Samadhi: How to Reach the Highest Level of Consciousness?
What is the Meaning of Samadhi?
The term Samadhi comes from the Sanskrit language and literally means “to bring together” or “to merge.” Samadhi as Patanjali describes it in the Yoga Sutras, corresponds to different degrees of deep meditative absorption, or modified state of consciousness, similar to the states of ecstasy and mystical union of the Christian saints, where the mental activity is shut down and the human consciousness is totally transcended and absorbed into the supreme Self, becoming one and the same with the ultimate reality. Basically samadhi consist in the abiding and complete absorption of the mind into the blissful kundalini shakti life current, that is the Self. In result all the neurological circuitry of the brain is rewired and the strong subconscious impressions (samskaras) are cleared, so that our joy may be complete.
with your own self with the
glory which I had with you
before the world was.”
“Have put on the new self, which
is being renewed in knowledge
in the image of its Creator.
Here there is no Greek
or Jew, circumcised or
uncircumcised,barbarian,
Scythian, slave, or free,
but Christ is all and is in all.”
Samadhi: The Alchemical Transmutation of Lead into Gold
To attain Nirvikalpa Samadhi or the state of pure undifferenciated consciousness, is not an end per se, as it is only the way to purify the mind by abiding in God/Self, your true nature, or by practicing the presence of God as teached by the Christ through all the Gospels. Surrendering the ego/mind to it’s own source and to let it merge with divine consciousness, is really offering it as a living sacrifice to God’s love flames, as Paul the Apostle invites us to do, similarly of the alchemical great work process, where the lead is purified into the fire, over and over again, until it is transmuted into gold.
to gold and chance collapses,
When I am with God
metamorphosed by
God into God.”
the Spirit is fire and furnace
The Messiah is the dye,
which haloed body and soul.”
“As soon as I can be melted in
the fire of God, God immediately
imprints his very Being on me.”
About Samadhi, Practice of the Presence, and Being in Christ:
Samadhi, Practice of the presence of God, abiding in his love, receiving the Holy Spirit, being in Christ, to keep his commandements, to confess that Jesus is the son of God, to overcome the world, to repent, to turn oneself and live, believing in him, finding him, drinking the water, to lose oneself’s life for his sake, sowing to please the Spirit, to come to God through him, to be saved, to die with him, to be crucified, to exalt God, to have oneself’s name written in heaven, to be set free from sin, to become slaves of God, to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, to build oneself up in oneself’s most holy faith, to pray in the Holy Spirit, to be restored and made strong, firm and steadfast, to do the will of God, to have eternal life, to be glorified by the glory we had with him before the world was, to be still and know that I is God… Are all synonymous of withdrawing oneself of the mind activity and abiding in the Self, God, Christ, Spirit, pure being, pure consciousness, pure grace, formless shakti, changeless energy, of the nature of bliss, eternal and always pure, which is the same yesterday, today and forever. It has absolutely nothing to do with religion, behaviours, attitudes, believes, moral rules, or any mental concepts that has never existed in the world or in the mind of any human being.
they that worship him
must worship him in
spirit and in truth.”
dwell in love dwell in
God, and God in him.”
“God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all.”
"To Know God, is to Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, Meaning Beyond the Mind and by Merging with Him."
The Infinite Names of the One Self:
My Buckler, my Dwelling Place, my Fortress, my Glorious Sword, my Helper, my Hiding Place, my High Tower, the Horn of my Salvation, my Keeper, the Lifter Up of My Head, my Glory, my Song, my Strength, my Refuge, my Rock, my Rock Eternal, my Rock of Refuge, my Shade, my Strength, my Strong Fortress, my Strong Refuge, my Strong Tower, the Stronghold of My Life, my Very Great Reward…
no torture, no calamity.”
and my deliverer. My God is my rock,
in whom I take refuge, my shield,
and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold. I will call upon
the LORD, who is worthy to be
praised; so shall I be saved
from my enemies.”
