Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies 불교학연구 ISSN:1598-0642(Print)

The Yoga-sūtra and Nikāyas are the foundational texts of Classical Yoga and Early Buddhism. The teachings on samādhi in these two texts have significant similarities. Therefore, the view of samādhi in these two texts have long been a popular subject of comparative studies. Both of them acknowledge that samādhi is needed to obtain wisdom (paññā/prajñā ) or to pierce the truth, and that samādhi could remove all defilements of the mind called saṅkhāras/saṃskāras .Reflecting on the existing research on this subject, I try to reorganize the various views of samādhi in the Yoga-sūtra and Nikāyas in this paper. In addition, I also deal with the similarities and differences on the aspects of samādhi between these two texts. For example, the Yoga-sūtra says that wisdom would only be revealed and defilements expunged in nirvicārā-samāpatti , which is one of the deep stages of samādhi . But the Nikāyas say that wisdom could be revealed in any stage of samādhi . Though in some respects these two texts have similar opinions, in other respects they argue for their own unique perspectives. In this way, I try to compare the embodied meanings of samādhi in the Yoga-sūtra and Nikāyas