Access concentration (Buddhism)

This is the unification of mind, arising through carrying out preliminary meditation on the following: the 6 recollections; mindfulness of death; recollection of peace; perceiving the abominableness of food; definitions of the 4 elements. In that it may be with or without happiness, access concentration may be of two kinds, also as accompanied by bliss or equanimity (third and fourth dyads). It is also related to concentration with applied thought and sustained thought (the first state in the second triad); in that it may be accompanied by bliss and happiness or by equanimity, with the third triad; and, in that sense-sphere concentration is all kinds of access unification, with the first state in the fifth tetrad.

Access concentration arises on abandoning hindrances but the jhana factors are not strong. For this reason there is a marked tendency to re-enter the life-continuum (bhavanga) or lower consciousness. However, with persistence, absorption concentration will develop. Development of access concentration is said to bestow special rebirth in the happy realm of sense. It is the equivalent of "calm abiding" in Tibetan Buddhism.

According to Hinayana Buddhism, concentration is considered as of one kind (monad), of two kinds (dyads), of three kinds (triads), of four kinds (tetrads) or of five kinds (pentad). In the first dyad, this is the unification that precedes absorption concentration.