Samadhi

(“trance”) In the ashtanga yoga first
codified by the philosopher Patanjali,
the last of the eight elements of yoga
practice. Along with dharana (“concentration”) and dhyana (“meditation”),
samadhi is one of the three practices
that make up the “inner discipline”
(samyama), the culmination of yogic
training. Samadhi is described as a state
in which the mind is conscious of only
the object of concentration, and is
devoid of any notion of the self as perceiver. Once one has attained samhadi
on the conscious plane, one supposedly
pursues it on more subtle inner planes.
The loss of subjectivity in samadhi is
believed to make people unaware of the
outside world, such that they will not
respond to stimuli and may sometimes
appear almost dead. For this reason, the
burial places of deceased ascetics are
usually referred to as samadhi shrines,
since it is popularly believed that
they are not dead, but only rapt in
deep meditation.