Samadhi - admi.lv

<h2> Samadhi</h2>Samadhi: the summit of divine consciousnessSamadhi is a spiritual state of consciousness. There are various kinds of samadhi. Among the lower samadhis, savikalpa samadhi is the highest form. Beyond savikalpa samadhi comes nirvikalpa samadhi, but between them lies an enormous gulf: they are two entirely different forms of samadhi. There is also a state beyond nirvikalpa samadhi, called sahaja samadhi.In savikalpa samadhi you lose all human consciousness for a short time. In this state the notion of time and space is entirely different. For an hour or two you are in a completely different world. There you see that almost everything has been done. Here, in this world, in you and in others there are still many unfulfilled desires. Millions of desires remain unfulfilled, and millions of tasks are still waiting to be carried out. But when you are in savikalpa samadhi, you see that practically everything has been done, that there is nothing left for you to do. You are only an instrument. If you are used, fine; if not, then everything has already been done. But from savikalpa samadhi everyone has to return to ordinary consciousness.Even in savikalpa samadhi there are different levels. Just as in one and the same school class there are brilliant pupils and weak pupils, so in savikalpa samadhi some pupils reach the highest rung, while less aspiring seekers reach the lower rung of the ladder, where everything is not as clear and vivid as at the highest level.In savikalpa samadhi there are thoughts and ideas coming from various places, but they do not act upon you. During meditation you remain serene, and your inner being acts dynamically and confidently. But when you go a little higher, when you become one with the soul in nirvikalpa samadhi, there will be no thoughts at all. I am trying to explain this in words, but consciousness in nirvikalpa samadhi can never be adequately explained or expressed. I am doing my best to tell you something out of a very high state of consciousness, yet it is my mind that expresses it. And in nirvikalpa samadhi there is no mind, only infinite peace and bliss. There the dance of nature stops, and the knower and the known become one. There you enjoy a supremely divine, all-embracing, inner ecstasy of love. You become the object of enjoyment, you become the enjoyer and you become enjoyment itself.When you enter nirvikalpa samadhi, the first thing you feel is that your heart is larger than the Universe itself. Normally you see the world around you, and the Universe seems infinitely larger than you are. But that is because the world and the Universe are apprehended by a limited mind. When you are in nirvikalpa samadhi, you see the Universe as a small dot inside your boundless heart.In nirvikalpa samadhi there is infinite bliss. Bliss is a vague notion for most people. They hear that there is something called bliss, and some say they have experienced it, but most have no idea of their own about it. When you enter nirvikalpa samadhi, you not only feel bliss but also become that bliss.The third thing you feel in nirvikalpa samadhi is power. All the power of all the occultists put together is nothing compared with the power you have in nirvikalpa samadhi. But the power you can bring out of samadhi for use on Earth is negligibly small compared with the whole.Nirvikalpa samadhi is the highest form of samadhi, reached by the most fully realised spiritual Masters. It lasts a few hours or days, after which the person must return. What happens when he returns? Very often he forgets his name and his age and cannot speak or think properly. But through long practice a person gradually becomes able to return from nirvikalpa samadhi and function normally straight away.Usually, when someone enters nirvikalpa samadhi, he does not wish to return to this world again. If he stays there for eighteen or twenty-one days, it is quite possible that the soul will leave the body for good. In the distant past there were spiritual Masters who attained nirvikalpa samadhi and did not come back. They reached their highest state of samadhi but found it impossible to enter the worldly atmosphere again and to work as human beings. A person cannot act in the world while he is in such a state of consciousness; it is simply impossible. But there is divine providence. If the Supreme wishes a particular soul to work here on earth, then even after twenty-one or twenty-two days the Supreme can take that individual into another source of dynamic, divine consciousness and return him to the earthly plane for action.Sahaja samadhi is the highest type of samadhi. In this samadhi a person dwells in the highest state of consciousness, yet at the same time is able to work in the gross physical world. He holds the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi and simultaneously enters into earthly activity. He has become the soul and at the same time uses the body as a perfect instrument. In sahaja samadhi one does the ordinary things that ordinary people do. But in the innermost depth of the heart the person is overflowing with divine illumination. When someone has attained sahaja samadhi, he becomes the Lord and Master of Reality. He can go to the Highest whenever he wishes and then descend into earthly consciousness in order to manifest.Even after the highest type of realisation has been attained, the blessing of sahaja samadhi comes very rarely. Very few spiritual Masters have reached this state. Sahaja samadhi requires the infinite Grace of the Supreme. Sahaja samadhi comes only when inseparable oneness with the Supreme has been attained, or when someone wishes to show, in rare cases, that he himself is the Supreme. He who has attained sahaja samadhi and remains in that state of samadhi consciously and perfectly affirms the Supreme every second, and is therefore the greatest