Samādhi (Pali and Sanskrit: समाधि), in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In many Indian religious traditions, the cultivation of Samādhi through various meditation methods is essential for the attainment of spiritual liberation (known variously as nirvana, moksha).[1]
In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path.[web 1] In the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.[2][3] In Jain meditation, samadhi is considered one of the last stages of the practice just prior to liberation.[4]
In the oldest Buddhist sutras, on which several contemporary western Theravada teachers rely, it refers to the development of an investigative and luminous mind that is equanimous and mindful. In the yogic traditions and the Buddhist commentarial tradition, on which the Burmese Vipassana movement and the Thai Forest tradition rely, it is interpreted as a meditative absorption or trance attained by the practice of dhyāna.[5]
Definitions
Samadhi may refer to a broad range of states.[6][7][8] A common understanding regards samadhi as meditative absorption:[6]
Sarbacker: samādhi is meditative absorption or contemplation.[5]
Diener, Erhard & Fischer-Schreiber: samādhi is a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the observing object.[9]
Shivananda: "When the mind is completely absorbed in one object of meditation, it is termed Samadhi."[note 1]
In a Buddhist context, a more nuanced understanding sees samadhi as a state of intensified awareness and investigation of bodily and mental objects or experiences:
Dogen: "The Buddha says: 'When you monks unify your minds, the mind is in samadhi. Since the mind is in samadhi, you know the characteristics of the creation and destruction of the various phenomena in the world [...] When you gain samadhi, the mind is not scattered, just as those who protect themselves from floods guard the levee.'"[10]
Richard Shankman: "The term samadhi basically means 'undistractedness.'"[11] It may be viewed as "an exclusive focus on a single object,"[12] but also as "a broader state of awareness in which the mind remains steady and unmoving, yet aware of a wide range of phenomena around the meditation object."[12] According to Shankman, the related term cittas'ekaggata may be rendered as "one-pointedness," fixated on a single object, but also as "unification of mind," in which mind becomes very still but does not merge with the object of attention, and is thus able to observe and gain insight into the changing flow of experience.[12]
Dan Lusthaus: "Samadhi provides the methodology and context within which experience is to be examined [...] Samadhi, by training, focusing/collecting, cleansing and calming the mind [...] facilitates things being finally known (janatti) and seen (passati) just as they are (tathata).[13]
Keren Arbel: "Samadhi is depicted [in the Buddhist sutras] as a broad field of awareness, knowing but non-discursive [...] a stable, discerning and focused mind."[6]
Tilmann Vetter argues that the second, third and fourth dhyana in Buddhism, samma-samadhi, "right samadhi," build on a "spontaneous awareness" (sati) and equanimity which is perfected in the fourth dhyana.[14]
In Hinduism, samadhi is also interpreted as the identification with the Absolute:
Paramahansa Yogananda: A soundless state of breathlessness. A blissful super consciousness state in which a yogi perceives the identity of the individualized Soul and Cosmic Spirit.[15]
Etymology
Sanskrit
Various interpretations for the term's etymology are possible, either with the root sam ("to bring together") or sama ("the same, equalized, the convergence of two distinct things"). According to Dan Lusthaus, samadhi refers to either bringing to consciousness the samskaras ("buried latencies"), or meditative concentration on a meditation object:[16]
sam, "to bring together"; adhi, "to place on, put, to impregnate, to give, to receive": the bringing together of cognitive conditions," "bringing the buried latencies or samskaras into full view," so "the obscure and hidden become clear objects of cognition," "the womb through which insight is born."[16]
sama, "the same, equalized, the convergence of two distinct things based on some commonality"; adhi, "higher, better, most skilfully achieved": "the skillful unification of mind and object," "the mental equanimity conducive to and derived from attention perfectly focused on its object." "[S]ometimes treated as synonymous with ekacitta, 'one-focused mind,' i.e. mind (citta) completely focused on and at one (eka) with its object."[16]
Etymologies for sam-ā-dhā include:
sam-ā-dhā’: "'to collect' or 'to bring together', thus suggesting the concentration or unification of the mind"; generally translated [in Buddhism] as "concentration."[17]
sam-ā-dhā: "to hold together, to concentrate upon." [18]
sam, "completely"; ā, "the return towards the subject"; dha, "maintaining together: "to assemble completely"; "the tension borne between two poles of existence (object and thought) is reduced to zero."[19]
sam, "together" or "integrated"; ā, "towards"; dhā, "to get, to hold": to acquire integration or wholeness, or truth (samāpatti);
sam, "together"; ā, "toward"; stem of dadhati, "puts, places": a putting or joining;
Particular Hindu/yoga interpretations include:
sam, "perfect" or "complete"; dhi, "consciousness": "all distinctions between the person who is the subjective meditator, the act of meditation and the object of meditation merge into oneness" (Stephen Sturgess);[20]
sam, "with"; ādhi, "Lord": Union with the Lord (Stephen Sturgess);[18]
sama, "equanimous"; dhi, "buddhi or the intellect": equanimous intellect, non-discriminating intellect (Sadhguru);[21]
sama, "balance"; ādi, "original": " a state that is equal to the original state, which is the state that prevailed before we came into existence"; "original balance" (Kamlesh D. Patel.[22]
Chinese
Common Chinese terms for samādhi include the transliterations sanmei (三昧) and sanmodi (三摩地 or 三摩提), as well as the translation of the term literally as ding (定 "stability"). Kumarajiva's translations typically use sanmei (三昧), while the translations of Xuanzang tend to use ding (定 "stability"). The Chinese Buddhist canon includes these, as well as other translations and transliterations of the term.
Buddhism
Samma-samādhi and dhyāna
Samma-samadhi, "right samadhi," is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path.[web 1] When samadhi is developed, things are understood as they really are.[23]
Samma-samadhi is explicated as dhyana, which is traditionally interpreted as one-pointed concentration. Yet, in the stock formula of dhyānasamādhi is only mentioned in the second dhyana, to give way to a state of equanimity and mindfulness, in which one keeps access to the senses in a mindf
