| | Hi Florian,
>If I understand you correctly, you assign momentary concentration to insight > practice (investigating the three characteristics), and access concentration >to tranquility practice (focussing on a concept)?
Yes, because momentary concentration changes the object and access concentration does not change the object. That is why the last (with one exception) has to be a concept. But the term access concentration is also used for the only stable object nirvana. According Theravada Abhidhamma fruition is a jhana state with nirvana as object.
>Sometimes my meditation seems to oscillate between samatha and vipassana, >to the point of "blurring" of the two; at other times, I can clearly distinguish between the two. >Has anybody else been experiencing this?
Yes, to me too. But if my concentration is on an concept it is still not immovable on the object. The mind is investigating (vicara, "sustained thought") the concept (this means the object don't change but the sight on the object). Best description of this is found in Visuddhi Magga and Atthasalini from Buddhagosa:
"Applied thought is like striking a bell, sustained thought like the ringing; applied thought is like a bee’s flying towards a flower, sustained thought like its buzzing around the flower; applied thought is like a compass pin that stays fixed to the centre of a circle, sustained thought like the pin that revolves around" (Vism. 142-43; PP. 148-49).
Paticca |