6. samādhi

6. Meditative stillness

samādhi

samādhi

修禪定

(shu-zenjo; cultivating meditative stillness)

The Tibetan translation of Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita Canto 26:

| mñam par gźag pa’i blo daṅ sems ni yoṅs bsdams śiṅ | | ’jig rten dag gi skye daṅ ’god pa śes pa ste |
| de phyir tiṅ ṅe ’dzin la yoṅs su ’jug bya ste | | tiṅ ’dzin rab tu thob pa’i sems nad yod ma yin | 64

| rnam par ’thor ba’i chu ni rnam par ’dzin don du | | ji ltar ’bad pas doṅ daṅ ’bos ni byed pa ste |
| ye śes chu ni gnas pa’i don du tiṅ ṅe ’dzin | | de ltar doṅ dad ’obs daṅ mtshuṅs par rab tu bstan |  65

EHJ64. Therefore, keeping your feelings level and restraining your minds, know the origin and passing away of the world and practise concentration. For no mental ills touch him who has obtained concentration of mind.

EHJ65. Just as men diligently make embankments for holding up water that is overflowing, so concentration is declared to be like the embankment for bringing the water of knowledge to a stand. 

The Chinese translation of Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita Canto 26:

正定撿覺心　觀世間生滅

“Right concentration regulates an insightful mind, and it contemplates birth and extinction in the world.

是故修行者　當習三摩提

That is why a practitioner should practice samādhi.

三昧已寂靜　能滅一切苦

In samādhi one is quiet, able to extinguish all suffering.

Anuruddha Sutta

“When it was said: ‘This Dhamma is for one who is composed (samāhita)¹, not for one who is unconcentrated (asamāhita),’ with reference to what was this said?

Here, secluded from sensual pleasures (vivicc' eva kāmehi) . . . a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the fourth jhāna. When it was said: ‘This Dhamma is for one who is concentrated, not for one who is unconcentrated,’ it is with reference to this that this was said.

Yuikyo-gyo (Bequeathed Teaching Sūtra)

汝等比丘。若攝心者心則在定。 心在定故能知世間生滅法相。 是故汝等。常當精勤修集諸定。 若得定者心則不亂。  譬如惜水之家善治堤塘。 行者亦爾。 爲智慧水故善修禪定令不漏失。 是名爲定

Nishijima-Cross translation from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Chapter 95:

If you bhikṣus regulate the mind, the mind will then exist in the balanced state. Because the mind exists in the balanced state you will be able to know the Dharma form of the arising and vanishing of the world. For this reason you constantly should be diligent in practicing all forms of balance. When a person gets the balanced state, the mind does not dissipate. It is like a household that values water attentively repairing a dike. Practitioners also are like that. For the sake of the water of wisdom, we attentively practice the balanced state of dhyāna and prevent [the water of wisdom] from leaking away. This is called “the balanced state.”