Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c11.s2.22

c11.s2.22

It is, however, essential to note that there is nothing necessary in regard to these trances, though their use was constant among the monks, and directions are given in the Vinaya to secure that monks adept in meditation should be located together so as not to interfere with one another in trance.² A similar form of meditation is contained in the threefold concentration (*samādhi*), with initial and continued application; with the latter only; without both, and another set of three views things as void, probably of lusts and evil dispositions; without taking note of any special peculiarity, that is indifferently; and without predilection.³ Ānanda, who carried out the former kind of concentration, seems to have had the vision of an aura and of forms. There is much similar matter recorded in the mysticism of the west,⁴ but Christian mystics show distinct characteristics which have been traced to the double origin of their views in Neo-platonic philosophical conceptions and the prophetic tradition; their aim is union with God; they recognize the grace of God in the course of the progress of their meditations, as does the *Kaṭha Upaniṣad*; they show a personal element which distinguishes the state of each mystic from that of another.