pride of the Transcendental Supreme.By means of concentration we focus on a single point. By means of meditation we expand our consciousness into the Vastness and enter into its consciousness. But in contemplation ( samadhi ) we become the Vastness itself, and its consciousness truly becomes our own. In contemplation we are at one and the same time in our deepest concentration and in our highest meditation. In contemplation we move towards the truth we have seen and felt in meditation and become completely one with it. When we meditate, we are bound to feel Infinity, Eternity and Immortality within ourselves. But when we contemplate, we shall see that we ourselves are Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Contemplation means our conscious oneness with the infinite eternal absolute. In contemplation the Creator and the creation, the lover and the beloved, the knower and the known become one. In contemplation we become one with the Creator and see the whole Universe within ourselves. And when we look at our own existence, we do not see a human being. We see something like a source of light, peace and bliss.In contemplation everything merges into a single stream of consciousness. In our highest contemplation we feel that we are nothing other than consciousness itself, that we are one with the Absolute. But in our highest meditation there is a dynamic movement continuing in our consciousness. We are fully aware of what is happening in the inner and the outer world, but what happens has no effect on us. In contemplation too we are unaffected by what happens in the inner and the outer world, yet our whole existence has become an inseparable part of the universe, which we hold deep within ourselves.From Sri Chinmoy's book " Meditation " WHAT SAMADHI IS 1. Samadhi is a superconscious state. It is a merging with God, or the Supreme Brahman.2. The state of samadhi is indescribable. There are neither means of expression nor a language in which to speak of it.3. You must live through this state yourself, in direct intuitive knowledge. Can the taste of a sweet be explained?4. The state of samadhi is absolute bliss, joy and peace. That is all that can be said about it. Everyone must experience it for himself.5. In samadhi the contemplator loses his individuality and becomes identified with the Supreme "Self". As camphor becomes one with fire, so the contemplator merges with what he contemplates.6. As a river flows into the ocean, so the individual soul flows into the Supreme Soul - the ocean of Absolute Consciousness.7. This blissful divine experience arises when the ego and consciousness dissolve.8. Samadhi is by no means a petrified, inert state, as many shallow people imagine.9. It is an overwhelming experience of unity and wholeness.10. This experience lies entirely outside the reach of sense perception.11. The seer and the seen become one.12. In the state of samadhi the aspirant is aware of neither outer nor inner objects. In this state there is no thinking, no hearing, no smell and no sight.13. Samadhi is the birthright of every human being.WHAT HELPS TOWARDS THE ATTAINMENT OF SAMADHI14. Faith, the capacity to concentrate the mind, memory, celibacy and the power of discrimination - these are the means of attaining samadhi.15. God's grace alone can lead you into the worlds of transcendental experience, or nirvikalpa samadhi.OBSTACLES ON THE PATH TO SAMADHI16. Agitation of the mind, sleep, attachments, negligence, indecision, subtle vasanas, illness, the happiness of savikalpa samadhi, doubts and spiritual pride - all of these are obstacles on the path to samadhi.17. Do not mistake sleep for samadhi. When a person comes out of samadhi, he possesses transcendental wisdom.JADA SAMADHI AND CHAITANYA SAMADHI18. The samadhi of the hermit yogi who practises hatha yoga is jada samadhi. It resembles deep sleep. Transcendental divine wisdom is not revealed to him. His samskaras are not burnt away. He will not attain moksha, or final liberation.19. In chaitanya samadhi there is absolute awareness. The chain of rebirths is broken. The yogi attains liberation and divine wisdom.SAVIKALPA SAMADHI20. There are two further kinds of samadhi: savikalpa and nirvikalpa.21. Savikalpa samadhi is otherwise called samprajnata samadhi and sabija samadhi.22. In savikalpa samadhi there is triputi, or the triad: the knower, the knowledge and the known.23. Samprajnata, or savikalpa, samadhi is possible when ekagrata - one-pointedness of the mind - has been attained.24. Only a partial cessation of mental activity takes place.25. The samskaras, or impressions, are not burnt away. Hence the name sabija ("with seed").26. When the yogi meditates on pure, sattvic consciousness free of rajas and tamas, he attains a deep joy. That is why this state is called sananda samadhi, or "blissful samadhi".27. The yogi feels: Aham asmi, "I am". That is why this state is also called asmita samadhi.NIRVIKALPA SAMADHI28. Nirvikalpa samadhi is a state of absolute awareness.29. Knowledge and the known become one.30. In nirvikalpa samadhi the yogi sees without eyes, tastes without a tongue, hears without ears, smells without a nose and touches without skin.31. This state is described thus: the blind man bored the pearl; the fingerless man threaded it; the one without a neck put it on; and the tongueless man praised it.32. Nirvikalpa samadhi is also known as asamprajnata or nirbija samadhi.33. A complete cessation of all mental functions is observed. Hence the name asamprajnata samadhi.34. This state is reached only when there is absolute nirodha, or control of the mind.35. The samskaras are burnt away entirely. Hence the name nirbija.36. Only the state of nirvikalpa samadhi is able to destroy the chain of rebirths.37. A faint glimpse of the Truth, however, cannot free you from birth and death.38. You will have to establish yourself absolutely