The Meaning of Samadhi

 

 

But you can become an asamprajnata buddha in this life also. For them Patanjali says,

Shraddha is not exactly faith. It is more like trust. Trust is very, very different from faith. Faith is something you are born in; trust is something you grow in. Hinduism is a faith; to be a Christian is a faith; to be a Mohammedan is a faith. But lo be a disciple here with me is a trust. I cannot claim faith - remember. Jesus also could not claim faith because faith is something you are born in. Jews were faithful; they had faith. And, in fact, that is why they destroyed Jesus: because they thought that he was bringing them out of their faith, destroying their faith.

He was asking for trust. Trust is a personal intimacy; it is not a social phenomenon. You attain to it through your own response. Nobody can be born in trust; in faith, okay. Faith is dead trust; trust is alive faith. So try to understand the distinction.

Shraddha - trust - one has to grow in. And it is always personal. The first disciples of Jesus attained to trust. They were Jews, born Jews. They moved out of their faith. It is a rebellion. Faith is a superstition; trust is a rebellion. Trust first leads you away from your faith.

It has to be so, because if you are living in a dead graveyard, then you have to be led out of it first. Only then you can be introduced to life again. Jesus was trying to bring people towards shraddha, trust. It will always look as if he is destroying their faith.

Now when a Christian comes to me, the same situation is again repeated. Christianity is a faith, just as Judaism was a faith in Jesus' time. When a Christian comes to me, again I have to bring him out of his faith to help him to grow towards trust. Religions are faith, and to be religious is to be in trust.

And to be religious doesn't mean to be Christian, Hindu, or Mohammedan, because trust has no name; it is not labeled. It is like love. Is love Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan? Marriage is Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan. Love? Love knows no caste, no distinctions. Love knows no Hindus, no Christians.

Marriage is like faith; love is like trust. You have to grow into it. It is an adventure. Faith is not an adventure. You are born into it; it is convenient. It is better if you are seeking comfort and convenience, it is better to remain in faith. Be a Hindu, a Christian; follow the rules. But it will remain a dead thing unless you respond from your heart, unless you enter religion on your own responsibility, not that you were born a Christian. How can you be a born Christian?

With birth how religion is associated? Birth cannot give you religion; it can give you a society, a creed, a sect; it can give you a superstition. The word "superstition" is very, very meaningful. It means "unnecessary faith". The word "super" means unnecessary, superfluous - faith which has become unnecessary, faith which has become dead; sometimes it may have been alive. Religion has to be born again and again.

Remember, you are not born in a religion, religion has to be born in you. Then it is trust. Again and again. You cannot give your children your religion. They will have to seek and find their own. Everybody has to seek and find his own. It is adventure - the greatest adventure. You move into the unknown. shraddha, Patanjali says, is the first thing, if you want to attain asamprajnata samadhi. For samprajnata samadhi, reasoning, right reasoning. See the distinction? For samprajnata samadhi, right reasoning, right thinking are the base; for asamprajnata samadhi, right trust - not reasoning.

No reasoning - a love. And love is blind. It looks blind to the reasoning because it is a jump into the dark. The reason asks, "Where are you going? Remain in the known territory. And what is the use to move to a new phenomenon? Why not remain in the old fold? It is convenient, comfortable, and whatsoever you need, it can supply." But everybody has to find his own temple. Only then it is alive.

You are here with me. This is a trust. When I am no more here, your children may be with me. That will be faith. Trust happens only with an alive Master; faith, with dead Masters which are no more there. The first disciples have the religion. The second, third generation by and by loses the religion, it becomes a sect. Then you simply follow because you are born into it. It is a duty, not a love. It is a social code. It helps, but it is nothing deep in you. It brings nothing to you; it is not a happening. It is not a depth unfolding in you. It is just a surface, a face. Just go and see in the church. The Sunday people, they go; they even pray. But they are waiting when this is finished.

A small child was sitting in a church. For the first time he had come, just four years of age. The mother asked him, "How you liked it?" He said, 'Music is good, but the commercial is too long." It is commercial when you have no trust. shraddha is right trust; faith is wrong trust. Don't take religion from somebody else. You cannot borrow it; it is a deception. You are getting it without paying for it, and everything has to be paid. And it is not cheap to attain to asamprajnata samadhi. You have to pay the full cost, and the full cost is your total being.

To be a Christian is just a label; to be religious is not a label. Your whole being is involved. It is a commitment. People come to me and they say, "We love you. Whatsoever you say is good. But we don't want to take sannyas because we don't want to be committed." But unless you are committed, involved, you cannot grow, because then there is no relationship. Between you and me then there are words, not a relationship. Then I may be a teacher, but I am not a Master to you. Then you may be a student, but not a disciple.

