Element wrote:kowtaaia wrote:The psychological phenomenon is the conditioned state. The unconditioned is manifest when conditioning comes to an end. It's very simple. It has nothing to do with concentration, which is the focusing of thought, the conditioned.
The word Nibbana means "not piercing; without pain". Many searched for Nibbana and had their version of Nibbana.
In Buddhism, Nibbana is not the cessation of thought
per se but the cessation of defilement.
There is a difference. There can be thought without defilement. There can be no thought but not the final uprooting of defilement.
In Buddhism, there are the immaterial jhanas. Whilst they do not involve the
focusing of thought, they are considered concentration.
The spheres of infinite space and infinite consciousness are not the
focusing of thought but they are concentration or calming abidings (MN 8).
Concentration is best described as the
tranquillising of thought.
The view that samadhi is the
focusing of thought is a major obstacle for meditators.
Whilst the mind naturally focuses or converges in samadhi or jhana, this natural focusing is born from abandoning or letting go.
A metaphor may be required here. Concentration does not arise from the hitting of a hammer on a nail. Concentration arises from pulling the plug out of a bath tub which allows the water to swirl as a whirlpool through the outlet. Right samadhi is born from pulling out the plug.
The Buddha said in MN 117: "Noble right concentration has right view as its forerunner and support".
‘The removal of lust, the removal of hatred, the removal of delusion is the designation for the element of Nibbana…. is the Deathless. The destruction of the taints is spoken of in that way’.
SN 45.7