“That which is the Support, the Soul,
the Source, the Purpose and the Power of all this world, the Reality behind all
this Appearance, That indeed exists.
Let That, the Truth, abide; in our Heart.”
"Samadhi is the Complete Dissolution of the Appearences of the Material World and Physical Body into Nothingness, through the Intense Focusing of the Mind on God/Self."
The 3 Main Levels of Samadhi or Self-forgetfulness in God:
Savikalpa Samadhi: Peaceful Witnessing of the Thoughts
Savikalpa Samadhi is the state where the mind becomes still, while you peacefully observe the thoughts without being affected by them, it is a non-permanent state that must be regularly maintained with regular practice,
Nirvikalpa Samadhi: Pure Undifferentiated Consciousness
Then comes Nirvikalpa Samadhi which is a state where the ego has been dissolved and only consciousness remains, where there is no difference between subject and object, between what is seing and what is seen, everything is one consciousness, one undifferentiated existence, it is also a non-permanent state which needs to be maintained with regular practice.
Sahaja Samadhi: Your Unconscious Natural State
When your nervous system has been sufficiently purified through meditation practice, Nirvikalpa Samadhi becomes a permanent state without going back and forth, also called Sahaja Samadhi by Ramana Maharshi, and which is comparable to the natural state of an infant, which is pure Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth, Consciousness, Bliss). Now that all the big clouds have been dispersed, the mind is constantly bathed in a continuous flow of shakti and bliss coming from the Self, no matter what the activity of the body is, and the incessant thought chatter has given way to inner silence.
with me, you must forget
yourself, carry your
cross, and follow me.”
of thought into the Supreme
Spirit, into the perfect realisation
of “I and the Father are One.”
“We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent
from the body, and to be
present with the Lord.”
How to Meditate to Attain Samadhi?
For reaching Samadhi, to be absorbed into the Spirit, or to have direct experience of God, we need to withdraw from the five senses, we need to go from differentiated to indifferenciated, from personnal to impersonnal, from form to formless, from individual to universal, and let the mind abides into that infinite power. For this, you need to tame the mind and began to accustom it to recognize that all that is seen, all visible forms, objects, including the body, are only mental pictures, mental projections, false, unreal, and impermanent by nature. You need to acknowledge that all names and forms belongs to God, and are only manifestation of the Absolute, and then that in truth all the names and forms are only Brahman, God, pure consciousness, pure vital force, then abide in that realization, until you feel the truth of it through the whole body, then merge with that feeling.
the senses from their objects,
just as a tortoise withdraws
its limbs into its shell, is
established in divine wisdom.”
of my five senses and desire God
with all my heart, I find God in my
soul, as radiant and joyful as
HE is eternal life.”
“So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal.”
Visitor: Is the Maharshi entering nirvikalpa-samādhi?
Maharshi: If the eyes are closed, it is nirvikalpa; if the eyes are open, it is savikalpa (state of differentiation, but absolute rest). This state, eternally present, is the natural state, sahaja.
“For he who has attained – perhaps in previous incarnations – a high degree of spiritual maturity obtains Realization and dwells permanently in peace from the first time he hears the Truth enunciated, while he who is less evolved must pass through the various stages described above before falling into samādhi (direct experience of the Self].”
“One should naturally be in a state of samādhi, in his original state, within any environment.”
“Samādhi is our natural state. It is the undercurrent of each of the three states. This one- that is, the ‘I’-is not in the three states, but all three states are in Him. The samādhi obtained in the waking state will also be maintained during deep sleep. The distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness belongs to the mental realm, which is transcended by the state of the real Self.”
“Samādhi with closed eyes is certainly a good thing, but one must go further, to the point where one realizes that inactivity and activity are not opposed to each other. The fear of losing samādhi while one is in activity is a sign of ignorance. Samādhi should be one’s natural life.”
The same visitor inquired about the nature of samādhi and the way to achieve it.
