To: K-list
Recieved: 2000/09/06 23:49
Subject: [K-list] Samadhi
From: Mhortling
On 2000/09/06 23:49, Mhortling posted thus to the K-list:
Hi Bob, Harsha, Horia, Wim, everybody !
My (certainly incomplete) experience of the samadhi-state is in many aspects
similar to what has been shared here on the list and written about in the
yogic and spiritual litterature.
An inner expansion into vast, living silence in which first the outer reality
recedes and then the inner universe of images and thoughts becomes
transparent and then absolutely quiet.
The image which has been used often in descriptions of the deeper state of
consciousness is the one of the ocean in which waves and bubbles arise only
to fall back again into the great vastness and I find this to be pretty
descriptive.
In the silence, thoughts and feelings are seen to be just like bubbles slowly
coming out of the deep and then vanishing. The understanding is intuitively
there, that all things in the outer world including one's own body, in fact
every single component of reality, is also subject to the same process as the
bubbles of thought - creation, being maintained for a set amount of time
within the space/time/limited dimensional structure of the physical world,
only to then be dissolved in order to start the whole thing again with new
shapes and forms - and during all of this the "I" is just silently watching
it all happen and knowing that all these creations and experiences arise
within itself.
The eternal dance of Shakti-energy doing the cosmic tango of creation on the
completely still and immobile body of Shiva, which is God, which is the
Silence, which is you & me.
Using the traditional terminology in describing the process of going from
outward reality into the inside (which paradoxically contains the outside),
Pratyahara to me is the withdrawal of the consciousness from the sensory
input, i.e closing the eyes, refusing to listen to outer sounds etc.
Dharana then is the following stage in which the attention is led to focus
inside, either on a mental image, a mantra or on one of the chakras etc.
When this concentrated focussing becomes so steady that no other thoughts
intrude and the mind is totally absorbed by its object of attention, the
consciousness is in Dhyana or "meditation" mode
I guess Patanjali must have meant something like this :)
At this point, due to the intense pull of the concentrated mind, the
kundalini-shakti starts to move from the bottom of the spine and begins to
expand the chakras along the spine. If the attention is still maintained and
the mind doesn't start jumping about, the inner universe, which first was
rather amorphous and filled with thoughts, then became still and filled only
with the object of meditation, now becomes that vast quiet ocean, just like
the infinite night sky.
This can be accompanied by a feeling of "Of course, this is me, I'm
everything, everything is in myself! "
Pretty interesting stuff...
I feel the normal state of consciousnes to be a somehow "compressed" and
much more limited state of being and myself, in which the silence and
absolute balance of the larger Self somehow manages to get lost in the
clutter of mental movies, desires and physical action. Something remains
though, and I hope maybe I'll also one day be able to switch smoothly from
one mode to the other.
Now if in the meantime I could only make my chakras work normally, I'd be
really happy :))
Good night all
(Probably more like "good afternoon" for those of you in the US...:))
Miguel Mouse
(a.k.a Michael)
http://www.kundalini-gateway.org
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