Shraddha, trust, is the first door, second is virya. That too is difficult. It is translated as effort. No, effort is simply a part of it. The word virya means many things, but deep down it means bio-energy. One of the meanings of virya is semen, the sexual potency. If you really want to translate it exactly, virya is bio-energy, your total energy phenomenon - you as energy. Of course, this energy can be brought only through effort; hence, one of the meanings is "effort".

But that is poor - not so rich as the word virya. Virya means that your total energy has to be brought into it. Only mind won't do. You can say 'yes' from the mind that will not be enough. Your totality, without holding anything back: that is the meaning of virya. And that is possible only when there is trust. Otherwise you will hold something, just to be secure, safe, because, "This man may be leading somewhere wrong, so we can step back any moment. In a moment we can say 'Enough is enough; now no more.'"

You hold back a part of you just to be watchful, where this man is leading. People come to me and they say, "We are watching. Let us first watch what is happening." They are very clever - clever fools - because these things cannot be watched from the outside. What is happening is an inner phenomenon. Even you cannot see to whom it is happening many times. Many times only I can see what is happening. You become aware only later on, what has happened.

Others cannot watch. From the outside there is no possibility to watch it. How can you watch from the outside? Gestures you can see; people doing meditation you can see. But what is happening inside, that is meditation. What they are doing outside is just creating a situation.

It happened:

They said, 'What is going on? This man is leading them toward madness. They are already mad, and they are fools - because once you become mad it will be difficult to come back. And this is nonsense; we have never heard. People when they meditate, they sit silently."

And there was much discussion between them. A group of them said, "Because we don't know what is happening, it is not good to take any judgment." Then there was a third group among them who said, "Whatsoever it is, it is worth enjoying. We would like to watch. It is beautiful. Why can't we enjoy it? Why be bothered what they are doing? But just to watch them is a beautiful thing."

Then after a few months, again, the same group came to the school to watch. Now what was happening? Now everybody was silent. The fifty persons were there, the Master was there - they were sitting silently, so silently, as if there was no one, like statues. Again there was discussion.

There was a group who said, "Now they are useless. What to see? Nothing! The first time we had come it was beautiful. We had enjoyed it. But now they are just boring." The other group said, "But now we think they are meditating. The first time they were simply mad. This is the right thing to do; this is how meditation is done. It is written in the scriptures, described in this way."

But there was still a third group who said, "We don't know anything about meditation. How can we judge?"

Then, again, after a few months, the group came. Now there was nobody. Only the Master was sitting, smiling. All the disciples had disappeared. So they asked, "What is happening? The first time we came there was a mad crowd, and we thought this is useless, you are driving people crazy. The next time we came it was very good. People were meditating. Where have they all gone?"

The Master said, "The work done, the disciples have disappeared. And I am smiling happy because the thing happened. And you are the fools, I know! I have also been watching - not only you. I know what discussions were going on, and what you were thinking the first time and the second time." Said Jalaludin, "The effort that you have taken to come here for three times would have been enough for you to become meditators. And the discussion that you have been in, that much energy was enough to make you silent. And in the same period, those disciples have disappeared, and you are standing at the same place. Come in! Don't watch from the outside." They said, "Yes! That is why we are coming again and again, to watch what is happening. When we are certain, then... Otherwise we don't want to be committed."

Clever people never want to be committed, but is there any life without commitment? But clever people think commitment is a bondage. But is there any freedom without bondage? First you have to move in a relationship, only then you can go beyond it. First you have to move in a deep commitment, depth to depth, heart to heart, and only then you can transcend it. There is no other way. If you just move out and watch, you can never enter into the shrine - the shrine is commitment. And then there can be no relationship.

A Master and disciple is a love relationship, the highest love that is possible. Unless the relationship is there, you cannot grow. Says Patanjali, "The first is trust - shraddha - and second is energy - effort.' Your whole energy has to be brought in; part won't do. It may even be destructive if you come only partially in and remain partially out, because that will become a rift within you. It will create a tension within you; it will become an anxiety rather than bliss.

Bliss is where you are in your totality; anxiety is where you are only in part, because then you are divided and there is a tension, and the two parts going separate ways. Then you are in a difficulty.

This word 'recollection' is smriti: it is remembrance - what Gurdjieff calls self-remembering. That is smriti.

