By: Rob Burbea
…samadhi is usually translated as ‘concentration’, but in many respects that does not convey the fullness, or the beauty, of what it really means. Therefore we shall keep it in the original language... For samadhi involves more than just holding the attention fixed on an object with a minimum of wavering. And it certainly does not necessarily imply a spatially narrowed focus of the mind on a small area. Instead here we will emphasize that what characterizes states of samadhi is some degree of collectedness and unification of mind and body in a sense of well-being. Included in any such state will also be some degree of harmonization of the internal energies of the mind and the body. Steadiness of mind, then, is only one part of that.
…although, as the Buddha did, we can certainly delineate a range of discrete states of samadhi (the jhanas), in this present context let us rather view it mostly as a continuum: of depth of meditation, of well-being, of non-entanglement, and of the refinement of consciousness. [The advantage of this perspective is that there is less chance that] the relationship with practice becomes fraught with wondering too much if one “has it” or “doesn’t have it”, is “succeeding” or “failing”, is “in” or “out”. Instead of relating to samadhi practice in terms of measurement or achievement of some goal, it is usually much more helpful, more kind, and less self-alienating to conceive of it as a caring, both in the present and in the long term, for the heart and mind.
From Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising. Rob Burbea (1965-2020) was the Resident Teacher at Gaia House in England. He was an exceptionally gifted and innovative Dharma teacher, drawing on the Insight tradition, Tibetan emptiness practice, depth and archetypal psychology and the imaginal. A wealth of his teachings in both text and audio can be found at hermesamara.org