Eliade on Samadhi (an excerpt)

[Guest guest]

--- cj <d_agenda2000 wrote:

> Excerpt from M.Eliade's "Yoga": Samdhi "with support"

> comments much appreciated,

> cornelius

 

My only comment is I could not make head and tail of that long

paragraph. You may have to translate that into simple English that I

can understand. (Do not worry - I get the same feeling sometimes

whenever I read some technical papers in my subject too) So many

words, concepts some technical and some not so teachnical are thrown

in - I was left with no clear understanding what it really meant. I

must say the author was extremly succeful to get me out of any

samadhi. Since you have posted with some interest, it must mean

something to you. Can you explain what that means.

 

Hari OM!

Sadananda

 

=====

What you have is His gift to you and what you do with what you have is your gift

to Him - Swami Chinmayananda.

 

 

- We Remember

9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost

http://dir.remember./tribute

[Guest guest]

Excerpt from M.Eliade's "Yoga": Samdhi "with support"

 

Rather than "knowledge," however, samadhi is a "state," an enstatic modality

peculiar to Yoga. We shall presently see that this state makes possible the

self-revelation of the Self (purusa), by virtue of an act that does not

constitute an "experience." But not any samadhi reveals the Self, not any

"stasis" makes final liberation a reality. Patanjali and his commentators

distinguish several kinds or stages of supreme concentration. When samadhi is

obtained with the help of an object or idea (that is, by fixing one's thought

on a point in space or on an idea), the stasis is called samprajnata samadhi

("enstasis with support," or "differentiated enstasis"). When, on the other

hand, samadhi is obtained apart from any "relation" (whether external or

mental)-- that is, when one obtains a "conjunction" into which no "otherness"

enters, but which is simply a full comprehension of being--one has realized

asamprajnata samadhi ("undifferentiated stasis"). Vijnanabhiksu adds that

samprajnata samadhi is a means of liberation in so far as it makes possible the

comprehension of truth and ends every kind of suffering. But asamprajnata

samadhi destroys the "impresssions [samskara] of all antecedent mental

functions" and even succeeds in arresting the karmic forces already set in

motion by the yogin's past activity. During "differentiated stasis",

Vijnanabhiksu continues, all the mental functions are "arrested" ("inhibited"),

except that which "meditates on the object"; whereas in asamprajnata samadhi all

"consciousness" vanishes, the entire series of mental functions are block.

"During this stasis, there is no other trace of the mind [citta] save the

impressions [samskara] left behind (by ints past functions). If these

impressions were not present, there would be no possibility of returning to

consciousness."

We are, then, confronted with two sharply differentiated classes of "states."

The first class is acquired through the yogic technique of concentration

(dharana) and meditation (dhyana); the second class comprises only a single

"state"--that is, unprovoted enstasis, "raptus." No doubt, even this

asamprajnata samdhi is always owing to prolonged efforts on the yogin's part. It

is not a gift or a state of grace. One can hardly reach it before having

sufficiently experienced the kinds of samadhi included in the first class. It is

the crown of the innumerable "concentrations" and "meditations" that have

preceded it. But it comes without being summoned, without being provoked,

without special preparations for it.That is why it can be called a "raptus"

Obviously, "differentiated enstasis" samprajnata samadhi, comprises several

stages. This is because it is perfectible and does not realize an absolute and

irreductible "state."

 

What is a Gift of Grace? From whom or what does it come? Does "Luck"

(randomness) play a role?

 

comments much appreciated,

cornelius