Samadhi

Samadhi is a state of deep meditative absorption described in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Its meaning and role differ across these traditions and their schools.

Dhyana: Dhyana is sustained meditative attention, understood differently across Indian religious traditions. Samadhi is often described as deepening or culmination of dhyana.
Nirvana: Nirvana is the cessation of suffering and the end of rebirth in Buddhist traditions. Buddhist samadhi can support liberation but is not itself equivalent to nirvana.
Samapatti: Samapatti is a state of meditative absorption described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras use it to explain how the mind takes on the form of its object.
Patanjali: Patanjali is the traditional author associated with the Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras give samadhi a central place in classical yoga.
Samadhi (Buddhism): In Buddhism, samadhi is collectedness or concentration developed through meditation and integrated into the path. This tradition-specific account emphasizes right concentration and mental unification.
Dharana: Dharana is the practice of holding attention steadily on a chosen object. In Patanjali’s yoga, dharana precedes dhyana and samadhi.
Moksha: Moksha is liberation from rebirth in Hindu and Jain traditions. Hindu accounts may treat samadhi as a means to moksha rather than liberation itself.
Samprajnata Samadhi: Samprajnata samadhi is absorption accompanied by forms of cognition or awareness in classical yoga. It names a broad class of absorption in Patanjali’s account.
Pali Canon: The Pali Canon is the collection of scriptures preserved by Theravada Buddhism. Its discourses discuss samadhi as a cultivated factor of the Buddhist path.
Samadhi (Hinduism): In Hindu traditions, samadhi commonly denotes deep yogic absorption, though interpretations vary by school. Hindu accounts connect absorption with yoga and, in some schools, realization of ultimate reality.

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