2.8. Right Concentration (Sammā-samādhi or Samyak-samādhi)

[Full title: The Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya-aṭṭhaṅgika-magga)—(8): Right Concentration (Sammā-samādhi or Samyak-samādhi)]

The eighth factor of the path is right concentration, in sammā-samadhi in Pāli. Concentration represents an intensification of a mental factor present in every state of consciousness. This factor, one-pointedness of mind (cittekaggata), has the function of unifying the other mental factors in the task of cognition. It is the factor responsible for the individuating aspect of consciousness, ensuring that every citta or act of mind remains centered on its object. At any given moment the mind must be cognizant of something—a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, a touch, or a mental object. The factor of one-pointedness unifies the mind and its other concomitants in the task of cognizing the object, while it simultaneously exercises the function of centering all the constituents of the cognitive act on the object. One-pointedness of mind explains the fact that in any act of consciousness there is a central point of focus, towards which the entire objective datum points from its outer peripheries to its inner nucleus.

All types of meditation discussed in Buddhism lead to mental health and never to sickness; for each and every type of meditation are an effort to control and ease the tension of mental states that tend to sicken the mind. Ills of the body are not difficult to cure, but ailments of the mind are truly hard to remedy, hence the need and the effort to cleanse the mind of its impurities. This may be the most difficult thing that a man can do, but it is just what he ought to do. ‘Rare in this world are those who can claim freedom from mental illness even for one moment save those in whom the taints have been wiped out (the Arahants).’^[1]

In Buddhism meditation occupies the highest place; for it is in and through meditation that enlightenment and supreme security from bondage, spoken so highly of in the teachings of the Buddha, are attained.

Expositions of meditation as it is handed down in the early Buddhist writings are more or less based on the methods used by the Buddha for his own attainment of enlightenment and Nibbāna and on his personal experience of mental development.

Meditation as practiced and experienced by the Buddha, before and after his enlightenment, is divided into two forms or systems: concentration of mind or samādhi (samatha), that is unification of the mind (cittekaggatā) and ‘insight’ (vipassanā). Out of these two forms, samatha or concentration has the function of calming the mind, and for this reason the word samatha, in some contexts, is rendered as calmness, tranquility or quiescence. Calming the mind implies unification or, ‘one-pointedness of the mind. Unification is brought about by focusing the mind on one salutary object to the exclusion of all others.

Many ‘subjects of meditation’ (kammaṭṭhāna) are mentioned in the texts and commentaries, and some of them when carefully developped enable the meditator to reach very high mental concentration and attainments known as jhāna, meditative absorptions which lead to ‘the sphere of nothingness’ or ‘the sphere of neither perception-nor non-Perception.’ However high and lofty these mental attainments may be, they cannot, and do not, bring about realization of truth and supreme security from bondage. The Bodhisatta was not satisfied with mere jhāna and mystical experiences, his one and only aim was to attain liberation, nibbāna. With this end in view he probed into the deepest recesses of his mind in search of a method of meditation that would bring him complete peace and deliverance (vimutti).

Meditation, too, is a form of attention and reflection. Hence the different forms of spiritual exercises (kammaṭṭhāna), such as recollecttion of the virtues of the Buddha (Buddhānussati), reflection on death (maraṇānussati), analysis of the four elements (catudhātuvavaṭṭhāna) or contemplation of a device as a clay disk (paṭhavī kasiṇa maṇḍala), are forms of meditation or mental culture (bhāvanā). When they have passed their preliminary stage (parikamma), they will cease to be exercises of meditation (sati) and approach to concentration (upacārasamādhi). It is thus through the preliminary mental culture that onepointedness (ekaggatā) develops into mind-concentration.

In its undeveloped state concentration is present in any thought as the mental factor (cetasika) of one-pointedness of mind (cittassekaggatā), but then it is a mere intellectual element without any ethical significance, to be compared with the consciousness of an amoeba; it is the germ of concentration. Both one-pointedness and concentration have, therefore, something in common, viz. the bringing together of the powers of attention in one central point. Concentration, then, is called ‘the power of individualizing, developed by practice,^[2] for it focuses the attention on one point, whereby distracting influences are kept at a distance. This is the checking of the five hindrances (pañca nivarāṇāni), when full ecstasy (jhāna) may occur, which is truly right concentration (sammā-samādhi).

The path which leads to the different states of mental absorption (jhāna) and to the checking of the hindrances (nīvaraṇa) is called the path of calm or tranquility (samatha), because it lulls the passions. But control or tranquillization is still far from overcoming or uprooting. In this respect the mental culture along the way to tranquillization (samatha-bhāvanā) cannot be the culmination of right concentration and the attainment of the final goal of the noble eightfold path. This can only be reached by that kind of meditation which is insight (vipassanā).

It is of great interest to note that the Buddha in the Mahācattārisaka sutta,^[3] which was quoted already previously in concentration with good action and perfect action, refers to the eight components the path as the learner’s course (aṭṭhaṅgasamannāgata sekha paṭipadā), the course of perfection consisting of ten (dasaṅgasamannā gata arahā hoti). The two further constituents of perfection are right insight (sammāñāṇa) which originates from right concentration (sammā-samādhi) and perfect deliverance (sammā-vimutti), the end of the path.

Mental culture through insight (vipassanā-bhāvanā) has only three kinds of contemplation, each of which may lead to emancipation. These three forms of contemplation have as objects the three characteristic marks (lakkhaṇa) of all component things, namely, the mark of impermanence (anicca), of disharmony (dukkha) and of insubstaintiality (anatta). But they are so intrinsically linked together, that they form only different aspects, each one implying the other two. But according to the prominence given to anyone of these aspects the process of emancipation (vimokkha) is named emancipation by the concept of the void (suññata), of the signless (animitta) and of the undesired (appaṇihita), which are the three gateways (mukha) through which release is effected.

Release through the gateway of the void (suññata) means the emancipation of mind through the contemplation of the insubstantiality (anattā) of all things, of the soullessness of all beings, of the emptiness of all phenomena. Release through the cannel of the signless (animitta) means the emancipation of mind through the abandonment of the sign of hallucination (vipallāsa). The hallucination meant here is the perception (saññā), the concept (citta) and the opinion (diṭṭhi), which erroneously discern impermanent things (anicca) as lasting. The ‘sign’ (nimitta) then is the appearance of permanence, which is a hallucination, abandoned in emancipation. Release through the avenue of the undesired (appaṇihita) is the emancipation of heart and mind, brought about by not hankering after things as a result of the contemplation of the conflict (dukkha) arising from craving. This right meditation (sammā-samādhi) which is truly insight (vipassanā) leads to emergence (vuṭṭhāna-gāminī), because it invariably leads to the path of holiness, the stream of deliverance (sotapatti), ending in the emancipation of nibbāna, the goal of the noble eightfold path. It is in this path that has been shown the way to bring about and end of the conflict. It is the path of understanding and practice, whereby the truth can become known (sacca-ñāṇa), its function understood (kicca-ñāṇa), so that its accomplishment may be realized (kata-ñāṇa).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

AN II, p. 143

[2]:

Shwe Zan Aung, Compendium of Philosophy, p. 54

[3]:

MN III, p. 76