Page 172 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

Samapatti means, literally, attainments, and it suggests all those

spiritual experiences which, occurring as a result of the practice
of concentration, nevertheless fall short of samadhi in the fullest

sense, the sense of Enlightenment. Thus we have three terms:
Samathä (Pali: samathä) or concentration, samapatti or
attainments, and samadhi in the full and final sense of

Enlightenment itself. These three terms between them represent
a single progressive series of spiritual experiences, each

introducing the one that comes next and preparing the way for
it. Studying each in turn, we shall gain as it were cumulatively an
idea, or a glimpse, of the nature of samadhi in the more ultimate

sense.

(a) Samatha
Samatha literally means tranquillity, though it is sometimes also
translated as pacification or calming down, or even simply as

calm. If we were to translate it simply as peace probably we
would not be going far wrong, because it is a state of profound

peace and calm of mind, and even of the whole being. Mental
activity in the sense of discursive thought, or the clattering of the
mental machinery, is either minimal, i.e. very subtle, or • entirely

absent. Samatha is also a state of perfect concentration or one-
pointedness of mind or, in other words, a state of integration of

all the forces and energies of one's psycho-physical being. Thus
Samatha corresponds to what are known as the four dhyanas
(Pali: jhanas), the four states or stages of higher consciousness,

which were dealt with in the lecture on Perfect Effort.

Samatha is often divided into three degrees or levels or grades:
that of concentration on a gross, i.e. material, object; that of

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