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.

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