Why Samvara?

Say it “SUM-vuh-ruh”.

Saṃvara is a word from Pali and Sanskrit, the old languages of the Buddhist and Jain texts. It means restraint: guarding, closing off, keeping back.

In Buddhist ethics it names a practice rather than a rule. Indriya-saṃvara, restraint of the senses, is noticing a pull (to look, to reach, to scroll) and not following it the moment it arises. Sīla-saṃvara is restraint through virtue: keeping a commitment you made, even when nobody is watching. The texts list it alongside mindfulness, patience and effort.

That is what an anti-habit is. You are not trying to become someone new. You are putting a little space between the urge and the action, and doing it again tomorrow.

Jain teaching uses the same word for stopping the inflow of karma, closing the door that new trouble comes in by. It is a related sense, and a good picture.

The dot under the m (ṃ) marks a nasal sound. When a keyboard won’t cooperate, we write Samvara.

Sources: Pali Text Society, Pali-English Dictionary, p. 657, “Saṃvara: restraint”; Wisdom Library, “Saṃvara” (Monier-Williams; Edgerton; Tattvārtha Sūtra).