The Importance of Sangha
August 23, 2026
Thursday Morning Meditation – Mindfulness of Thoughts
August 27, 2026
Last Updated on September 23, 2026 by Matthew Sockolov
We all have had the experience of a scattered mind. The mind bounces around from sensation to sensation, engaging with thoughts, and doesn’t feel settled. Then, we sometimes have those moments where the mind is collected, unified, and at ease. This is known as samadhi.
There are many translations of the Pali word samadhi. The most common is concentration, but that’s just not accurate in my opinion. Other common translations include collectedness, unification, one-pointedness, or stability. Leigh Brasington calls it “indistractability,” which he often jokes isn’t really a word. But you get what it means anyway!
We’ll cover the roots of the word samadhi and why concentration doesn’t fit, its role on the path from one of the spiritual faculties to the factor of the Eightfold Path, as well as how we can develop this quality.
Roots of the Word Samadhi
The word samadhi comes from the components:
- Sam – a prefix that can be understood as together, complete, or integrated
- A – a directional prefix meaning toward
- Dha – a verbal root meaning to put, place, or hold
So, let’s put it all together. It quite literally means to put the mind together or place the mind together into integrated completeness. We can think about this not just academically but experientially. Samadhi is a unifying of the mind, bringing scattered attention into a more unified and collected state.
If you listen to our podcast or guided meditations, you’ll hear this reflected. I often phrase it as “collecting our attention” or “gathering up our awareness and placing it on the breath.” This isn’t just a personal innovation; it comes from what the word actually means.
Samadhi is Not Exactly Concentration
If I tell you to concentrate, what comes to mind? What’s the attitude or tone of concentrating? For many people, there’s some connotation of force or straining. I frankly think this is a huge barrier for many new meditators. Cultivating samadhi is not about narrowing our attention or trying to not think.
Instead, we develop samadhi with a bit of relaxation and ease. Stability and interest serve us well. Thanissaro Bhikkhu points out that in order to really develop samadhi, we specifically need to find comfort and relaxation. If we are straining to concentrate, we’re understanding samadhi incorrectly.
Just a side note, you can learn more about Thanissaro Bhikkhu and his teachings on developing samadhi in our series How They Meditate.
The Feeling and Experience
Samadhi feels different for different individuals. I have found it can be useful to understand what samadhi may feel like so we know the signs. At the same time, knowing how it feels can create craving and clinging. So I offer this with the warning to watch for craving in the mind.
Generally, samadhi is characterized by more continuous attention with less commentary. Distractions such as thoughts or sounds may arise, but become less interesting. As samadhi deepens, both the mind and body generally feel calmer. In deep states of samadhi, time may feel different and intense feelings of joy, peace, and pleasure may arise. The signs of deep meditation vary from individual to individual, so don’t get attached to any experience!
For me, the experience of samadhi perhaps can be most accurately described as a combination of stillness and spaciousness with a flavor of simple contentment. The mind is observing and present without a need for anything to be different.
Samadhi as a Spectrum
As a follow-up to how samadhi might feel, I want to recognize that samadhi is absolutely a spectrum. You don’t meditate with an uncollected mind, then suddenly drop into samadhi. Instead, samadhi develops gradually. There are also different kinds of samadhi!
With samadhi as we often think of it, you may notice the mind able to stay with an object for more and more time. Distraction comes less and less frequently. Attention becomes more stable and distractions decrease. As all of this is happening, samadhi is imbued with an increasing sense of calm or ease.
There’s also momentary samadhi (khanika-samadhi). This is commonly taught in vipassana traditions such as Mahasi Sayadaw’s practice. Rather than staying focused on one object like the breath, we have a momentary unification on whatever object arises. We then can move the attention to another object and re-gather the attention.
Thent here’s the other end of the specrtum. As samadhi deepens, we cultivate states known as absorption, or jhana. These are states of deep samadhi with qualities of bliss, joy, equanimity, and effortlessness.
On the Noble Eightfold Path
In the Buddha’s teaching on the Noble Eightfold Path, samadhi is both the name of the last grouping and a specific quality. As a grouping, it includes Wise Effort, Wise Mindfulness, and Wise Samadhi. Much like every other factor of the path, samadhi doesn’t arise in a vacuum.
In order to develop wise samadhi, we are called to investigate wisdom, ethical conduct, and other factors related to meditation. The simple fact that it is included in the Noble Eigthfold Path shows its importance on the path. Some teachers teach wise samadhi as jhanas, while others teach momentary samadhi as sufficient.
Mindfulness and Samadhi
I want to include the note that mindfulness (sati) and samadhi are not the same thing. We just talked about this the other week in the Thursday Morning Meditation group as it comes up frequently.
For many people new to meditation, they are introduced by focusing on the breath. Like many practices, it’s a practice in both cultivating mindfulness and samadhi, but the collecting of attention repeatedly is really a hallmark of cultivating this unified mind.
Mindfulness involves knowing what’s happening and being present, observing experience clearly, and recognizing what is arising and passing. Samadhi is a state of mind that is stable, continuous, and collected. The two can support one another, but they are different qualities.
If you’ve meditated even once in your life, you know the mind wanders. In that moment that you notice the mind wandering, that’s mindfulness. Choosing to return the attention to the breath is also mindfulness (perhaps with a little bit of wisdom mixed in). By doing this repeatedly, you develop samadhi in the mind.
How to Develop Samadhi
There are many different ways to develop samadhi in (and out of) meditation. Although we traditionally work with the breath in many meditation traditions, we can use many different techniques. I’ll cover some concentration meditation techniques, as well as practical tips to support your practice.
