Dhyāna-pāramitā

This article is about dhyāna-pāramitā. For the states of meditative absorption, see dhyāna.

dhyāna-pāramitā (P. jhānapāramī; T. bsam gtan kyi pha rol tu phyin pa བསམ་གཏན་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་; C. jinglü boluomiduo), aka "perfection of concentration" or "perfection of meditative absorption," is one the "perfections" (paramitas) that is cultivated on the bodhisattva path within the Sanskrit tradition.

This paramita is identified as:

• the fifth of the six paramitas of the ordinary path in the Sanskrit tradition
• the fifth of the ten paramitas of the transcendental path of the five paths and ten bhumis in the Sanskrit tradition, which is mastered on the fifth bodhisattva ground (sudurjayā-bhūmi)

One Teacher, Many Traditions states:

The perfection of meditative stability involves developing concentration through the nine stages of sustained attention... While bodhisattvas renounce the pursuit of sense pleasures to develop the eight meditative absorptions, these are not their main interest. Their ultimate aim is to use their concentration to develop the insight focused on emptiness and then use that to cut the root of saṃsāra and eliminate the two obscurations.

Practical Ethics states:

“The practices of meditative stability and wisdom encompass serenity (samatha) and insight (vipassana), which are the main causes of attaining liberation. Serenity is the ability to stay on the meditation object one-pointedly for as long as we wish, free of excitement and laxity. Wisdom gained by insight knows the ultimate nature of reality. At the moment, we may intellectually understand emptiness — we may know the reasons phenomena lack inherent existence or be able to explain emptiness to others. However, this does not mean we have realized emptiness. One reason for this is poor concentration that prevents us from entering meditative equipoise on emptiness. Our concentration is interrupted by excitement and laxity that move our mindfulness off the object. Once we are able to concentrate properly, this will help us to realize emptiness directly, which in turn will bring about liberation. In this way, meditative stability and wisdom lead to liberation.

Sources

• Dalai Lama; Thubten Chodron (2014), Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions, Wisdom Publications 
• Jampa Tegchok (2017), Thubten Chodron, ed., Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness: A Commentary on Nargarjuna's Precious Garland, translated by Carlier, Steve, Wisdom Publications