Samadhi, the eighth limb
Samadhi is the eighth and last of the eight limbs in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: a state of complete absorption in which the mind rests on its object so fully that the sense of a separate observer falls away. In Buddhist teaching the same word names right concentration, the last factor of the Noble Eightfold Path.
The word
Samadhi is usually explained as sam, together or completely, with a and dha, to place or to hold. It suggests attention brought together and set firmly in one place. English translations include absorption, concentration, contemplation and, more loosely, enlightenment.
It is the far end of the path, and it is fine to leave it there. A beginner’s practice works on the near end: steady posture, a slower breath, and a few minutes of stillness at the close, which is what beginner lessons with a private teacher are built around.
Samadhi in the Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sutras open with it. Their first chapter is called the chapter on samadhi, and it describes the stilling of the mind that the whole text is about. In the second chapter samadhi becomes the last of the eight limbs of yoga, after ethics, posture, breath, the turning in of the senses, concentration and meditation.
The third chapter defines it briefly. When meditation reaches the point where only the object shines out, as if empty of the meditator’s own form, that is samadhi. Concentration, meditation and samadhi practised together on one object are given a single name, samyama.
The Sutras describe several kinds. In samadhi with support, the mind still rests on an object or a seed of thought. In samadhi without support, or without seed, even that falls away. Commentators have argued over the details for centuries, and the full structure of the text is set out on the page about the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Powers, and a warning
The third chapter also lists extraordinary abilities said to arise from samyama. They are part of the text, and it is honest to say so. It is just as honest to say that the Sutras warn these can become obstacles, distractions from the aim of a quiet, free mind. I make no claims about them.
Samadhi in Buddhism
The word is shared with Buddhism. In the Noble Eightfold Path, right concentration, samma samadhi, is the eighth factor, and the Pali texts describe a series of meditative absorptions, the jhanas, as its development. Many Buddhist teachers stress that concentration is a support for insight rather than the goal in itself.
How it shows up in a modern practice
Samadhi rarely comes up in a studio class, and when it does it is usually named rather than taught. The limbs before it are what a class can offer: the meditative path of raja yoga and most modern meditation instruction begin with posture, breath and attention to one object.
People sometimes use the word for moments of deep focus, when a task absorbs you so fully that time disappears. That is a loose use, but it points in the right direction: attention that is no longer split.
How it can come up in a lesson
I will not promise anyone samadhi. What a lesson can offer is the conditions the Sutras describe for the early stages: a body comfortable enough to be still, a breath that has slowed, and a few minutes of resting attention at the end. My own meditation background includes a 10-day Vipassana silent retreat in 2024, and you can read about my 200-hour teacher training at House of Om in Bali.