You need not repeat it in the mind, "I am walking." If you repeat, that is not remembrance. You have to be non-verbally aware that "I am walking, I am eating, I am talking, I am listening." Whatsoever you do, the "I" inside should not be forgotten; it should remain. It is not self-consciousness. It is consciousness of the Self; self-consciousness is ego; consciousness of the Self is asmita - purity, just being aware that "I am."

Ordinarily, your consciousness is arrowed towards the object. You look at me: your whole consciousness is moving towards me like an arrow. But you are arrowed towards me.

Self-remembering means you must have a double-arrowed arrow, one side of it showing to me, another side showing to you. A double-arrowed arrow is smriti - self-remembrance.

Very difficult, because it is easy to remember the object and forget yourself. The opposite is also easy - to remember yourself and forget the object. Both are easy; that's why those who are in the market, in the world, and those who are in the monastery, out of the world, are the same. Both are single-arrowed. In the market they are looking at the things, objects. In the monastery they are looking at themselves.

Smriti is neither in the market nor in the monastery. Smriti is a phenomenon of self-remembering, when subject and object both are together in consciousness. That is the most difficult thing in the world. Even if you can attain for a single moment, a split moment, you will have the glimpse of satori immediately. Immediately you have moved out of the body, somewhere else.

Try it. But, remember, if you don't have trust it will become a tension. These are the problems involved. It will become such a tension you can go mad, because it is a very tense state. That's why it is difficult to remember both - the object & the subject - the outer and the inner. To remember both is very, very arduous. If there is trust, that trust will bring the tension down because trust is love. It will soothe you; it will be a soothing force around you. Otherwise the tension can become so much, you will not be able to sleep. You will not be able to be at peace any moment because it will be a constant problem. And you will be just in anxiety continuously.

That's why we can do one: that's easy. Go to the monastery, close your eyes, remember yourself, forget the world. But what you are doing? You have simply reversed the whole process, nothing else. No change.

Or, forget these monasteries and these temples and these Masters, and be in the world, enjoy the world. That too is easy. The difficult thing is to be conscious of the both. And when you are conscious of the both and the energy is simultaneously aware, arrowed in the diametrically opposite dimensions, there is a transcendence. You simply become the third: you become the witness of both. And when the third enters, first you try to see the object and yourself. But if you try to see both, by and by, by and by, you feel something is happening within you - because you are becoming a third: you are between the two, the object and the subject. You are neither the object nor the subject now.

And now, few things. If your whole energy is needed, sex disappears automatically because you don't have energy to waste. Brahmacharya for Patanjali is not a discipline, it is a consequence. You put your total energy so you don't have any energy... and it happens in ordinary life also. You can see a great painter: he forgets women completely. When he is painting there is no sex in his mind, because the whole energy is moving. You don't have any extra energy.

A great poet, a great singer, a dancer who is moving totally in his commitment, automatically becomes celibate. He has no discipline for it. Sex is superfluous energy; sex is a safety valve. When you have too much in you and you cannot do anything with it, the nature has made a safety valve; you can throw it out. You can release it, otherwise you will go mad or burst - explode. And if you try to suppress it, then too you will go mad, because suppressing it won't help. It needs a transformation, and that transformation comes from total commitment. A warrior, if he is really a warrior - an impeccable warrior, will be beyond sex. His whole energy is moving.

It is reported, a very, very beautiful story:

A great philosopher, thinker, his name was Vachaspati... He was so much involved in his studies that when his father asked him that, "Now I am getting old, and I don't know when I will die - any moment - and you are my only son, and I would like you to be married." He was so much involved in his studies that he said, "Okay." He didn't hear what he was saying. So he got married. He got married, but he completely forgot that he has a wife, he was so involved.

And this can happen only in India; this cannot happen anywhere else: the wife loved him so much that she didn't want to disturb. So it is said twelve years passed. She will serve him like a shadow, take every care, but not to disturb, not to say that, "I am here, and what you are doing?" Continuously he was writing a commentary - one of the greatest ever written. He was writing a commentary on Badarayan's brahm-sutras and he was so involved, so totally, that he not only forgot about his wife: he was not even aware who brings the food, who takes the plates back, who comes in the evening and lights the lamp, who prepares his bed.

Twelve years passed, and the night came when his commentary was complete. Just the last word he was to write, and he had taken a vow, and when the commentary is complete he will become a sannyasin. Then he will not be concerned with the mind, and everything is finished. This is his only karma that has to be fulfilled.

