Samadhi is the eighth and final limb of Patanjali‘s Raja Yoga — the culmination of sustained concentration. In the Yoga Sutras it is described as the state in which the distinction between meditator, meditation, and object of meditation dissolves.
The tradition distinguishes several types:
- Savikalpa samadhi — with seed; still a subtle sense of separation
- Nirvikalpa samadhi — without seed; pure absorption with no object
- Sahaja samadhi — natural, unbroken; samadhi stabilized into the ordinary state
Buddhism uses the term more broadly for concentrated mind-states; the Jhana absorptions overlap significantly with Patanjali’s higher samadhis.
Samadhi is not the goal. It is a state that makes liberating insight possible. Many traditions warn that samadhi without wisdom can become a spiritual dead-end — a trance one returns to but does not wake from.