Eliade on Samadhi (an excerpt)

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta, " cj " <d_agenda2000> wrote:

 

> What is a Gift of Grace? From whom or what does it come?

Does " Luck " (randomness) play a role?

 

comments much appreciated,

cornelius

 

 

Q: Meditation is with mind. How can it kill the mind

in order to reveal the Self?

 

Maharshi:

Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away

other thoughts. Distraction of mind is a sign of its weakness. By

constant

meditation it gains strength, that is to say, the weakness of fugitive

thought

gives place to the enduring background free from thought. This expanse

devoid of thought is the Self. Mind in purity is the Self.

 

Q:

What is Dhyana (meditation)?

 

Maharshi:

It is abiding as one's Self without swerving in any way from

one's real nature and without feeling that one is meditating.

 

Q: What is the difference between Dyana and Samadhi?

 

Maharshi:

Dyana is achieved through deliberate mental effort.

In Samadhi there is no such effort.

 

Q: What are the factors to be kept in view in Dhyana

 

Maharshi:

It is important for one who is established in his Self (atmanishtha)

to see that he does not swerve in the least from this absorption.

By swerving from his true nature he may see before him bright

effulgences, or hear unusual sounds, or regard as real the visions

of gods appearing within or outside himself. He should not be

deceived by these and forget himself.

 

Q: How is meditation to be practised?

 

Maharshi:

Meditation is, truly speaking, atmanishtha (to be fixed as the Self).

But when thoughts cross the mind and an effort is made to eliminate

them the effort is usually termed meditation. Atmanishtha is your real

nature. Remain as you are. That is the aim.

 

Q: But thoughts come up. Is our effort meant to eliminate thoughts

only?

 

Maharshi:

Yes. Meditation being on a single thought, the other thoughts are kept

away.

Meditation is only negative in effect in as much as thoughts are kept

away.

 

 

" Divine Grace is essential for Realization.

It leads one to God-realization.

But such Grace is vouchsafed

only to him who is a true devotee

or a yogin,

who has striven hard and ceaselessly

on the path towards freedom.

Ocean of nectar, full of grace.

Grace is the Self.

You are never out of its operation.

Grace is always there.

You are neck-deep in it and yet you cry for grace.

It is as if one neck-deep in water should feel thirsty.

 

That which exists is grace,

it is always there,

it is available to all

and it fills the entire universe

since it is existence itself.

 

That which eternally " IS " ,

is " I am " and it is the inmost nature

of all and so is available to all,

at all times. This pure " I am " in

everyone of us is grace.

 

Grace is the beginning, middle and end.

Grace is the Self.

 

Grace always " is " and is not given.

 

God, grace and guru are the one

innermost essence of awareness,

which is revealed or experienced

when attachment to all forms is broken.

 

God, grace and guru are all synonymous and

also eternal and immanent.

 

Grace is within you.

If it is external it is useless.

 

Grace is constant.

Grace is always there.

You are never out of its operation.

 

Is there a moment when grace is not operating in you?

Your remembrance is the forerunner of grace.

That is the response,

that is the stimulus,

that is the Self and

that is grace.

 

Grace and God are not different.

 

People come and tell me that I must grant them grace.

They seem to think that grace is something which

I keep under lock and key.

 

Grace is another name for God.

All that we need do is to

keep our heart open so that

guru's grace may flow in as

sunshine through an open window.

 

Grace is the Self.

That also is not to be acquired,

you only need to know that it exists.

Grace is already within, it is that which

always exists.

 

Grace is within every human being.

It is the state of true being,

true awareness devoid of otherness.

It is the Self.

 

Just like a mother who feeds her sleeping child even without the

child knowing that it is being fed, the grace of pure divine

Self enters our hearts in a manner which cannot be known by us

even if we have the most subtle and powerful of intellects, and

thereby, His grace informs us and brings about the destruction

of our mind.

 

Ah!

His grace is beyond all limits and cannot be

gauged by anyone. "

 

 

~ Ramana

 

 

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

b

[Guest guest]

thanks, yet again b, for Ramana on Grace.

 

It's my good fortune to be sitting near your " cup runeth over "

 

cornelius

 

Nisargadatta, " hrtbeat7 " <hrtbeat7> wrote:

> Nisargadatta, " cj " <d_agenda2000> wrote:

>

> > What is a Gift of Grace? From whom or what does it come?

> Does " Luck " (randomness) play a role?

>

> comments much appreciated,

> cornelius

>

>

> Q: Meditation is with mind. How can it kill the mind

> in order to reveal the Self?

