"Buddhist meditation has two aspects - shamatha and vipashyana. We tend to stress the importance of vipashyana ('looking deeply') because it can bring us insight and liberate us from suffering and afflictions. But the practice of shamatha ('stopping') is fundamental."

This made me think of the well tempered clavier. I had always wondered at the structural reason for the preludes, given that they are followed only by a single fugue. It never felt like enough of a contrast for it to be a logic vs passion sort of thing, like in the chromatic fantasy and fugue. So maybe it's more to allow the listener to "stop" and settle into the tonality before diving into in depth of the fugue.