in nirvikalpa samadhi. Only then will the seed of rebirth be burnt to ashes.39. When the yogi has reached the highest stage of nirvikalpa samadhi, the fire of yoga burns up all the residue of his actions. The yogi receives liberation instantly, while still alive. He gains immortality, the highest transcendental wisdom and eternal bliss.40. The only sadhana for attaining nirvikalpa is para-vairagya, or the greatest dispassion.41. Here the yogi separates himself completely from prakriti and its effects.42. Thinking, the intellect and the senses cease to function altogether.43. Here there is no sound, no touch and no form.44. All the afflictions - namely ignorance, egoism, likes and dislikes bound up with the routine of life - are now destroyed.45. The gunas, which corresponded to the objects of enjoyment, now cease their activity entirely.46. The yogi attains kaivalya, the highest independence, freedom.47. He now possesses simultaneous knowledge, or omniscience.48. The past and the future flow into the present. Everything is "now". Everything is "here".49. The yogi transcends time and space.50. All sorrows vanish; all suffering ceases; the seeds of action are burnt; all doubts are dispelled. This is eternal freedom.51. This state is like an ocean without waves. The concept of samadhi explained /based on material from the Yoga School at the Institute of Yoga Theory and Practice /The word «meditation» is Latin in origin and means nothing other than reflection. It is therefore not purely Indian, and strictly speaking there is no such term in yoga at all. And when people try to apply it to yoga, they usually do so in a sense directly opposite to its true meaning: meditation is spoken of as a state that is the reverse of reflection - that is, as thoughtlessness, emptiness of mind, withdrawal into transcendent spheres, the stopping of the inner dialogue and so on.As for the concept of samadhi, there are two mistaken tendencies in understanding this term:The first - a childish notion of samadhi as a highly unusual state of consciousness accompanied by the most powerful inner ecstasies, experiences, visions of god and so on, and by outward effects such as a bright light around the head and clouds of smoke bursting from the ears, nostrils and anus of the person who has fallen into samadhi.The other extreme is when a person, on the contrary, believes that he has long since known samadhi himself, that there is nothing special about this state, and that it amounts to any pleasant inner sensation.In fact - and this is sound from the point of view of yoga - it is better to speak of so-called «sanyama» (samyama, samayama), which translates from Sanskrit as «immersion in something», and this process of immersion falls, as it were, into three stages: the initial, the middle and the concluding, which correspond to dharana, dhyana and samadhi. Naturally this is a fairly difficult subject, and only very well prepared people can take up such practices, and only in a genuine spiritual school under the direct guidance of a genuine Guru who has mastered these techniques to perfection.Here we can speak of it only from a purely educational point of view, in order to dispel the mystery and the misconceptions.* * *The human brain has two hemispheres - the left and the right - and the hemispheres are lateralised, that is, they do not simply duplicate each other, unlike other internal organs that are functionally identical and do duplicate each other, such as the kidneys and the lungs. The presence of these two hemispheres embodies, on the physical plane, two capacities of human consciousness for knowing the surrounding world. One way - corresponding to the left hemisphere - is bound up with a person's ability to divide all that exists into «I» and «not-I», into himself and the surrounding world, into a subject and the objects around him. In this case knowledge consists in the fact that the subject, being separated from the object from the outset, has no way of looking inside it, as it were, and can study the object that interests him only by studying the properties it possesses. This approach is widespread in modern science, but at the same time, contrary to the opinion of many yoga enthusiasts, when carried out at the proper level it is a purely yogic way of knowing. The other capacity of human consciousness, corresponding on the physical plane to the right hemisphere, consists in the original, unbroken fusion of the human «I» with the surrounding world, or, to be more precise, in the yogi's consciousness dwelling from the outset within the whole of creation as an inseparable part of it. In that case an observer who wishes to study some object of the outer world must simply become the object that interests him, merge with it - though, strictly speaking, even this formulation is not quite apt, since right-hemisphere consciousness assumes from the outset that the world is not divided into subject and objects. And therefore in this case there is neither an observer nor an observed, but simply the possibility for a person to be, as it were, any part of the world. Hence there are two techniques of sanyama, leading to two kinds of samadhi - so-called savitarka samadhi (with reflection) and nirvitarka samadhi (without reflection). And the second is in no way superior to the first, just as the right hemisphere of the brain is in no way «better» than the left.So let us look briefly at the first kind of sanyama, best of all with a concrete example. Suppose a yogi wants to cure a chronic illness that has troubled him for a long time and with which medicine cannot help him. What should he do? First of all, set aside a substantial stretch of time during which he will reflect on this and only this problem and be distracted by nothing else. This condition corresponds to the preparation for sanyama - the 5th stage of yoga - pratyahara. Next, this