Page 179 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

(ii) The Directionless Samadhi.

The second samadhi — or aspect or dimension of samadhi — is
known as the Directionless (Sanskrit: apravihita, Pali:

appanihita) or, as it is also translated, the Unbiased, because
samadhi is a state in which there is no particular direction in
which one wants to go. There is no particular preference. One

just remains poised, like a sphere resting on a completely
horizontal plane; it is just poised there, and there is no

particular reason why it should, of its own accord, roll in this
direction or that; it just stays where it is. The Enlightened mind
— the mind established in samadhi — is like this. It has no

particular tendency or inclination in any particular direction
because it has no individual or egoistic desire. It is a rather

difficult state to describe, but perhaps if one thinks in terms of a
perfect spontaneity, without any urge or impulse to do anything
in. particular, one may get somewhere near it.

(iii) The Samadhi of the Voidness.

The third aspect or dimension of samadhi is known as the
Samadhi of the Voidness or -sunyata (Pali: sunnata). Sunyata
does not mean emptiness or voidness in the literal sense: it

means Reality. So 'sunyata-samadhi is the state of full and
complete realization of the ultimate nature of existence, which

cannot be put into words. It is not just a glimpse, as in the stage
of Perfect Vision, but a full, total and perfect realization. This
Samadhi of the Voidness is connected in some of the texts with

the ekalaksana-samadhi or 'samadhi of one characteristic', also
known as the samadhi of same or evenmindedness. This is an

experience where one sees everything as having the same
characteristic. Usually, of course, we see things as having
different characteristics.

180