Talk:Samādhi

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[edit] Different types of samadhi in Buddhism

On 21 Sept. 2006, the Buddhism section of this article was expanded in a manner that over all appears to be intelligent, well informed and highly useful. There is one part of it I have questions about though. In particular, the following text was included:

There are different types of samadhi mentioned as well:

1) access concentration (upacara samadhi)

2) fixed concentration (appana samadhi)

3) momentary samadhi (khanikha samadhi) ([1])

4) ‘concentraion without interruption’(anantharika samadhi) ([2])

5) immeasurable concentration (appamana samadhi) ([3])

Based on the context of this statement (which is still intact in the current article), the place where these different types of samadhi are reputedly mentioned is in the Pali Canon.

My concerns are as follows:

1. I don't think khaṇikasamādhi (or, more broadly, khaṇika in regards to samādhi) is mentioned in the Pali Canon. For instance, a search of the tipitaka using http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/pali.htm appears to show that this term is likely first encountered in the post-canonical Visuddhimagga. In addition, the referenced source for this statement (Visuddhacara, n.d.) alludes to the canon twice (in the context of other teachers' statements) but such seems to be in the context of stating that the canon supports vipassana without samantha (which is true, though anamolous), not in terms of the term khaṇikasamādhi per se. Additionally, in terms of ordering, the Visuddhimagga itself lists the three types of concentration in the following manner: khaṇikasamādhiṃ upacārasamādhiṃ appaṇāsumādhinti. (Visuddhacara, n.d., lists these three in different ways in his article.) FWIW, I think that this concern (if correct) could essentially be addressed by changing the context from the "Pali Canon" to "Pali literature" and by re-ordering the listed types of samadhi.
2. The sutral reference for "concentration without interruption" does not appear to suggest that this is different from regular references to samadhi in the canon and different translations appear to support this (e.g., Piyadassi, 1999, translates the line in question as "The Supreme Buddha extolled a path of purity (the Noble Eightfold Path) calling it the path which unfailingly brings concentration."). Thus what is the basis for describing this as a "different type of samadhi"?
3. Similarly, the sutral reference for "immeasurable concentration" appears to me to simply refer to concentration on the four Brahmaviharas which are four of the forty recommended objects of concentration in the Visuddhimagga (e.g., see Kammatthana); which, again, indicates that this is a reference to typical Buddhist samadhi but in this case with a singular object. So, again, how is this a "different type of samadhi"?

So, I'm thinking the current text should be changed to something like:

Post-canonical Pali literature identifies three different types of samadhi:

1) momentary samadhi (khaṇikasamādhi) (Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli, 1999; Visuddhacara, n.d.)

2) access concentration (upacārasamādhi)

3) fixed concentration (appaṇāsamādhi)

Any objections? In particular, if I error in my assessment above, I'd be grateful for any contrary evidence. Otherwise, I will likely make the above change in the next week or so. (I'll also post a pointer to this entry on the talk page of the WP editor who introduced this text.) Thanks so much, Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 19:44, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

It's been over three weeks since I posted the above here and on the initial editor's talk page, so I'm going to implement this change momentarily. (Please revert and explain here if there are any last-minute objections. Thanks!) With metta, Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 13:28, 1 October 2007 (UTC)