The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2090 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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(Skt., ‘putting together’, ‘union’). Enstasis, intense concentration or absorption of consciousness in a variety of higher mental states in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain
yoga
, in which distinction between subject and object is eliminated; the eighth ‘limb’ of ‘eight-limbed’ (
a
ga
) or
r
ja
yoga. Sam
dhi is the consequence of meditation rather than the state of meditation itself.
In Hinduism, sam
dhi is achieved through yoga in which the yogin's consciousness (
citta
) is absorbed in the object of meditation and there is no awareness of the physical or material world.
Other Hindu traditions such as
Ved
nta
,
aivism
,
Vai
avism
, and Tantrism accept the idea of sam
dhi as a consequence of yoga practice, while adhering to a diversity of metaphysical systems and practices. Tantrism accepts sam
dhi as found in classical yoga, but emphasizes the attainment of sam

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