Samadhi, or concentration of the mind, is the second of the three parts of the Buddha’s teaching, namely Sila (morality), Samadhi (concentration), and Panna (insight/wisdom). It has been taught by the Buddha using 40 different objects of meditation, such as mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati). Upon development of Samadhi, one’s mind becomes purified of defilements, calm, tranquil, and luminous. Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration, one’s mind is ready to penetrate and see into the ultimate nature of reality, eventually obtaining release from all suffering.Samadhi is also the Hindi word for a structure commemorating the dead (tomb).~ excerpted from Wikipedia
Dr. Siao completed the grueling process of root canal treatment yesterday, and after a two-hour drilling including a long, fruitless but energetic search for more than 2 canals to jab 22 mm hand files into, placed another temporary filling atop my now-thrice-drilled-in-one-year-and-severely-ground-and-razed #31 molar (22 mm deep… which seems to me to mean that my tooth ends somewhere around my clavicle).I admit to falling to pieces at the prospect of pain, but when the rubber hits the road I can usually take it pretty well. I’ve been kicked full in the chest by a pony and thrown through a windshield into a creek as my sweet Mitsubishi skidded off a low bridge on a rural Virginia mountainside. I’ve torn through the bottom of my bare foot on a half-buried, ancient rusty farm implement and had my heart broken. I’ve even had a bikini wax. And gone back again. But I never knew pain that eliminated all other consciousness before.I now believe that the process of root canal work is a direct route towards achieving a state of nirvitarka samadhi — a single-pointed focus on an object without interruption. I’m not focusing on the tooth — I AM MOLAR # 31.