The Path of Purity Part II (of Concentration)

98 • The Path of PurityAnd tljese are the answers:—1 What is concentration ?Concentration is manifold and of various lands. 1 In tryingto explain all that, the answer might not fulfil the intendedmeaning, and moreover it might lead to wavering, thereforewe say with reference to what is intended here:—concentrationis collectedness 2 of moral thought.2. In what sense is %t concentration ?It is concentration m the sense of placing well (sam-adhana)."What is this concentration ? It is said to be the placing,setting (adhdna, thapana) of mind and mental properties fittinglyand well in a single object. [85] Therefore that state,-by the strength of which mind and mental properties areplaced in one object fittingly and well, without wavering,without scattering, should be known as concentration.3. What are its characteristics, its essence, its manifestation,its proximate cause ? 3The characteristic of concentration is not-wavering. 4 Itsessence is to destroy wavering. Its mamfestation is notshaking.From what has been said that J' The mind of thehappy one is concentrated," 6 happiness (or ease) is its proximatecause.4. How many hinds of concentration are there ?(i) It is of one kind through its characteristic of notwavering(monad 1).(ii) It is of two kinds as access and ecstasy (dyad 1); likewise as worldly and transcendental (dyad 2), as being withrapture and without rapture (dyad 3); and as accompaniedby ease and accompanied by indifference (dyad 4).1 Some prefer to road nanappakarato, i.e. " manifold because of itsvarious kinds."2 Or ' onepomtedness * (ehaggata) as the term is rendered in Expositor156,190, 331. Cf. B.Ps.E., § 11.3 Cf. Expositor 157.4 Or confused, distracted, disturbed: avikkhepa,, lit. "pot castingabout." Note that the Pah is a transitive term, ours intransitive.5 In formula of Third Jhana, e.g. Digha, N'iMya i, 75 etc.