The meditations of SAMATHA work upon the stains of SENSATION, DISCRIMINATION, PERCEPTION, COGNITION and ATTENTION/CONSCIOUSNESS.
The absorptions of VIPASSANA work upon the restoration of a clean MEMORY which is then free of all previous IDENTITY STAINING. This implies the correct use of PERCEPTION, COGNITION, CONSCIOUSNESS and of course the MEMORY TRACES which are generated as streams within Consciousness.
However, neither frees the meditator from future IDENTITY STAINING.