--- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://what-buddha-taught.net/Books/Ajahn_Chah_Dangers_in_Samadhi.htm > > Wrong samadhi is where the mind enters calm and there's no awareness > at all. ...the mind enters calm, and we don't want to come out to > investigate anything. We just get stuck on that happiness ... With > right samadhi, no matter what level of calm is reached, there is > awareness. There is full mindfulness and clear comprehension. >
Sigh. Samadhi is where the thalamus stops (or at least extremely reduces) accepting sensory input from the outside world AND stops (or at least extremely reduces) allowing cortical-thalamic-cortical feedback loops, while the brain remains in a restfully alert state. There are many things that can be described using the same words that might be used to describe samadhi : "the mind calms down..." however, samadhi is NOT a state you can deliberately induce or hold onto, by its nature, because any "holding on" or "deliberately" implies thinking processes and those go away when the thalamus stops passing along the internal sensory feedback loops we call "thinking." EEG readings of someone in samadhi show that by the time they are able to consciously note that they are in the pure state, they are no longer in that state, so this is another example of the futility of attempting to accurately describe or hold onto the state.
