This statement raises the question how mental qualities like rapture and happiness can suffuse a physical substance like the body. The subcommentary provides an answer. It says that “the material form produced by consciousness suffuses every area where there is material form produced by kamma.”1 (Wr. tr.). The “material form produced by kamma” is the yogi’s physical body. The physical body contains material phenomena of four modes of origination; that is, material phenomena produced by kamma (kammaja.
rūpa.), by consciousness (cittaja. rūpa.), by temperature (utuja. rūpa.), and by food (āhāraja. rūpa.).2 When the yogin attains to jhāna, the jhāna consciousness produces a subtle kind of material form which suffuses his physical body. Since this material form is produced by a consciousness associated with rapture and happiness, the impression is created that rapture and happiness themselves suffuse the whole physical body.
formula: “[First] jhāna: vitakka vicāra pīti sukha cittass’ekaggatā.”1 The medieval compendium Abhidhammattha Sa/gaha defines the wholesome consciousness of the first jhāna in exactly the same way.2 Buddhaghosa too gives commentarial support to this position:
Although the unification of mind is not actually listed among these factors in the (summary) version [beginning] “which is accompanied by application and sustained thought” [Vbh. 245], nevertheless it is mentioned [later] in the VibhaKga as follows: “‘jhāna’: it is applied thought, sustained thought, happiness, bliss, unification” [Vbh. 257], and so it is a factor too: for the intention with which the Blessed One gave the summary is the same as that with which he gave the exposition that follows it.3
Thus the suttas, the Abhidhamma, and the commentaries – our three authorities – all support the inclusion of ekaggatā as a jhāna factor. It may be that the prominence of ekaggatā in the attainment of jhāna was so evident that it was felt unnecessary to mention it separately.
A formal definition of ekaggatā in terms of its synonyms is given in the DhammasaKgaLi:
What on that occasion is self-collectedness [one-pointedness] (cittass ’eka-ggatā)? The stability, solidity, absorbed steadfastness of thought which on that occasion is the absence of distraction, balance, imperturbed mental procedure, quiet, the faculty and the power of concentration, right concentration – this is the self-collectedness [one-pointedness] that there then is.4
In this definition “stability” ((hiti) indicates the mind’s ability to stand unshaken on its object, an ability present to some degree in every state of consciousness as a requisite for focussing upon a single object. Shwe Zan Aung points out that ekaggatā is in reality
that state of mind which is conscious of one and only one object, because it is not distracted by a plurality of possible objects... It is the fact in (a given state of) consciousness, of having a single point (eka-agga) as object. In other words, it is the germ of all attentive, selective, focussed, or concentrated consciousness.5
1. Vibh., p. 274.
2. Nārada, Manual, p. 42.
3. PP., p. 153. “Tattha cittekaggatā kiñcāpi, savitakkaJ savicāraJ ti imasmiJ pā:he na niddi::hā, tathāpi VibbaKge ’Jhānanti vitakko vicāro pīti sukhaJ cittekaggatā’ti [Vbh. 257] evam vuttattā aKgaJ eva. Yena hi adhippāyena Bhagavatā uddeso kato, so yeva tena VibhaKge pakāsito ti.” Vism., p. 119.
4. Psy. Ethics, pp. 13-14. “Katama tasmiJ samaye cittassekaggatā hoti? Yā tasmiJ samaye cittassa :hiti, san:hiti ava:hiti avisāhāro, avikkhepo avisāhatamānasā samatho samādhindriyaJ samādhibalaJ sammā samādhi, ayaJ tasmiJ samaye cittassekaggatā hoti.” Dhs., p. 19.
5. Compendium, p. 241.
As giving this ability ekaggatā is listed among the universal concomitants of consciousness (sabbacittasādhāra5a).1
As a universal mental concomitant, ekaggatā is present in unwholesome consciousness as well as wholesome, but its function there is not strong. It is constantly being undermined by the defilements and hindrances, most notably by restlessness (uddhacca), a mental factor common to all unwholesome states of mind. The Dhammasa/ga5i A((akathā illustrates the difference between unwholesome and wholesome one-pointedness with the following simile:
As by sprinkling a dusty place with water and smoothing it, the dust subsides only for a short time and again resumes its original condition whenever it is dry, so in the immoral portion, one-pointedness of mind is not strong. And as when we sprinkle a place with water poured from pots and dig it up with spades and cement it by beating, pounding and kneading, an image is reflected there as in a burnished glass, and the reflection is true any moment though a hundred years were to pass, so in moral [consciousness], one-pointedness of mind is strong.2
As a jhāna factor one-pointedness is always directed to a wholesome object. It serves to ward off unwholesome influences. In particular it is opposed to the hindrance of sensual desire (kāmacchanda), which it counters and eliminates. As the hindrances are absent in jhāna one-pointedness acquires special strength, based on the previous sustained effort of concentrating the mind. Its stabilizing function is reinforced by the cooperation of the other jhāna factors. In the jhāna consciousness initial thought thrusts the mind upon the object, sustained thought keeps it anchored there, rapture and happiness encourage its interest and satisfaction in the object. The effect is that in jhāna one-pointedness picks up a stabilizing power which cannot be easily overcome by distracting influences. Jhānic one-pointedness is therefore also called the “power of concentration” (samādhibala). It brings the mind to a state of serenity (samatha) which helps mature the other spiritual faculties and acts as a foundation for liberating insight (vipassanā).
