Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra
by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön | 2001 | 941,039 words
This page describes “higher concentrations” as written by Nagarjuna in his Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra (lit. “the treatise on the great virtue of wisdom”) in the 2nd century. This book, written in five volumes, represents an encyclopedia on Buddhism as well as a commentary on the Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita.
I. Higher concentrations
1. By meditations (dhyāna) and absorptions (samāpatti), we mean the four trances and the nine successive absorptions (anupūrvaammapatti).
2. By concentrations of liberation (vimokṣasamādhi), we mean the eight liberations (vimokṣa), the three gates of deliverance (vimokṣamukha), the deliverance by means of wisdom (prajñāvimukti), the twofold deliverance (ubhayatobhāgavimukti), the occasional deliverance (samayavimukti), the non-occasional deliverance (asamayavimukti), the conditioned deliverance (saṃskṛtavimukti), the unconditioned deliverance (asaṃskṛtasamādhi), etc., the concentration with examination and with analysis (savitarkaḥ savicāraḥ samādhi), the concentration without examination but with analysis only (avitarko vicāramātraḥ samādhi ), the concentration without either examination or analysis (avitarko ‘vicāraḥ samādhi), the concentration of emptiness (śūnyatāsamādhi), the concentration of signlessness (ānimittasamādhi), the concentration of wishlessness (apraṇihitasamādhi) and other concentrations of the same kind.