That night he was a little relaxed, because the last sentence he wrote near-about twelve, and for the first time he became aware of the surroundings. The lamp was burning low and needed more oil. A beautiful hand was pouring oil into it. He looked back who is there. He couldn't recognize the face; he said, "Who are you and what are you doing here?" The wife said, "Now that you have asked, I must say that twelve years back you had brought me as your wife, but you were so much involved, so much committed to your work, I didn't like to interrupt or disturb you."

Vachaspati started weeping, his tears started flowing. The wife asked, "What is the matter?" He said, "This is very complex. Now I am at a loss, because the commentary is complete and I am a sannyasin. I cannot be a householder; I cannot be your husband. The commentary is complete, and I had taken a vow and now there is no time for me, I am going to leave immediately. Why didn't you tell me before? I could have loved you. And what can I do for your services, your love, your devotion?"

So he called his commentary on brahm-sutras, bhamati. Bhamati was the name of his wife. The name is absurd, because to call Badarayan's brahm-sutras and the commentary, bhamati, it has no relationship. But he said, "Now nothing else I can do. The last thing is to write the name of the book, so I will call it bhamati so that it is always remembered."

He left the house. The wife was weeping, crying, but not in pain but in absolute bliss. She said, "That's enough. This gesture, this love in your eyes, is enough. I have got enough; don't feel guilty. Go! And forget me completely. I would not like to be a burden on your mind. No need to remember me."

It is possible, if you are involved totally, sex disappears because sex is a safety valve. When you have energy unused, then sex becomes a haunting thing around you. When total energy is used, sex disappears. And that is the state of brahmacharya, of virya, of all your potential energy flowering.

Concentration is part - it happens. Look at a child who is absorbed in his play; he has a concentration without any effort. He is not concentrating on his play. Concentration is a by-product. He is so absorbed in the play that the concentration happens. If you concentrate knowingly on something, then there is effort, then there is tension, then you will be tired.

Samadhi happens automatically, spontaneously, if you are absorbed. If you are listening to me, it is a samadhi. If you listen to me totally, there is no need for any other meditation. It becomes a concentration. It is not that you concentrate - if you listen lovingly, concentration follows.

In asamprajnata samadhi, when trust is complete, when effort is total, when remembrance is deep, samadhi happens. Whatsoever you do, you do with total concentration - without any effort to do the concentration. And if concentration needs effort, it is ugly. It will be like a disease on you; you will be destroyed by it. Concentration should be a consequence. You love a person, and just being with him, you are concentrated. Remember never to concentrate on anything. Rather, listen deeply, listen totally, and you will have a concentration coming by itself.

And discrimination - prajna. Prajna is not discrimination; discrimination is again a part of prajna. Prajna means in fact wisdom - a knowing awareness. Buddha has said that when the flame of meditation burns high, the light that surrounds that flame is prajna. Samadhi inside, and then all around you a light, an aura, follows you. In your every act you are wise; not that you are trying to be wise, it simply happens because you are so totally aware. Whatsoever you do it happens to be wise - not that you are continuously thinking to do the right thing.

A man who is continuously thinking to do the right thing, he will not be able to do anything - even the wrong he will not be able to do, because this will become such a tension on his mind. And what is right and what is wrong? How you can decide? A man of wisdom, a man of understanding, does not choose. He simply feels. He simply throws his awareness everywhere, and in that light he moves. Wherever he moves is right.

Right does not belong to things; it belongs to you - the one who is moving. It is not that Buddha did right things - no! Whatsoever he did was right. Discrimination is a poor word. A man of understanding has discrimination. He doesn't think about it; just it is easy for him. If you want to get out of this room, you simply move out of the door. You don't grope. You don't first go to the wall and try to find the way. You simply go out. You don't even think that this is the door.

But when a blind man has to go out, he asks, "Where is the door?" And then too he tries to find it. He will knock many places with his cane, he will grope, and continuously in the mind he will think, "Is it the door or the wall? Am I going right or wrong?" And when he comes to the door, he thinks, "Yes, now this is the door."

All this happens because he is blind. You have to discriminate because you are blind; you have to think because you are blind; you have to believe in right and wrong because you are blind; you have to be in discipline and morality because you are blind. When understanding flowers, when the flame is there, you simply see and everything is clear. When you have an inner clarity, everything is clear; you become perceptive. Whatsoever you do is simply right. Not that it is right so you do it; you do it with understanding, and it is right.

Shraddha, virya, smriti, samadhi, prajna. Others who attain asamprajnata samadhi attain through trust, infinite energy, effort, total self-remembrance, a non-questioning mind and a flame of understanding.