Integral Meditative Composure (Sammāsamādhi)
The Pāḷi noun samādhi is related to the verb samādahati, which means “to put together,” “to join,” “to combine,” “to collect,” and the past participle of the same verb, samāhita, meaning “collected,” “composed.” Thus, samādhi indicates “collecting” one’s mind, and specifically in the context of sammāsamādhi, the mind composed in meditation. It is this composed mental unification which is termed singleness of mind (cittekaggatā). It is also called jhāna.
According to the Pāḷi discourses the four jhānas play an essential role in the development of the noble eightfold path. All four main Nikāyas define integral meditative composure (sammāsamādhi) as jhāna. The four jhānas are also given as the training of heightened mind (adhicittasikkhā), as well as the faculty of composure (samādhindriya) and the strength of composure (samādhibala) as practiced by a noble disciple (ariyasāvaka). According to the suttas and the earliest strata of canonical commentary and para-canonical commentary, all of these factors have to be engaged and developed for full awakening to occur.
This means that liberation through discernment (paññāvimutti) cannot happen without mastery of at least the first jhāna. This integral relationship between jhāna and discernment (paññā) is explicit in the description of the noble eightfold path, where jhāna is given as the definition of integral meditative composure, and is also explicitly stated in other discourses as well. An unequivocal example of this integral relationship is clearly expressed in Dhammapada 371-372:
Practice jhāna monk; do not be heedless.
Do not let your mind roam in strands of sensual pleasure.
Do not swallow a red-hot iron ball, heedless.
Do not burn and cry, “This is pain.”
There is no jhāna for one without discernment,
No discernment for one without jhāna.
But for one with both jhāna and discernment,
He is close to nibbāna.
And this relationship is also stated in AN 9.36 Jhāna Sutta:
I say, monks, the elimination of the mental outflows depends on the first jhāna.
DN 2 Sāmaññaphala Sutta tells us that the elimination of the mental outflows (āsavas) can occur while remaining in the fourth jhāna:
With his mind thus composed, purified and cleansed, unblemished, free from impurities, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability, the monk directs and inclines it to gnosis of the elimination of the mental outflows. He discerns as it really is that, ‘This is unsatisfactoriness... This is the origination of unsatisfactoriness... This is the cessation of unsatisfactoriness... This is the way leading to the cessation of unsatisfactoriness....’
Thus knowing, thus seeing, his mind is liberated from the mental outflow of sensual pleasure, the mental outflow of existence, the mental outflow of ignorance. With liberation there is the gnosis, ‘Liberated.’ He discerns that, ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, done is what had to be done, there is nothing further here.’
As the elimination of the mental outflows requires the development of meditative composure regarding the rise and fall of the five aggregates of clinging — and AN 4.41 Samādhi Sutta tells us that it does — then one is necessarily developing meditative composure regarding the rise and fall of the aggregates of clinging here, specifically in the context of the four noble truths, by engaging the mind thus composed, purified and cleansed, unblemished, free from impurities, pliant, malleable, and steady in the fourth jhāna.
Again, AN 9.36 states that the elimination of the mental outflows depends on attaining at least the first jhāna. If one can end the āsavas through the fourth jhāna as stated in DN 2, then one can do the same from within the first jhāna.
This understanding of liberation through discernment requiring mastery of at least the first jhāna is also implied in discourses which state that one liberated through discernment doesn’t abide in any of the formless attainments (MN 70) or have any of the five mundane higher gnoses (SN 12.70). It is also implicit in the description of the “white lotus ascetic” (samaṇapuṇḍarīka) offered in AN 4.87 Samaṇamacala Putta Sutta, where it is said that this type of arahant doesn’t abide personally experiencing the eight deliverances (aṭṭha vimokkha), yet has both liberation of mind (cetovimutti) and liberation through discernment. Liberation of mind requires mastery of at least the first jhāna.
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