Hi everyone,

I was just reading ajahn chah's teachings regarding samadhi and came across the following:

'Once the mind is concentrated and one pointed, no mind object will be able to penetrate or disturb it, and you will be able to sit like this for as long as you want. You enter and leave it witout any problems. If you genuinely have samadhi like this, it means that sitting meditation and entering samadhi for just 30 minutes or an hour will enable you to remain cool and peaceful for many days afterwards'.

My question lies in him saying that one remains cool and peaceful for many days afterwards. Because he then goes on to say:

'The buddha was able to attain a high level of absorption samadhi but when he came out of that samadhi his old thinking came up and he would attach to it just as before. The buddha then proceeded and attained an even higher state of samadhi but when he came out of that he still had lust and desire.'

So this latter statement seems to be in contradiction with the former. I am not really trying to dispute that one can feel peaceful to a degree after attaining high levels of samadhi for a short or perhaps even long periods of time after formal meditation is over but it is not necessarily a given like he seems to suggest and later appears to contradict. Of course the point being made in the latter is that the defilements have not been uprooted but merely suppressed so it's a bit odd he would phrase it in the way that he did.

I have a feeling I am simply attaching too much weight to the translation here and that he simply means that samadhi can have 'carry over effects' after formal meditation is done.

Still curious to hear what you guys make of this.