What is the Concentration Ability (Samâdhi Indriya)? Concentration is the ability to focus all mental factors on 1 object! Concentration (samādhi) is a mental ability & power when steady... Concentration is a Link to Awakening & a Factor on the Noble Way. Concentration is non-distraction, non-scatter, and non-diffusion... Concentration is collecting together, unifying, focusing, condensing! Making mental release the object the Noble Disciple gains Samādhi, achieves one-pointedness, & enters fixed unified mental absorption!
The Definition of these 4 subtle Mental Jhāna Absorptions: Having eliminated the 5 mental hindrances, mental defects that obstruct understanding, quite secluded from all sensual-desires, protected from any detrimental mental state, one enters & dwells in the 1st jhāna; full of joy & pleasure born of solitude, joined with directed & sustained thought. With the stilling of directed and sustained thought, one enters and dwells in the 2nd jhāna, calmed assurance & unification of mind with joy & pleasure now born of concentration, devoid of any thinking! With the fading away of joy, in equanimity, clearly comprehending, one enters upon & remains in the 3rd jhāna, still feeling pleasure in the body, about which the Noble Ones declare: In aware equanimity one dwells in Happiness... With the leaving behind of both pleasure & pain, and with the prior cessation of both joy and sorrow, one enters and dwells in the 4th jhāna mental absorption, which is an entirely stilled mental state of awareness, purified by the equanimity of neither-pain-nor-pleasure!
The Entrance: As long as a Bhikkhu does not perceive the disappearance of the 5 hindrances in himself, he feels as if in debt, in sickness, in bonds, in slavery, on a desert journey. But when he perceives disappearance of the five hindrances in himself, it is as if he were freed from debt, from sickness, from bonds, slavery, & from the desert dangers... And when he knows that these 5 mental hindrances have left him, then gladness arises in him, from gladness comes joy, from the joy in his mind, his body is tranquillised! With a calm body he delights in happiness, & with this happiness his mind is concentrated into focus. Thus secluded from sense-desires, isolated from detrimental states, he enters and remains in the 1st jhāna, which is of directed thought & sustained evaluation, born of seclusion, filled with pleasure & joy. And with this pleasure and joy born of seclusion, he so permeates, drenches, fills & pervades his whole body that there is not even a single spot in his entire body that is unsoftened by this pleasure & joy born of seclusion...
The Similes: As, your majesty, all rafters there are in a house with a ridge roof, they all lead to the ridgepole, incline towards the ridgepole, lean on the ridgepole & this ridge beam is termed their peak summit, even & exactly just so, your Majesty, whatever advantageous mental states there are, all of these are headed by concentration, incline towards concentration, lean on concentration, is based on concentration ... As, your majesty, a king might enter battle with an army of 4 parts, and the whole army, the elephants, horses, chariots & foot-soldiers would be headed by him, incline towards him, lean on him, and tend towards him, would follow after just him, even exactly so is indeed this unique concentration the chief, the captain, the commander, & the conductor of the orchestra of mental states.. Miln. 38
The Explanation: It is concentration in that it places & anchors the mind evenly on 1 same single object, it settles & collects mind rightly together there. Its characteristic is absence of wandering, dispersal & distraction. Its function is joining & binding together of co-arised mental states as water does for bath-powder. Its manifestation is calming down, tranquillization, stilling, ceasing and peace. Its proximate cause is especially happiness. It should be seen as fixed steadiness of mind, like the steadiness of candle-flames in absence of perturbing wind! Vism. XIV 139
