samādhi
Concentration
[ sa-MAH-dhi ]
Seeing it in life
Samādhi is the wholesome unification of mind on its object. Cultivated through samatha; supports vipassanā.
In short
Unified, collected mind.
The analysis
Samādhi is the wholesome unification of mind on a single object — not tension or forced focus, but the settling that happens when scattering and the other hindrances subside enough for the mind to rest on what it's attending to. As a cetasika (ekaggatā is its specific name in that list) it's present to some degree in every citta; as a cultivated state it deepens through the jhānas, each successive absorption dropping a coarser factor in favour of subtler stability.
Where it sits
Samādhi is one of the five spiritual faculties (indriya), paired against paññā for balance — too much concentration without wisdom risks a pleasant but static stillness, too much analytical wisdom without concentration risks restlessness. It's also the eighth factor of the noble eightfold path, and the direct product of samatha meditation, which in turn supports vipassanā.
The difference between reading an email while three tabs compete for attention and reading the same email once, fully, is a small but real demonstration of what samādhi does — not more effort, just less scattering.
Commonly mistaken for
Trance or blankness. The jhānas are described as vivid and factor-rich states, not an absence of experience.
The end goal of practice. Samādhi is usually framed as a support for insight, not the final aim in itself — stability that makes clear seeing possible.
Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha IX; Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118).
Related terms