed, develops wisdom and gives up ignorance. Compared with calm, insight is like pulling the grass out by the roots, because it works on not-knowing, the root cause.

Iti kho, bhikkhave, rāgavirāgā cetovimutti,
avijjāvirāgā paññāvimuttī”ti.
In this way, mendicants, freedom of heart comes from the fading of greed, and freedom by wisdom from the fading of ignorance.
AN 2.31

So the two kinds of kammatthana work on two sides of the same mind: one deals with craving, the other with not-knowing. Most practitioners need both, only in different proportions at different stages of their practice.

The 40 meditation subjects in brief

The Visuddhimagga collects forty subjects for developing calm, in seven groups. The full list with the meaning of each is on 40 meditation subjects; here are the groups.

Ten kasiṇa: gazing at an element or a colour until its image stays in the mind: earth, water, fire, air, blue, yellow, red, white, light and space.
Ten kinds of foulness (asubha): reflecting on a corpse in different stages, to loosen infatuation with the body.
Ten recollections (anussati), such as recollecting the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, virtue, generosity, death, the body and the breath.
The four divine abidings: loving-kindness, compassion, gladness and equanimity, spread to all beings.
Four formless states: very refined stillness not based on form, for those who already have jhāna.
Perception of the repulsiveness of food (āhāre paṭikūlasaññā).
Defining the four elements (catudhātuvavatthāna): seeing the body as earth, water, fire and air.

All forty are classed as samatha kammatthana, subjects for calm, but some, such as the breath and the elements, lead easily into insight, because they are things actually happening in the body.

How a teacher traditionally gives a kammatthana

Traditionally, someone who wanted to practise went to a teacher, whom the Visuddhimagga calls a good friend (kalyāṇamitta), someone able to point the way. The student offered themselves to the Buddha and to the teacher, and asked for a kammatthana in order to realise nibbāna. The teacher watched the student's character and gave a fitting subject. The student then came back regularly to report, and the teacher checked and adjusted the practice. The Pali words of this request are still chanted today; see the request for a meditation subject.

Many people today practise kammatthana at home with no regular teacher, and that is workable. Saying the traditional request before sitting helps set a clear intention. But if practice deepens, or unusual experiences come up, talking with an experienced teacher is still very valuable.

How to choose

The Visuddhimagga describes six temperaments (carita): greedy (drawn to beauty), hating (quick to anger), deluded (dull and confused), faithful, intelligent, and speculative (given to restless thinking). It suggests subjects that balance each one: loving-kindness for the angry, the breath for the confused and the over-thinking, foulness for those attached to beauty, recollection of the Buddha for the faithful. Loving-kindness and mindfulness of death it calls useful for everyone.

For a beginner with no teacher to help, a safe kammatthana that suits most people is mindfulness of breathing. In the Ānāpānassati Sutta the Buddha says that breath meditation, well developed, brings the four foundations of mindfulness to completion. So the breath serves both calm and insight.

Ānāpānassati, bhikkhave, bhāvitā bahulīkatā
cattāro satipaṭṭhāne paripūreti.
Mendicants, mindfulness of breathing, when developed and practised often, brings the four foundations of mindfulness to completion.
MN 118

Once you choose a kammatthana, stay with it for a good while, several weeks at least, rather than switching every day.
Use a second subject when needed, such as a little loving-kindness when you feel resentful, then go back to your main one.
If your aim is wisdom, use the calm you have as a base and turn to watching body and mind as they are, as in the guide on how to do vipassana meditation.
Intensive practice is not a treatment for mental illness; anyone with a history of serious mental illness should talk to a doctor and an experienced teacher first.

Practice in daily life

Practice does not end on the cushion. If your kammatthana is loving-kindness, you can wish well to the people you meet during the day. If it is the breath, you can return to three breaths before answering a message or a call. If you practise insight, you can know the feeling that arises when something goes against you. These small threads keep what you train on the cushion from vanishing when you stand up.

Based on: The two things that share in knowledge (AN 2.31) · Ānāpānassati Sutta (MN 118) · Visuddhimagga, by Buddhaghosa