Concepts III - Wrong concentration & right concentration


Lobha-mula-citta (consciousness with attachment) without wrong view (ditthigata vippayutta), which arises in our daily life, is not only attached to visible object, sound, odour, flavour, tangible object and concepts, it is also attached to miccha samadhi (wrong concentration). Someone may, for example, apply himself to yoga exercises such as concentration on the breath in order to improve his bodily health. Then, there is a kind of samadhi. 
When the citta is not kusala at such moments there is lobha-mula-citta with miccha- samadhi (wrong concentration). There may only be attachment to samadhi with the aim of improving one’s bodily health. Or, someone may have the wrong view that he should apply himself first to samadhi in order that he afterwards can consider nama and rupa and have right understanding of them more quickly, and that this is the way to realise  the Noble Truths. If he has such wrong understanding he will not know the characteristics of right mindfulness (samma-sati). He will not know that sati is not self (anatta). 
It is not true that when someone applies himself first to miccha-samadhi it will help panna to know the characteristics of nama and rupa. In order for sati to be samma-sati, a factor of the Eightfold Path, it must accompany samma-ditthi (right understanding), which  understands the characteristics of the realities that are appearing. These are the objects sati should consider in the right way. It should be mindful of them so that right understanding can become more and more refined.
Right understanding of nama and rupa is accumulated as sankharakkhandha and thus conditions are being developed for the arising of direct awareness of the realities that are appearing. When there is seeing one should know when the object is a pannatti (a concept), and when a paramattha dhamma. It is the same in the case of hearing, smelling, tasting, the experience of tangible object and the experience of an object through the mind-door.
When we watch television, a football game or tennis match, when we read a newspaper or look at pictures, we should know when the object is a concept and when a paramattha dhamma. If we do not know this we may mistakenly think that only the story on television is a concept. In reality, however, there are concepts when we watch television and also when we do not watch television. Even the names of all of us here are nama-pannattis; they are words of conventional language, which refer to citta, cetasika and rupa which arise together and thus we know that there is this or that person.
Miccha-samadhi (wrong concentration) can be the object of lobha-mula-citta without wrong view or with wrong view. In the latter case one believes that this kind of samadhi is the way to realise the Four Noble Truths. There is miccha-samadhi all over the world. While people apply themselves to concentration with citta which is not kusala citta (wholesome consciousness) accompanied by panna, there is miccha-samadhi. When they believe that this is a faster way to achieve mindfulness of the characteristics of nama and rupa there is wrong understanding. Samma-sati of the Eightfold Path can be mindful in the right way of the realities that appear if first the difference between the characteristics of nama and rupa is understood. Miccha-samadhi cannot condition right mindfulness.
Question: It is said that samadhi (concentration) is the proximate cause for vipassana.
Sujin: What kind of samadhi is meant?
Question.: It must be samma-samadhi (right concentration) which is the proximate cause.
Sujin: It must be samma-samadhi which arises together with samma-sati, samma-ditthi (right understanding), samma sankappa (right thinking) and samma-vayama (right effort).

Topic 290