>

> Maharshi:

> Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps

away

> other thoughts. Distraction of mind is a sign of its weakness. By

> constant

> meditation it gains strength, that is to say, the weakness of

fugitive

> thought

> gives place to the enduring background free from thought. This

expanse

> devoid of thought is the Self. Mind in purity is the Self.

>

> Q:

> What is Dhyana (meditation)?

>

> Maharshi:

> It is abiding as one's Self without swerving in any way from

> one's real nature and without feeling that one is meditating.

>

> Q: What is the difference between Dyana and Samadhi?

>

> Maharshi:

> Dyana is achieved through deliberate mental effort.

> In Samadhi there is no such effort.

>

> Q: What are the factors to be kept in view in Dhyana

>

> Maharshi:

> It is important for one who is established in his Self (atmanishtha)

> to see that he does not swerve in the least from this absorption.

> By swerving from his true nature he may see before him bright

> effulgences, or hear unusual sounds, or regard as real the visions

> of gods appearing within or outside himself. He should not be

> deceived by these and forget himself.

>

> Q: How is meditation to be practised?

>

> Maharshi:

> Meditation is, truly speaking, atmanishtha (to be fixed as the

Self).

> But when thoughts cross the mind and an effort is made to eliminate

> them the effort is usually termed meditation. Atmanishtha is your

real

> nature. Remain as you are. That is the aim.

>

> Q: But thoughts come up. Is our effort meant to eliminate thoughts

> only?

>

> Maharshi:

> Yes. Meditation being on a single thought, the other thoughts are

kept

> away.

> Meditation is only negative in effect in as much as thoughts are

kept

> away.

>

>

> " Divine Grace is essential for Realization.

> It leads one to God-realization.

> But such Grace is vouchsafed

> only to him who is a true devotee

> or a yogin,

> who has striven hard and ceaselessly

> on the path towards freedom.

> Ocean of nectar, full of grace.

> Grace is the Self.

> You are never out of its operation.

> Grace is always there.

> You are neck-deep in it and yet you cry for grace.

> It is as if one neck-deep in water should feel thirsty.

>

> That which exists is grace,

> it is always there,

> it is available to all

> and it fills the entire universe

> since it is existence itself.

>

> That which eternally " IS " ,

> is " I am " and it is the inmost nature

> of all and so is available to all,

> at all times. This pure " I am " in

> everyone of us is grace.

>

> Grace is the beginning, middle and end.

> Grace is the Self.

>

> Grace always " is " and is not given.

>

> God, grace and guru are the one

> innermost essence of awareness,

> which is revealed or experienced

> when attachment to all forms is broken.

>

> God, grace and guru are all synonymous and

> also eternal and immanent.

>

> Grace is within you.

> If it is external it is useless.

>

> Grace is constant.

> Grace is always there.

> You are never out of its operation.

>

> Is there a moment when grace is not operating in you?

> Your remembrance is the forerunner of grace.

> That is the response,

> that is the stimulus,

> that is the Self and

> that is grace.

>

> Grace and God are not different.

>

> People come and tell me that I must grant them grace.

> They seem to think that grace is something which

> I keep under lock and key.

>

> Grace is another name for God.

> All that we need do is to

> keep our heart open so that

> guru's grace may flow in as

> sunshine through an open window.

>

> Grace is the Self.

> That also is not to be acquired,

> you only need to know that it exists.

> Grace is already within, it is that which

> always exists.

>

> Grace is within every human being.

> It is the state of true being,

> true awareness devoid of otherness.

> It is the Self.

>

> Just like a mother who feeds her sleeping child even without the

> child knowing that it is being fed, the grace of pure divine

> Self enters our hearts in a manner which cannot be known by us

> even if we have the most subtle and powerful of intellects, and

> thereby, His grace informs us and brings about the destruction

> of our mind.

>

> Ah!

> His grace is beyond all limits and cannot be

> gauged by anyone. "

>

>

> ~ Ramana

>

>

>

>

> LoveAlways,

>

> b

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta, " cornelius " <d_agenda2000> wrote:

 

 

>thanks, yet again b, for Ramana on Grace.

 

It's my good fortune to be sitting near your " cup runeth over "

 

 

))) Brother, it ain't my cup, but

" You are neck-deep in it ... "

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

b

[Guest guest]

> What is a Gift of Grace? From whom or what does it come? Does "Luck" (randomness) play a role? I have only recently joined this list. This is my first contribution.Before I comment on the question I want to express my deep gratitudeto the questioner for asking this very wonderful question. And I wantto express my heartfelt gratitude as well for the quotations fromMaharshi that hrtbeat7 provided in response to this question. There issurely much much Grace in all of this, from beginning to end.

