The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (study)
by Dr Kala Acharya | 2016 | 118,883 words
This page relates ‘Mental Power of Concentration (Samadhibala or Samadhi)’ of the study on the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Buddha was born in the Lumbini grove near the present-day border of India and Nepal in the 6th century B.C. He had achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty–five under the ‘Bodhi-tree’ at Buddha-Gaya. This study investigates the teachings after his Enlightenment which the Buddha decided to teach ‘out of compassion for beings’.
5.4. Mental Power of Concentration (Samādhibala or Samādhi)
[Full title: The Five Mental Powers (Pañcabalāni or Bala)—(4): Mental Power of Concentration (Samādhibala or Samādhi)]
Samādhi is concentration. It is only the tranquillized mind that can easily concentrate on a subject of meditation. The calm, concentrated mind sees things as they really are (samāhito yathābhutaṃ pajānāti). The unified mind brings the five hindrances (pañca nīvaraṇāni) under subjugation.
Concentration is the intensified steadiness of the mind comparable to an unflickering flame of a lamp in a windless place. It is concentration that fixes the mind aright and causes it to be unmoved and undisturbed. Correct practice of samādhi maintains the mind and the mental properties in a state of balance like a steady hand holding a pair of scales.
Right concentration dispels passions that disturb the mind, and brings purity and placidity of mind. The concentrated mind is not distracted by sense-objects; concentration of the highest type cannot be disturbed under the most adverse conditions.
One who is intent on samādhi should develop a love of virtue, sīla, for it is virtue that nourishes mental life, and makes it coherent and calm, equable and full of rich content.
The unrestrained mind dissipates itself in frivolous activity.
'What is concentration? What are its marks, requisites and development? 'Whatever is unification of mind, this is concentration; the four arousings of mindfulness12 are the marks of concentration; the four right efforts13 are the requisites for concentration; whatever is the exercise, the development, the increase of these very things, this is herein the development of concentration.'[1]
This statement clearly indicates that the three factors of the samādhi group, namely, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration function together in support of each other. They comprise real concentration.
The antithesis of concentration (samādhi) is distraction (vikkhepa) of mind (i.e., wandering thoughts and idle fancies). It is the inability to concentrate, to control the mind and keep its attention fixed on one object. It is the arising of thoughts on objects other than the object of concentration. It is the unquiet and restless state of mind when applying itself to the work of meditation. Ordinary concentration cannot dispel the unwholesome state of distraction. Only developed concentration (bhāvanā-samādhi) can do it.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
MN I, p. 301