M. When the one asking this question is gone, samādhi will occur
“Samadhi must be gained; it must be continuously practised until sahaja samadhi results. Then there remains nothing more to do.”
“The yogi is therefore bound to wake up from the samadhi, because release from bondage has not yet been accomplished. He must still try to eradicate the vasanas in order that the latencies yet inherent in him may not disturb the peace of his samadhi. So he passes down from the sahasrara to the heart through what is called the jivanadi, which is only a continuation of the Sushumna. The Sushumna is thus a curve. It starts from the solar plexus, rises through the spinal cord to the brain and from there bends down and ends in the heart. When the yogi has reached the heart, the samadhi becomes permanent. Thus we see that the heart is the final centre.”
“Meditation should remain unbroken as a current. If unbroken it is called samadhi or Kundalini sakti.”
“Even though the man sees the world after he has been in the samadhi state, the world will be taken only at its worth, that is to say it is the phenomenon of the One Reality. The True Being can be realised only in samadhi; what was then is also now. Otherwise it cannot be Reality or Ever-present Being. What was in samadhi is here and now too. Hold it and it is your natural condition of Being. Samadhi practice must lead to it. Otherwise how can nirvikalpa samadhi be of any use in which a man remains as a log of wood? He must necessarily rise up from it sometime or other and face the world. But in sahaja samadhi he remains unaffected by the world.”
Samadhi from a Non-Dual Perspective:
What you’re looking for is not a new experience, but rather you’re looking for the direct experience of “YOU” existing beyond the mind, as the supreme reality which is the source of all your experience. As you already exist beyond the mind, looking for a particular experience, will only stall your spiritual progress, distracting you from the fact that you are already that, pure consciousness, omnipresent Brahman, self-existing, self-luminous, always free, always realized, always enlightened. Therefore, samadhi is not to be especially searched, as it will spontaneously and naturally happens anyway, as one’s concentration on the Self will become deeper and deeper.
“Those who have gained a better understanding should regularly concentrate the mind on the Self, and peacefully dwell on the real nature of the Essential Brahman that you are. Try to naturally enter samadhi, the “selfless Self.”
“If one falls like a log of wood as soon as he realizes Brahman, who would be there afterwards to show the way to liberation? Who would impart Knowledge to others, and who could have even taught that man in the first place? If he lies like a wooden log, who would teach others? All Knowledge would have been lost. While explaining, one has to talk about all things, either permanent or perishable. Therefore, it would not do, being sanely aware one moment, and being motionless the next. That man would also be in bondage. That is why, without falling like a log of wood in samadhi, we should have the “Knowledge of Brahman” while we are awake and active in speaking etc.”
“The body may be in a state of childhood, or youth, or old age, or the body may be dark, fair, beautiful, or ugly. It may be infested with disease, it may be wandering aimlessly, going to holy places for pilgrimages, or it may be motionless in samadhi. All of these attitudes, properties and modifications belong to the body, but the “I” is separate from all of these.”
Visitor: How can I enter into samadhi?
Maharaj: If you are in the right state, everything you see will bring you into samadhi. After all, samadhi is not unusual. When the mind is intensely interested, it becomes one with the object of its interest. The seer and the seen become one in seeing, the hearer and the heard become one in hearing, the lover and the object of love become one in loving. Any experience can be the basis of samadhi.
Visitor: Are you always in a state of samadhi?
Maharaj: Of course not, Samadhi is a state of mind, after all. I am beyond all experience, even of samadhi. I am the great devourer and destroyer: whatever I touch dissolves into void (akash).
Visitor: I need samadhis for self-realisation.
Maharaj: You have all the self-realisation you need, but you do not trust it. Have courage, trust yourself, go, talk, act; give it a chance to prove itself. With some, realisation comes imperceptibly, but somehow they need convincing. They have changed, but they do not notice it. Such non-spectacular cases are often the most reliable.
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