yogi's body must take up a comfortable position so as not to interfere with his reflection, and it need not by any means be a traditional yoga posture - a person may sit in a comfortable armchair or lie down on a bed. Then he must state very clearly the terms of the problem before him; that is, in this case he must understand his diagnosis very clearly and begin to recall everything he might know about it, even if at first glance it seems to him that he knows nothing. If need be, he may and even should use the relevant literature, consult specialists and generally use any source of information at all. There is no need to think that this is somehow un-yogic. In fact, this is already yoga in the truest sense. So: gather all the facts available, and not only medical ones but philosophical and psychological ones too - for example, how a serious problem in life complicated, and perhaps even poisoned, his existence in the period preceding the illness; where the person acted wrongly from the point of view of the laws of whatever religion or spiritual system he is familiar with. He begins to compare these facts with one another in order to draw some new facts or conclusions from the comparison. Everything described above corresponds to the first stage of sanyama - dharana, which is the focusing of attention on an object. One very important qualification must be made here: this work will be dharana only if it represents not an everyday but a genuinely, in the best sense of the word, strictly scientific or philosophical approach to solving the problem. The difference is the same as that between humming a popular tune under one's breath without even remembering where it came from, and a highly professional performance - that is, one absolutely exact in melody, rhythm and correct tone production from the standpoint of academic voice training, and performed by a real professional who has graduated from a conservatoire and worked for several decades in the world's finest theatres.Then the next phase sets in. In yoga it is generally so arranged that each of its stages, if perfectly mastered, flows smoothly, as it were, into the next. The process of strenuous, concentrated reflection and analysis is transformed into a far freer and easier state, in which new thoughts on the subject that interests the yogi begin to come into his head of their own accord - and all these thoughts are backed by sound arguments and are genuinely new, in the sense that this knowledge cannot be heard from anyone or read anywhere. It does not exist in human culture. This new knowledge is born of itself in the head of a person who has entered this new stage of sanyama, which is called dhyana. Thus dhyana differs from dharana above all in that the yogi no longer has to make any effort in order to reflect in a concentrated way. Christians who pray a great deal know this state of consciousness well and speak of it thus: «First a person makes an effort to work the prayer, and then the prayer itself begins to work the person, and that without any effort on his part». Thus the stage of dhyana is characterised by a fairly pure, bright and clear state of consciousness, which very «generously endows» the person who has mastered this stage of yoga with new ideas, knowledge and discoveries. He becomes the best specialist in the world in the field that interests him and can easily give lectures lasting many hours or write books on the subject to which the sanyama was devoted. It should be particularly noted that although we are trying to speak of these things in simple words, one should by no means think that these states and this practice are available to anyone who considers himself an intellectual. Ninety-nine per cent of the professors teaching at the world's best universities, compared with a yogi who has entered the stage of dhyana, simply do not understand what they are talking about. There is nothing living in their words. They once learned it by heart and from year to year mumble the same thing, without in fact even understanding the meaning of what they say. The author of these lines can allow himself to say this because from early childhood he was among research workers and university teachers, himself graduated from and worked for many years at one of the world's most prestigious universities, is a professor and holds a doctoral degree.Developing dhyana further, a person feels fabulously rich; like the Count of Monte Cristo, he possesses untold treasures - the very treasures Jesus urged people to lay up. «Lay up your treasures in heaven», he said. The yogi engaged in dhyana carries within him a joy inaccessible to the ordinary man. And at last this process comes to its natural conclusion: the yogi understands at the deepest level - and no longer merely understands but sees - the whole essence of the phenomenon that until recently was a problem for him. If this problem, as in our example, was purely medical and bound up with some illness (even the gravest and most incurable), the illness passes immediately. It passes because the consciousness of a person who has mastered samadhi (and the third stage of sanyama we are describing is savitarka samadhi) automatically discards the old, wrong attitude to life that was the cause of the illness. At the same time consciousness rejects all those unnatural, «wrong» vibrations and energies that until then lived in it as freely as microbes in an inflamed organ or cockroaches in a filthy flat. The person feels an enormous relief, as though a mountain had fallen from his shoulders; he really has found the answer, has solved the problem life set him - a problem that was serious for him and often dangerous to his life. Now the consciousness of the yogi who has attained such samadhi is completely free, absolutely empty of what only a short while ago perhaps seemed the problem of a lifetime.