What are Samādhi and Samāpatti?

Samādhi (meditative absorption) and right reception are the state of body and mind in which meditative concentration and wisdom are equally cultivated. When a person encounters a piece of Dharma meaning and, after setting the mind to deeply deliberate and investigate it, suddenly the mind resonates with that Dharma meaning, profoundly comprehending its content and realizing the deeper significance to which the Dharma meaning points, wisdom surges forth, and the heart feels indescribable joy.

Afterward, body and mind become tranquil and at ease; in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, one feels as if dwelling in empty space, as if entering an uninhabited realm; the mind is open and vast, expansive and tranquil, thoughts profound, the mind quick and sharp. The qi channels surge up into the chest and shoulders, the back becomes erect, the chest opens wide, the shoulders settle downward, and the body feels light as a swallow. The mind is utterly empty, resonating with emptiness, resonating with no-self, resonating with the absence of the four marks; everything seen is perceived as illusory and unreal; thought is deep and single-pointed, subtle and clear. A sense of joy continuously flows in the heart, peaceful and serene, no longer troubled by tangled delusive thoughts and floating notions; there is no past, no future, and even the present is not real—the three times are freed into emptiness, and even emptiness does not abide. The heart is broad and kind, tolerant and magnanimous, not contending over others' faults, not reckoning wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, good and bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha), not attaching to form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas; before the five desires one is like a walking corpse; the eight winds cannot move one, as if seated atop a mountain of jewels.

Concentration and wisdom are nourished together, without leaning to either side; if either one is missing, it is not samādhi; if either one is biased, it is not right reception. The equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā is true samādhi, and also true reception.