What is samma samadhi?

Discussion
1

respected elders & dear dhamma friends,

regards and greetings!

i am curious to know what exactly is samma samadhi.

a) is samma samadhi the practice of samadhi that is done AFTER being established in sila (precepts) and minimum being the 5 precepts (pancasila)? is this what constitutes samma-samadhi? is this kusala cittassa ekaggata?

OR

b) is samma samadhi the practice of samadhi that is done AFTER being established in the realization of samma ditthi (catu ariya sacca through the bhavana of tilakkhana) at least to the sacca level if not kicca & kata? is this kusala cittassa ekaggata?

==

can samma samadhi kammatthana be outside the list of 40 samadhi kammatthanas taught by the buddha?

can kasina meditation be samma samadhi?

can anapanasati (as samadhi. not vipassana) be called samma samadhi in the following scenarios:

= the practitioner does not keep good sila
= the practitioner has not practiced insight (vipassana) before the practice of samadhi
= ā€¦no sila and no insight

===

in abhidhammic terms - what constitutes the base of samma samadhi? a kusala citta or maha kusala citta? (a vipassana citta is a maha kusala citta)

kindly let me know.

with respect,

manish

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2

Hi Manish,
May I suggest you number your questions?
It may also be a good idea to move this to the discussion as I find hard that someone will provide in one single go a satisfactory for all the questions presented.

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I like the following definition from the start of MN117:

What, bhikkhus, is noble right concentration with its supports and its requisites, that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness? Unification of mind equipped with these seven factors is called noble right concentration with its supports and its requisites.

As to whether the supporting requisites have to be at the noble level, maybe some of the suttas near SN48.12 are relevant, which rank various kinds of disciples in terms of strength in the five faculties, and even faith and Dhamma followers are listed as having some degree of establishment in the faculties, including the faculty of samadhi. Though these are talking about faculties (indriya) rather than explicitly about noble path factors, this may indicate option (a) in your post is a viable one.

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Anjali! Sirsa Namami Venerable!
Sangham Saranam Gacchami!
Veneration & Greetings to the Sangha!

i am new here and not too sure how to move my question to another group & whether such activity will be deemed repeat posting & pestering by the ven sangha.

i pray to the sangha for suitable holistic guidance considering all my questions in parts & whole in totality.

with veneration at the feet of the sangha,

manish

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Iā€™d suggest reading ā€œThe Path to Peace & Freedomā€ by Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo. Also, ā€œOn the Pathā€ contains a wealth of useful information on the Noble Eightfold Path taken directly from the suttas.

The way I think is like this: Imagine youā€™re the captain of a ship in the old days. How many factors will make a voyage successful across the sea? You can be really strong in stocking provisions and managing duties at the port. But if your crew is awful and you donā€™t have any command of navigation, and you donā€™t listen to people who warn you about structural problems with the ship, youā€™ll have a lot of food but you might crash into a giant rock or just sink or something. So can you be really good at stocking a ship with provisions and not much else? Sure. But the goal is to get across the sea, not to merely be good at one thing. Letā€™s say youā€™re really good at selecting a crew, and they can rig the sails up really well. But you forget to have ample food and drink and you donā€™t manage other affairs well. See? All these things have to come together. I suppose the best answer to ā€œIn which order should these things be done?ā€ must be a product of practicality and analysis of the present moment.

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veneration to the sangha & regards to dear dhamma friends,

someone shared this with meā€¦

Sammā Samādhi is described in the The Great Forty discourse (MN 117).

Sammā Samādhi is not a standalone, but is a continuation process from the previous seven factors of the Noble Eightfold Path. Also note that only when the average human have completely understood Sammā Diį¹­į¹­hi (Right View) will he then be able walk the Noble Eightfold Path otherwise he is still in the mundane eightfold path. Below is an extract from The Great Forth discourse:

ā€œTherein, bhikkhus, right view comes first. And how does right view come first? In one of right view, right intention comes into being; in one of right intention, right speech comes into being; in one of right speech, right action comes into being; in one of right action, right livelihood comes into being; in one of right livelihood, right effort comes into being; in one of right effort, right mindfulness comes into being; in one of right mindfulness, right concentration comes into being ; in one of right concentration, right knowledge comes into being; in one of right knowledge, right deliverance comes into being. Thus, bhikkhus, the path of the disciple in higher training possesses eight factors, the arahant possesses ten factors.

