Samadhi

Samadhi (समाधि) — “placing together,” absorption — is the yogic and Buddhist term for the mind’s gathered, absorbed state: the culminating limb of Patanjali’s ashtanga and the summit of the Buddhist jhana scheme.

Overview

In the Yoga Sutras, samadhi grades from samprajnata (with seed, cognition present) through asamprajnata (seedless) — and later Vedanta popularized the nirvikalpa/sahaja pairing (formless absorption vs the liberated ordinary state). The siddhi chapters treat samyama — the triple discipline of dharana-dhyana-samadhi on an object — as the source of powers. Buddhism grades absorption as the four (or eight) jhanas, instrumental to insight rather than identical with liberation. The word also names the tomb-shrine of a departed saint (samadhi shrine — the samadhi-mandir), the realized state commemorated in stone.

Significance

Samadhi is the shared summit-vocabulary of Indian contemplative systems — and the modern research term (yoga-nidra and samadhi studies) bridges the classical states to neuroscience.

Verification notes

• The Patanjali grading and Buddhist jhana scheme are canonical; the nirvikalpa/sahaja distinction is a later (medieval-modern) layer.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).