One-pointedness is used in the Pāli texts as a synonym for samādhi (concentration). In fact, as we pointed out above, samādhi is defined explicitly in the Visuddhimagga as wholesome one-pointedness of mind.3 Buddhaghosa presents the etymology of samādhi in a way which suggests its identity with one-pointedness:
It is the centering (ādhāna) of consciousness and consciousness concomitants evenly (sama.) and rightly (sammā) on a single object; placing is what is meant. So it is the state, in virtue of which consciousness and its concomitants
1. Narada, Manual, p. 77.
2. Expositor, 1:190. “Yathā hi raju::hāna::hāne udakena sincitvā sammatthe thokameva kālaJ rajo sannisī-dati. Sukkhante sukkhante puna pakatibhāvena vu::hāti. EvaJ eva akusalapakkhe cittekaggatā na balavatī hoti. Yathā pana tasmiJ :hāne gha:ehi udakaJ āsiñcitvā kudālena khaLitvā āko:anamaddanagha:hanāni katvā upalitta ādāse viya chāyā paññāyati. Vassasatātikkamepi tammuhuttakaJ viya hoti. EvaJ eva kusalapakkhe cittekaggatā balavatī hoti.” Dhs.A., p. 188.
3. PP., p. 84. “Kusalacittass’ekaggatā.” Vism., p. 68.
remain evenly and rightly on a single object undistracted and unscattered, that should be understood as concentrating.1
Concentration is explained as having the characteristic of non-distraction, the function of eliminating distractions, as its manifestation non-wavering. The Dhammasa/ga5i A((akathā gives a somewhat different characterization of concentration. It says that concentration has the characteristic of leadership, the function of welding together the co-existent states as water kneads bath-powder into a paste, peace of mind or knowledge as its manifestation, and happiness as its proximate cause.2
The statement that happiness (sukha) is the proximate cause of concentration (samādhi) alludes to the causal sequence of spiritual development already discussed. In the Sāmaññaphala Sutta the Buddha says that when the yogi sees that the five hindrances are abandoned in him gladness (pāmojja) springs up. Out of gladness rapture (pīti) arises. The body of one filled with rapture becomes tranquil; one whose body is tranquil experiences happiness; the mind of one who is happy becomes concentrated.3 Elsewhere the Buddha states that gladness and the remaining factors of the sequence arise in one whose senses are controlled and whose mind is not corrupted by cognizable sense objects.4 Again he says that gladness, rapture, tranquility, happiness, and concentration spring up from freedom from remorse (avippa(isāra) which is itself generated by observing pure principles of conduct (kusalāni sīlāni).5
From these passages we see that concentration, the one-pointedness of jhānic intensity, arises out of distinct conditions. Rapture produces calm or tranquility of body and mind, tranquility produces bodily and mental happiness, happiness in turn conduces to gaining complete one-pointedness, the fifth jhāna factor. When excitement is present in the form of the hindrances, one-pointedness is feeble and cannot reach the level of samādhi. But when the excitement of the hindrances subsides, joy and happiness arise leading to a deepening of concentration. This concentration exercises the task of overcoming sensual desire, the most subtle type of excitement.
The Buddha declares concentration to be the leader of all (wholesome) dhammas.6 How this is so the Venerable Nāgasena illustrates with two picturesque similes:
As all the rafters of the roof of a house, O king, go up to the apex, slope towards it, are joined on together at it, and the apex is acknowledged to be the top of all; so is the habit of meditation [samādhi] in its relation to other good qualities.
1. PP., p. 85. “EkārammaLe citta cetasikānaJ samaJ sammā ca ādhānaJ; :hapanaJti vuttaJ hoti, tasmā yassa dhammassānubhāvena ekārammaLe cittacetasikā samaJ sammā ca avikkhepamānā avippakiLLā ca hutvā ti::hanti, idaJ samādhānanti veditabbaJ.” Vism., p. 68.
2. Expositor, 1:157. Dhs.A., pp. 161-62.
3. DN. 1:73.
4. SN. 4:78.
5. AN. 4:107.
6. AN. 4:107.
It is like a king, your Majesty, when he goes down to battle with his army in his fourfold array. The whole army – elephants, cavalry, war chariots and bowmen – would have him as their chief, their lines would incline towards him, lead up to him, they would be so many mountain slopes, one above another, with him as their summit, round him they would all be ranged.1