Tagged: samādhi
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Anālayo- Definitions Of Right Concentration In Comparative Perspective (2019)
1Through a comparative analysis of early Buddhist discourses in Pāli and their Chinese and Sanskrit parallels, this article argues that the definition of right concentration as the attainment of the four absorptions (jhānas) represents a later stage of textual evolution. The author demonstrates that parallel versions of key Pāli texts which define right concentration this way either lack a definition entirely or describe it differently, often as a mind unified and endowed with the other seven factors of the Noble Eightfold Path. This historical-critical perspective suggests that the earliest understanding of right concentration was more integrated with the other path factors and did not necessitate deep absorptive states. Consequently, the author concludes that the ability to attain the four absorptions is not a necessary condition for reaching stream-entry, the first stage of awakening.
Bucknell - The Buddhist Path to Liberation (1984)
2In his analysis, Rod Bucknell argues that the Noble Eightfold Path is an incomplete representation of the Buddhist course to liberation, as it omits the crucial final stages of "right insight" (sammā-ñāṇa) and "right liberation" (sammā-vimutti). By comparing the Eightfold Path with four other, similar lists of stages found in the Tipiṭaka, including a more comprehensive "tenfold path," he demonstrates that they all describe a consistent, sequential practice where morality (sīla) and concentration (samādhi) are followed by the development of insight. Bucknell refutes the common interpretation that insight is covered by "right view" (the first stage), positing that this is merely a preliminary understanding, whereas true liberating insight is an advanced practice undertaken only after mastering concentration. He concludes that the Eightfold Path is not the definitive summary of Gotama's teaching but one of many versions, and possibly a simplified one that omits the most advanced meditative stages.