January 22, 2025 at 7:07 am
#53280
Keymaster
The following are essential to keep in mind. They will help understand the current series of posts in the “Worldview of the Buddha” section.
1. The tendency is to think of samādhi as a “jhānic experience.” But samādhi is a “state of mind.” It can have many forms. A jhāna is one type of samādhi.
2. Samādhi (“sama” +” adhi” where “sama” means “same” and “adhi” means “dominance”) means keeping the mind focused on a single ārammaṇa or a nimitta. When attention is tightly focused on something, the mind gets to “samādhi,” based on that mindset. There can be billions of samādhi: some are neutral, some are good, and others are bad.
- A suicide bomber assembling a bomb is also entirely concentrated on it because if he makes a mistake, that will blow him up. Thus, he also gets into a samādhi, which is an example of evil or immoral samādhi.
- Someone listening to a discourse or meditating is in a good samādhi. They may also be fully absorbed in it.
- One may not hear external disturbances if fully absorbed in an exciting book. That is a neutral samādhi.
- Therefore, there can be billions of types of samādhi with the mind focused on a specific ārammaṇa.
3. There are only four types of Sammā Samādhi in Buddha Dhamma. Each one is associated with a magga phala.
- For example, Sotapanna phala samādhi attained at the Sotapanna phala moment is never lost. With that samādhi present at all times, a Sotapanna is incapable of doing “apāyagāmi kamma.”
- The highest is Arahant phala samādhi. With that samādhi present at all times, an Arahant is incapable of doing any “akusala kamma.”
- However, even though the Sammā Samādhi is never lost, the exact same mental state experienced at a magga phala moment does not stay with the person. Yet, it can be uncovered with practice. That mental state is “pabhassara citta/mind” for the Arahant phala; for all other magga phala, it is called “sappabhāsa citta” (all samyojana are eliminated only with “pabhassara citta/mind”). Those states can be uncovered by practicing Satipaṭṭhāna. Once uncovered, one can get into the corresponding samāpatti, where that state can be maintained for a while.
- Thus, a Sotapanna can practice Satipaṭṭhāna and get into sappabhāsa citta and maintain it for a while; it is also called “Satipaṭṭhāna bhumi,” “paccuppanna sati” or the “environment to cultivate Vipassana.” This is the only way to bypass the “kama saññā,” which is the “distorted saññā” in kama loka. I mentioned that at the end (#13) of the current post, “A Sensory Input Triggers (Distorted) Saññā and Pañcupādānakkhandha“; we will discuss it in upcoming posts.
- That is where a Sotapanna practices the lokuttara version of Satipaṭṭhāna to eliminate kāma rāga and to attain the Anāgāmi stage.
- Some of the above aspects will become clear in upcoming posts. I wanted to show the connections/implications.