Dear Ven. Kumara,
Here's a thought experiment. If 15 years ago you had been taught that
samadhi meant composure (rather than concentration), how would that
have affected your meditation practice? For myself, it wouldn't have
made a difference. From reading the collection of pali suttas, the
impression of the practice of the noble 8fold path is one that is
intense and concentrated. Just some examples, "practice jhanas, don't be
heedless and regret it later", "practice as if hair is on fair", "rouse
yourself! what use is sleep? Don't let the king of death take you
down...", "Let my flesh, sinews, and blood dry up, I will not move from
my seated posture until I attain whatever can be won with manly
strength, manly determination, manly energy!". Consider the typical
recommended sleep schedule for Budha's disciples was only 4 hours
[Anguttara 3.16] 10pm - 2am, with the 4 hours before that period used
for walking/sitting meditation, and the 4 hours from 2am-6am also for
walking/sitting. Also consider the sutta to Sariputta on how to fight
drowsiness. There are far more passages warning against laxity and
laziness than passages warning against practicing too intensely.
I do feel that you have a legitimate gripe against samadhi being
defined as "concentration", I'm just pointing out that when we read the
collection of pali suttas, it's pretty hard to avoid the impression
that the samadhi portion (right mindfulness, right effort, right
concentration) of the noble 8fold path is a very intense. In my own
practice, since I do quite a bit of taiji (Tai Chi) perhaps that had a
big influence on my own understanding of intensity, persistence,
concentration, and deep active relaxation not being mutually exclusive.
Also the beautiful similes for the 4 jhanas, and the first item
mentioned as one of the purposes of practicing jhanas is, "for pleasant
abiding here and now" is very suggestive of the peaceful relaxing nature
of right "concentration".

-Frank

> \
> Dear friends,
>
> In the past, I was told that samadhi means concentration, and samatha
> means
> concentration too. (I did think that it was odd, but I knew nuts
> then.) Closely
> related is ekaggata, which I was told means one-pointedness.
>
> That's about 15 years ago, when I started to practice meditation. I
> practiced
> hard then—hard enough with enough of wrong ideas to end up being
> uptight, groggy
> and oftentimes both. It took a nervous disorder during a meditation
> retreat to
> seriously doubt the way I was practicing.
>
> I'm fortunate that I later met Sayadaw U Tejaniya who helped me
> immensely to get
> on the right path—'right' as in moving out of suffering, rather than
> into more
> suffering as I had been experiencing earlier.
>
> With this liberating practice, I found that some of my past
> understanding of the
> Buddha's teachings seem to be grossly wrong. With some knowledge of
> Pali, guided
> by Venerable Aggacitta, and some phenomenological research, I've
> decided on
> these English translations of some Pali words:
>
> samadhi composure
> samatha settling
> ekodibhava unified
> ekagga collected
> ekaggata collectedness
>
> These meanings of the Pali words agrees with the right path for me. I
> invite you
> to consider them in the light of your own practice. Bear in mind
> though that
> right meditation involves other factors, such as . These roughly
> covers only one
> aspect of it.
>
> I'm not against the use of "concentration" in spiritual or meditation
> practice.
> It's just a word. My understanding of it didn't work for me. I've just
> checked a
> dictionary and found the meaning of it that I had: complete attention;
> intense
> mental effort. Synonyms of it are absorption, engrossment, immersion.
> Yes,
> that's it. Looking at it from my present point of view, I'm thinking:
> No wonder
> I ended up groggy and uptight.
>
> peace
>
> Kumâra Bhikkhu
>

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