Samadhi is the limb that names the practice. The Sanskrit word *yoga* derives from *yuj* (*to yoke, to bind together*); samadhi is the *yoking* — the union of subject and object, of meditator and meditated, of the individual self and the larger field. Patanjali defines samadhi (YS 3.3) as the state in which *the object alone shines forth, as if the subject had emptied of its own form*. The duality of meditation — there is a meditator, and there is a thing being meditated upon — collapses. What remains is only the object, but without anyone separate observing it; or, equivalently, only the observer, but with nothing separate to observe. The classical commentaries spend enormous attention on the different *grades* of samadhi: *savikalpa* (samadhi with mental content — thought, feeling, perception still present in subtle form) and *nirvikalpa* (samadhi without mental content — pure absorption, dissolution of all differentiation). Patanjali himself distinguishes *samprajñata samadhi* (with object) and *asamprajñata samadhi* (without object). The eight-limb path culminates in samadhi, but samadhi itself has depth; the path does not end at the doorway, it enters a much larger interior.
✨Samadhi
The eighth limb. Absorption. The state in which the duality between meditator and meditated dissolves. The destination of the entire eight-limb path — and the state that gives yoga its name.
समाधि
Absorption. Sam = together, adhi = on / above, samadhi = the bringing-together of subject and object in a single state of absorption. The eighth limb, the destination, the limb that names yoga itself.
Yoga Sutra 3.3 — tad evārtha-mātra-nirbhāsam svarūpa-śūnyam iva samādhiḥ (samadhi is the state in which the object alone shines forth, as if the subject had emptied of its own form)
🌀what it is
the limb itself, precisely defined
Samadhi is *not* a heightened or altered state in the sense the word *state* usually means; it is the *removal* of the separation that ordinarily produces the sense of being-a-subject-experiencing-an-object. What was three (subject, object, the act of perceiving) becomes one. The classical descriptions emphasize that samadhi is *not* a blissful experience to be had by the practitioner (because there is no longer a separate practitioner having it); it is the temporary dissolution of the practitioner-having-experiences structure itself. The fruits of samadhi (Patanjali names them in Book 3, the Vibhuti Pada) include the well-known yogic siddhis (powers), but Patanjali warns: the siddhis are obstacles, not goals; the practitioner who pursues them has lost the path. Samadhi is the door, not the destination beyond the door. The Yoga Sutra closes with *kaivalya* (Book 4) — liberation — which is what samadhi opens onto.
🪷how to practise
the daily practice that grows this limb
Samadhi cannot be practised, only prepared for. The eight-limb sequence IS the preparation: yamas + niyamas (ethical ground), asana (steady body), pranayama (regulated breath), pratyahara (senses at rest), dharana (concentration), dhyana (uninterrupted flow), samadhi (absorption). Each limb prepares the next. There is no shortcut. The traditional teaching is: practise the seven preceding limbs for as long as it takes; samadhi will arrive when the system is ready. The practitioner who seeks samadhi *directly* will not find it; the practitioner who establishes the path will eventually find that samadhi is already here.
🎁the gift
what this limb teaches
*The union that the practice was always pointing toward.* Samadhi is the gift the path was preparing for from the first day the practitioner started attending to the yamas.
🌑the shadow
where the practice goes wrong
Claiming samadhi. The practitioner who *describes* their samadhi has not understood it; the state cannot be reported back to ordinary consciousness without distortion. The shadow is also pursuing samadhi for the *siddhis* (psychic powers) Patanjali names — this is the deepest trap of the path, and the Yoga Sutra spends most of Book 3 warning against it.
💞in love & in work
The mystics use the language of samadhi to describe the union of the lover and the beloved. Rumi, Mirabai, the Sufi tradition, Christian mystics like John of the Cross — all use the same image. Romantic love at its rarest moments touches a flicker of this; the deeper version is the lifelong devotional path that the mystics walked. Samadhi-love is the disappearance of the separation between the one who loves and the one who is loved.
The work that has lost the separation between worker and work. The artist who is no longer making art; the art is making itself through them. The surgeon who is no longer doing surgery; surgery is happening. This state appears occasionally in any sustained, high-skill practice — it is samadhi-fragment, glimpsed and lost. Practitioners who have walked the eight-limb path can enter it deliberately and remain longer.
🛤️how to operationalize this limb
the gab44 funnels that support this practice
Samadhi cannot be operationalized — it is the fruit of the entire path. The gab44 funnels that support its preparation are the *integrated* set: yamas + niyamas (ethics, by way of heart-chakra and goddess practices), asana (16 poses), pranayama (10 breaths), and mantra (the foundational dharana objects).
→ Begin the eight-limb path🔮questions to sit with
before / during / after the practice
- Have I been seeking samadhi directly — as a state to attain — when the entire instruction has been to seek nothing and walk the eight-limb path?
- Which of the seven preceding limbs is most underdeveloped in my practice right now — and what would change if I attended to it for a year?
- What does it mean to me that yoga is named after this limb specifically — that the entire practice is named for the *union*, not for any of the steps along the way?
✉️ Want to know which limb *your* chart is asking for?
Each chart has a primary limb — the one your particular wiring has been ready to deepen into. A personal reading identifies it and tells you the asana, pranayama, and mantra that will make the limb land in your body and mind. Delivered by email within 48 hours.