Meditation Techniques
As many teachers, such as Ajahn Brahm, point out: the object is not what matters. You can cultivate samadhi with any object really. Don’t get stuck on the idea that you need to use the breath. Yes, the breath is the most commonly used one because it works for many people, but be willing to investigate for yourself.
Working with the Breath
As mentioned, working with the breath is the most common form of samatha, or concentration, meditation. This can be done through observation of the breath, or more engaged practices like breath counting. Thanissaro Bhikkhu also has many practices in actively changing the breath to find what promotes samadhi.
Metta (Loving-Kindness)
Metta, or loving-kindness, is another way people commonly cultivate samadhi. We use the phrases and feeling of metta as the object of our awareness rather than the breath. I talk about this in more detail here, and below is a guided meditation looking at cultivating samadhi through metta practice.
Kasina Meditation
Kasina meditation is an ancient technique that predates Buddhism. It was incorporated into Buddhist practices, but has largely been forgotten in the modern Theravada world. In kasina meditation, we use the visual field to build samadhi. This is often done through gazing at flames, colored disks, or lights.
The Sound of Silence
Ajahn Sumedho is one prominent teacher who advocates for this method. When it is silent, we often can hear what he calls “not a sound” or the “sound of silence.” When we make this high pitched ringing in our ears the object of awareness, it can serve as a useful object for cultivating samadhi.
Practical Tips
I will cover the common obstacles to samadhi in a moment, but here are a few tips to help you along your path.
Don’t Over-Effort
When we think of samadhi, we often think of the term “concentrating.” This can carry a connotation of too much effort in my opinion. We simply cannot effort our way into samadhi. In fact, my experience personally and with mindfulness coaching students is that we much more often struggle with too much effort than not enough effort.
A quality of samadhi is ease and tranquility. We don’t get there by straining and stressing. We have to relax into the collected mind. When the mind wanders, don’t respond by tensing. Respond by gently bringing the mind back. Find some relaxation in the practice, not force.
Watch Expectations and Clinging
As we’ll cover in a moment, craving is a hindrance to samadhi. Check your attitude! This is a teaching that comes from Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and I think it is a useful perspective when it comes to samadhi as well. Are you craving a calmer mental state, more peace, or more clarity?
The expectations we have in meditation and clinging to a specific outcome or experience often hinder our progress. To approach this, recognize when the mind is falling into clinging. Know the mind when it is tense, and see it clearly. Remember to return to simple present-time awareness without an agenda. This takes time and effort, but I encourage you to observe for yourself how the state of mind and attitude influence practice.
Use Interest
Finally, utilize interest instead of effort. We feel that without effort the mind will wander. Interest can actually be a great substitute for effort. Be curious. Look at the object you’re using not with straining, but with investigation.
Obstacles to Samadhi
The traditional obstacles to samadhi are known as the Five Hindrances. These are five qualities that can arise in any type of practice. They specifically are taught as the hindrances to samadhi. As we develop deeper states of collectedness, the five hindrances fall away.
The general antidote to the five hindrances is to recognize them. By seeing their presence, we often weaken them substantially. There are also specific instructions for each hindrance you can find at that link above.
Sensual Desire
The first hindrance is kammachanda, or sensual desire. This is essentially desire for anything that touches our six sense doors. It’s important to note that this isn’t craving (tanha). It’s simply desire to experience something at one of the sense doors. This may be a desire for a certain mental state, a feeling in the body, pleasant sights, etc.
Ill-Will
The second is ill-will, or vyapada. Sometimes translated as aversion, this is the quality of wanting to be rid of something. Again, it may be a mental state or thought, feeling in the body, sound, etc. It often comes from contact with unpleasant experiences.
Sloth and Torpor
Thina-middha, or sloth and torpor, is the quality of drowsiness or dullness. Sloth is in the body, and torpor is in the mind. It generally comes as a lack of energy in practice. We feel this when the mind is sleepy, dull, or even aversive.
Restlessness and Worry
Restlessness and worry, or uddhacca-kukkucca, might be seen as the opposite of sloth and torpor. Coming from uncontained or misplaced energy, this is the experience of not being able to settle. We may feel monkey mind, tension, or restlessness in the body.
Doubt
Finally, we have vicikiccha, or doubt. This may be doubt in yourself, the teachings, the path, your teacher, your experience, etc. I find this to be one of the most pervasive hindrances in my own practice. It often arises as over-analyzing or trying to figure something out.
Collectedness in Daily Life
Finally, I just want to offer an encouragement to cultivate samadhi off the cushion and in daily life. Of course we will need meditation to cultivate deeper states of samadhi, but there are things we can do to support the development.
Practice Sila
In Buddhist tradition, sila is a prerequisite for samadhi. This means practicing morals and ethics can help lead to deeper cultivation of samadhi. I highly encourage you to look at the way you’re behaving out in the world. You might consider taking the five precepts seriously and investigating the practices of Wise Speech, Wise Action, and Wise Livelihood to start.
Single-Task
I talk about this a lot, as it’s changed my own practice. We so often do multiple things at once. We drive and listen to music, walk and listen to a podcast, or cook and have a conversation. Try sticking to one thing at a time. When we do one thing at a time, we may have to work through some boredom. But by doing so, we are cultivating the ability to collect the mind.
Recognize Distractions
It’s natural that samadhi will come and go. When it does go and the mind becomes distracted, simply recognize it. By watching this process over and over, we begin to see the mind much more clearly. We eventually can recognize what leads to samadhi and what hinders it, and can catch the mind before it is too distracted.
Slow Down
Finally, slow down! There are many ways we can learn how to slow down. I have an episode from my playlist Mindfulness in Daily Life that can be found here where I cover slowing down. It does wonders for collecting the mind, presence, and our practice.
