The word samadhi is a Sanskrit word with a long and nuanced history. Vedantic, Yogic, and Buddhist traditions all employ the term, each with a slightly varied hue of meaning and importance, to refer to deep states of meditation. The inner-explorations of many disciples have expanded and refined the concept of samadhi to include many subtly different states of consciousness. Here we will look at the word as employed by the great compiler of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali. In this system the two most general categories of samadhi are bija-samadhi or samprajnata-samadhi and nirbija-samadhi or asamprajnata-samadhi. The word bija means seed, and here refers to impressions within the mind that give rise to identity. Bija-samadhi is a state of deep meditation wherein all distractions of the mind have given way to a pure experience of a subject-object-knowledge experience. This state is said to be “with support,” meaning the state is facilitated through the medium of concepts. Four stages are present within the ascent of samprajnata-samadhi: vitarka, vichara, ananda, and asmita. Samprajnata-samadhi is a dualistic state in which the one meditating is only aware of one thing, the object of attention. In contrast, asamprajnata-samadhi, which is a state of nirbija-samadhi, meaning without seed, or “without support” differs in one primary respect, it is non-dualistic. In this state the seeds of identity consciousness have been cleansed and thus there is no dichotomy between the subject and the object, indeed there is no subject or object, there is only unity.

—Mujahid