Samādhi is both a gathering and a fire

[Leon]

Hello Bhante ,

@sujato

It seems that the term samādhi, which is usually synonymous with jhāna in the EBTs, also draws on dual roots.

@sujato

I wonder whether samādhi in the Hindu tradition retains the “fire” sense at all?

@sujato

The root of samādhi is in fact the verb dahati, with the primary meaning of “gather” and secondary meaning of “fire”

As I read them, these statements are (potentially) a bit misleading. I’d like to clarify:

As you note, in Pali the present form dahati is ambiguous insofar as it can be connected with the verbs ‘to burn’ and ‘to put’. In Sanskrit however, the same present forms are easily distinguishable, cf. dáhati ‘she burns’ and dádhāti ‘she places’. The corresponding PIE roots are *dheguh- ‘to burn’ and *dheH- ‘to place’. [please excuse lack of superscript].

Formally, samādhi can only be connected with the verbal base ‘to put’.