A Honed and Heavey Axe – Samatha and Vipassana in Harmony by Ajahn Chandako. Imagine you need to chop down a dead tree with an axe. To succeed, the axe must be both sharp and reasonably heavy. But where does sharpness end and weight begin? It is clear that even with great effort, neither using a razor blade nor a baseball bat will do the trick. In Buddhist meditation practice the weight of the axe may be compared to serenity (samatha) and its sharpness to insight (vipassana). These two aspects of meditation play crucial roles in awakening beings to the nature of reality and releasing them from suffering. Download the book here (34 pages/1.2MB)