 

Succinctly, my response to the question is that in my experience:

 

Grace meets the open heart. But before I tell you how Grace poured into my heart, I feel I mustgive you a "short spiritual history":

 

I practiced 35 years of deep detachment meditation. My path was thepath of Truth, by which I mean that Truth was my passion, and what Ibelieved in. With the years I came to (some measure of) integration ofheart and mind such that states of silent oneness were readily available.I could sit with eyes open and simply behold the silent wonder. And sucha state was "nearly always" available to me. Waiting in line at the supermarket it was available to me.

 

Which does not mean I always availed myself. I am not a monk. And I had so much to learn. And so much more than I knew, I had a troubled heart.

 

It was only when I began (a short few months ago) a pracitce of heartmeditation where I endeavored each day to stay totally in my heart,to always BE IN MY HEART, that my life really changed.

 

At first I seemed able only to really be in my heart a few momentsof my active day. To be in my heart during meditation was not difficult. But when I was talking to someone! When I was conductingmy day! Ah, that was very, very difficult. My mind is very quick.I am facile with words. How hard it was for me to put on the brakes!

 

And while I don't know, I believe it was through my little steps of living more and more in my heart that finally Mercy found me. Because,I believe, I had finally put myself at Mercy's Door.

 

So with that I now tell you my own sweet tale of Grace:

 

A Sailor’s Tale

 

I must speak my story.

 

I was touched. I was touched somewhere very deep. I felt myself melting. And then an experience as if two oceans merging. And I, a solitary sailor, tilling his solitary raft on his solitary great, great ocean; suddenly was I overwhelmed by the effulgence of this coming together. Suddenly I had no rudder, no raft, no endless horizon, no sky. Suddenly I was overwhelmed, melted into a vast rich, deep turning that poured into my heart. I knew that my sailor days were over. I had no choice. I was one with the depth.

 

And I was changed, changed, so changed. My iniquities, so many more than I knew, came flooding to the surface like rats fleeing a flooding cellar. And by Her Grace, a sweet flooding wave of Her Grace, my darknesses were healed. And time and again, in moments of trial, another darkness comes to the fore, another blemish works to the surface, and each time Her Grace sweeps my blemishes away, heals the wound in my heart, clears the flaw in my mind.

 

And so this life goes on within me. A love welling in me fills me, fills me, fills me.

 

So who I was is gone, and who this is I cannot tell you.

 

I have been overcome by Sweet Grace. And her name? Harken. I tell you truly. Her name is,

 

Essence of Love

 

And so my life goes on, wrapped in this EnduringRapture.

 

My gratitude to Nisargadatta, who made me go deeper.My gratitude to all the members of this list, for being here.My gratitude to Her Grace, for "waking me to love".

 

-Bill Rishel

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta, " Bill Rishel " <plexus@x> wrote:

 

Her name is,

 

Essence of Love

 

 

 

 

 

)))) Stones are longing for what you know.

 

If they had the graceful movements

Of your feet and tongue,

 

They would not stop laughing

Between their ecstatic dance steps and unbroken praise.

 

Your heart beats inside a sacred drum,

Its skin is tanned and stretched -

Our skin is alive and stretched -

With the wild molecules of His Wondrous Existence.

 

Your mind and eyes are an immense silk cloth

Upon which all your thoughts and movements paint.

 

Your soul once sat on an easel on my knee.

For ages I have been sketching you

With myriad shapes of sounds and light;

 

Now awake, dear pilgrim,

With your thousand swaying arms

That need to caress the Sky.

 

Now awake with your love for the Friend and the Creation,

Help this Old Tavern Sweeper, Hafiz,

To celebrate.

 

No more enemies from this golden view -

All who have entered this holy mountain cave

Have dropped their shields and swords.

 

We all cook together around a fire

Our yearning music builds.

 

We share our tools and instruments and plates;

We are companions on this earth

 

As the sun and planets are in the sky.

We are all sentries at our sacred humble posts.

 

The stones and stars envy the movements

Of your legs and tongue

And call to you to sing on their behalf.

 

The atoms in your cells and limbs are full of wonderful talents;

They dance in the Hidden Choir I conduct.

 

Don't sleep tonight, dear pilgrim,

So I can lead you on my white mare to His Summer House.

 

This love you now have of the Truth

Will never forsake you.

 

Your joys and sufferings on this arduous path

Are lifting your worn veil like a rising stage curtain

 

And will surely reveal your Magnificent Self

So that you can guide this world like Hafiz

 

In the Hidden Choir

God and His friends will forever

Conduct.

 

 

 

( " The Subject Tonight is Love " -- versions of Hafiz by Daniel

Ladinsky)

 

 

LoveAlways,

 

b

[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