Samadhi: Encyclopedia II - Samadhi - The Buddhist tradition

Samadhi - The Buddhist tradition

Samadhi, or concentration of the mind, is the second of the three parts of the Buddha's teaching: sila or conduct, samadhi or samatha (concentration), and pañña (wisdom).

It has been taught by the Buddha using 40 different objects of meditation, such as mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) and loving kindness (metta). Upon development of samadhi, one's mind becomes purified of defilement, calm, tranquil, and luminous. Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration, his mind is ready to penetrate and see into the ultimate nature of reality, eventually obtaining release from all suffering. In the language of the eight-fold path, samatha is "right concentration".

Important components of Buddhist meditation, frequently discussed (1, 2) by the Buddha, are the successively higher meditative states known as the four jhanas. The Buddhist suttas mention that samadhi practitioners may develop supernormal powers (called siddhis), and list several that the Buddha developed, but warn that these should not be allowed to distract the practitioner from the larger goal of complete freedom from suffering.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Buddhist tradition", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki