Lightly edited transcript Filler words and caption errors removed by machine; the meaning is unchanged.
Delson explains right samadhi, or right collectedness (sama samadhi), as the samadhi that is proper because it leads to Nibbana. He works through the meaning of the word samadhi and presents the jhanas as levels of understanding and of cessation. The talk is short and some passages are hard to follow in the transcript, so the exact list of jhanas is not fully clear from it.
Key points
- Right samadhi, or right collectedness (sama samadhi in Pali), is samadhi that is proper because it leads to Nibbana.
- Delson explains that samadhi is often read as 'sama' (balanced, even, harmonious) plus a root meaning to gather or collect.
- He says that in reality there are four jhanas, plus the four formless ayatanas, though the sutras are often spoken of as eight jhanas.
- He describes jhana as levels of understanding, from the Sanskrit dhyana (to study, look, understand).
- He describes the jhanas as also levels of cessation: coarse mental activity ceases first, then progressively subtler mental disturbances, until perception, feeling and consciousness fully cease.
- Mindfulness of how the mind's attention moves from one object to another, he says, leads naturally to right samadhi.
Themes
Where this talk sits on the path
This talk speaks mostly to Neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
The path runs from Foundations to Arahant; read at any point along it.
Transcript
Introducing right samadhi and collectedness
Today we're going to be doing right collectedness, or what's known as sama samadhi in Pali. What does sama samadhi mean? Remember, the word sama means proper or right or harmonious or effective, however you want to put it. And what it's saying is it is samadhi which is proper. Why? Because it's leading to Nibbana. Last week I told you about mindfulness as being, or rather remembering to observe, how mind's attention moves from one object to the other. So mindfulness then naturally leads to right samadhi or right collectedness. So this word samadhi, it's a word that's used in different kinds of traditions. We see it in Buddhism, we see it in Hinduism, we see it in Jainism, and they all have different ways of interpreting it.
But the commonality about samadhi is that it is essentially two words, or a contraction of two words. Sama, or some, now that depends on how you interpret it. Sama means to be balanced, or to be harmonious, or to be even. It is the short form for buddhi, which is our intellect, which is our mind. So samadhi is all about having a mind that is even, that is equal to all things. Or, some means to gather. S-A-M, to gather, to collect. Therefore, we say right collectedness. So when we look at right samadhi or right collectedness, it has the four jhanas.
In reality, this is what's really important to understand. In reality, there is only, or there are only, four jhanas. Conversationally, or sometimes in the sutras, we'll read of the eight jhanas. But in reality, there's the four jhanas and the four ayatanas. The four jhanas are the rupa jhanas, as we understand. And then the four jhanas are the four jhanas are the four jhanas. And the four jhanas are the four jhanas are the four jhanas. And then the ayatanas are the four jhanas are the four jhanas. And the four jhanas are the four jhanas. So that would be infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, neither perception or non-perception. So the word jhanas are the four jhanas. So the word jhanas actually comes from the Sanskrit dhyana.
And dhyana means to study, to look, to understand. So jhana in Pali is essentially levels of understanding. There are also levels of cessation. Why? Because they cease coarse mental activity in the beginning, and subtler and subtler mental waves or disturbances, until you come to a point where you have the total cessation of all perception, feeling and consciousness. So as a result of which, or from where, they can arise, so to speak: Nibbana.