《大乘广五蕴论》：“云何三摩地？谓于所观事心一境性。所观事者，谓五蕴等及无常苦空无我等。心一境者，是专注义。与智所依为业。由心定故，如实了知。”(CBETA, T31, no. 1613, pp. 851c28-852a2)

中部43经/毘陀罗大经(双小品[5])(庄春江译) “学友！初禅有五支，学友！这里，入初禅的比丘存在寻、伺、喜、乐、心一境性，学友！这样，初禅有五支。”(cittekaggatā)

“一心；心得一(MA)；敛心专一(DA)；专其一意/专其一心/专精一意(AA)”，南传作 (i)“心一境性”(cittassa ekaggatā, cittekaggatā)，菩提比丘长老英译为“心的统一”(unification of mind)。 (ii)“一心”(cetaso ekodibhāvaṃ)，菩提比丘长老英译为“心的统一”(unification of mind, SN.36.31)。 (iii)“心一境”(ekaggacitto)，智髻比丘长老英译为“心是统一的”(mind is unified, MN.29)。

Early Buddhist Meditation Studies
by Anālayo

In fact, according to a passage found in the Mahāvedalla-sutta, already with the first absorption one reaches a condition of “mental unification”, cittekaggatā.74 The same indication is made in the Chinese and Tibetan parallels to the Cūḷavedalla-sutta,75 a difference in placement that reflects a general tendency of the two vedalla discourses to have exchanged some doctrinal discussions with each other in various transmission lineages. Once with the removal of vitakka the second absorption has been attained, a condition of “internal stillness”, ajjhattaṃ sampasādanaṃ, obtains and one has reached a still deeper condition of “unification”, ekodibhāva. For a mind unified within, an act of hearing would constitute an external disturbance.

Elsewhere in the Pāli discourses the qualification ekodibhāva refers to a deeply concentrated condition of the mind, capable of developing direct knowledge (abhiññā) or supernormal abilities (iddhi).76 This differs from the usage of the similar term ekaggatā, which for want of a better alternative I also render as “unification”.

Later texts like the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha consider ekaggatā to be one of the seven mental factors present in every mental state (sabbacittasādhāraṇa).77 This differs from the to some extent comparable definition of “name”, nāma, in the discourses, which does not mention ekaggatā.78 In other words, it is only by the time of Abhidharma analysis that some degree of mental unification was held to be a general characteristic of the mind.79 This is not what ekodibhāva stands for in the early discourses. Here mental unification does not refer just to a momentary focus on an object present in the mind, but rather to a condition of the mind that is unified for a considerable stretch of time.

74 MN 43 at MN I 294,31.

75 MĀ 210 at T I 788c20 and D 4094 ju 8a2 or Q 5595 tu 8b8, which are parallels to MN 44.

76 Most occurrences of the qualification ekodibhāva in the four Pāli Nikāyas seem to be concerned with the second absorption. Two cases that offer further information are AN 3.100 at AN I 254,33, which relates a mental condition that is ekodibhāvādhigato to the ability to realize direct knowledge, and AN 6.70 at AN III 426,8, which describes a samādhi that is similarly specified as ekodibhāvādhigato as enabling the attainment of iddhis. Thus ekodibhāva seems to have a more restricted range of meaning than cittekaggatā.

77 Abhidh-s 2.2; Bodhi 1993: 80 explains that this refers to “the unification of the mind on its object”.

78 SN 12.2 at SN II 3,34 and its parallel EĀ 49.5 at T II 797b28 list feeling, perception, attention, contact, and intention. The Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha list of universal factors adds to these five the two factors of the life faculty and ekaggatā.