Tatra, bhikkhave, sammādiį¹­į¹­hi pubbaį¹…gamā hoti.
KathaƱca, bhikkhave, sammādiį¹­į¹­hi pubbaį¹…gamā hoti?
Sammādiį¹­į¹­hissa, bhikkhave, sammāsaį¹…kappo pahoti, sammāsaį¹…kappassa sammāvācā pahoti, sammāvācassa sammākammanto pahoti, sammākammantassa sammāājÄ«vo pahoti, sammāājÄ«vassa sammāvāyāmo pahoti, sammāvāyāmassa sammāsati pahoti, sammāsatissa sammāsamādhi pahoti, sammāsamādhissa sammāƱāį¹‡aį¹ƒ pahoti, sammāƱāį¹‡assa sammāvimutti pahoti.

==

my questions are:

in abhidhammic terms what exactly is samma samadhi? cittassa ekaggata (ekaggata cetasika) of kusala citta (due to sila) or mahakusala citta/kiriya citta (due to vipassana i.e. paƱƱa) or both required?

kindly explain & forgive me for errors in my question due to poor understanding of abhidhamma.

ā€¦and other questions as mentioned above.

with respect and much metta,

manish

7

respected sir,

regards and greetings

i am not getting pointwise replies & clarity to my questions on samma samadhi.

may i post it again in another forum (if it is appropriate to do so)?

kindly advise.

manish

8

Sorry but I donā€™t understand what and why you are asking me. :anjal:

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Welcome, Manish! Iā€™m newā€™ish here and canā€™t answer your primary questions, but as to moving the topic, the moderator Gilian has already done this. It was moved from Q&A to Discussion.

As for getting specific answers requested from specific people, I have not seen this as much as folks simply answering according to their expertise and experience.

With regards to reordering your question you can use the edit function (it looks like a :pencil2: in the upper right corner) to clarify and simplify or add context, etc.

Good luck!

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Hi Manish,

Welcome to the D&D Forum and to the community that hangs out here. The way that the forum developed was that it was set up originally so that the translators and IT nerds working on the main SuttaCentral site would have a place to discuss their work. With great compassion they decided to make it open to all Dhamma seekers and the general public too. Unfortunately itā€™s not set up to be a dedicated question and answer service, nor a translation service. We do ask a lot of questions, that is true, but we can never be sure where they will lead. Sometimes they get ignored by the community and at other times they stimulate lively debate. The Q&A section is reserved for questions which the questioner thinks can get a short and simple answer (tho naturally things donā€™t always work out like that :rofl: ).

Please donā€™t copy your questions or posts to another category in this Forum. Such duplications are removed by @moderators as soon as they are noticed. On the other hand you can indeed post to other internet forums such as DharmaWheel as much as you like and they will tolerate.

The moderators here are a small volunteer team who try their best to keep an eye on the forum 24/7, but we do need to sleep. If you have any questions about how the forum works please donā€™t hesitate to send a PM to @moderators and the next one of us to come on duty will be sure to answer you. :slight_smile: :pray:

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In an abhidhammic exposition of the eightfold path each of the eight factors gets identified with a particular mental factor, e.g., right view with paƱƱā, right intention with kusala vitakka, right effort with kusala viriya, etc. Even seemingly very physical things like right speech, right action and right livelihood are held to consist in nothing more than the arising of momentary mental factors (i.e. the three virati cetasikas).

Obviously this is quite a different way of talking about the path factors from that found in the suttas. It can be a little tricky to get your head round it at first, but chapters 6 and 10 of Rupert Gethinā€™s Buddhist Path to Awakening make it as painless as possible.

Regarding ā€œother forumsā€, it might be worth trying Dhamma Study Group. Nina van Gorkom and the crew of Abhidhamma students around her just love these sort of questions.
:grinning:

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