The Cool Potato/ Sahaj & Samadhi

[Guest guest]

Hi Greg,

 

Thanks. This is a great clarification, and I think it should be

spread around.

In conclusion it should be noted that this is all after the effect, a

posteriori, and

from the perspective of the sage. Ignorance and suffering happens in

Sahaja (True

Nature) and from the perspective of the jiva ( the individual or

bodily/mind organism)

they hide Sahaja. To say to a jiva you are in sahaj right now and

need do nothing,

is not only meaningless, but misleading. The sadhana ( practice)

leading to dispelling

ignorance and transcending suffering, is the only fruitful subject of

discussion. Even when the sadhana as in the case of Advaita, is

deemed to be merely an understanding. The

intense compulsion to see, is something no one decides or wills.

Wanting happens,

But the steps necessary for realization must be taken ( whatever they

are) because

Realization is not acausal. No thing is.

 

Thank you for your great input,

 

Pete

 

 

 

>In a message dated 1/7/2004 7:01:21 AM Pacific Standard Time,

goode writes:

>There is a huge, privately circulated set of talks of his called

NOTES ON SPIRITUAL DISCOURSES. It's meatier than I AM THAT, but very

hard to find. It's almost 600 pages of single-spaced, 10pt text.

There are 2 volumes, and the organization is by year, each topic

within the year sequentially numbered and dated. I pulled out

several of the Q & A's about sahaja samadhi. You can see that the

standpoint is advaitic, and Atmananda speaks about sahaja samadhi

sometimes as though it's something that one is *in*, and sometimes as

though it is Consciousness itself. As we all know, teachers often

take this leeway, shifting perspectives and levels as suitable in

order to help the folks coming to them. Sometimes, of course,

teachers take this leeway in order to make themselves >special.

Atmananda is one of the former!

 

>Here's Georg Feuerstien's definition of Sahaja, and Samadhi, from

Yoga Journal. It's from a raja-yogic perspective. Indeed,

Feuerstien averred in his translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras that

realization could only occur after the death of the >body!

 

> Sahaja ( " together born " ): a medieval term denoting

the fact that the transcendental Reality and the

empirical reality are not truly separate but coexist,

or with the latter being an aspect or misperception

of the former; often rendered as " spontaneous " or

" spontaneity " ; the sahaja state is the natural

> condition, that is, enlightenment or realization.

 

> Samadhi ( " putting together " ): the ecstatic or

unitive state in which the meditator becomes

one with the object of meditation, the eighth

and final limb (anga) of Patanjali's eightfold

path; there are many types of samadhi, the most

significant distinction being between samprajnata

(conscious) and asamprajnata (supraconscious)

ecstasy; only the latter leads to the dissolution

of the karmic factors deep within the mind;

beyond both types of ecstasy is enlightenment,

which is also sometimes called sahaja-samadhi

or the condition of " natural " or " spontaneous "

ecstasy, where there is perfect continuity of

superconscious throughout waking, dreaming,

>and sleeping.

 

 

>And now, on to Atmananda!

=========================

 

 

>NOTES ON SPIRITUAL DISCOURSES OF SREE ATMANANDA of Trivandrum

Taken by Nitya Tripta

Trivandrum, India: The Reddiar Press, 1963

 

>29th March, 1956

13. WHAT HAPPENS IN SAMADHI AND HOW TO DIRECT IT TO THE ULTIMATE

TRUTH?

In seeking Samadhi you are trying to see the Truth through the

absence of all activities, because you do not see the Truth during

the activities. But Truth (your swarupa) is not to be found in

either the presence or the absence of activities which constitute the

mental realm. Therefore you must go beyond both to get at the

Truth. The world ties you down by its presence here. The world ties

you down by its absence or non-existence in Samadhi. You must

transcend both in order to >come to Truth.

 

>You desire Samadhi only for the hapiness you suppose you derive from

it, just as you desire an object for the pleasure you hope to derive

from it. MANDOOKYAKARIKA advises you to take away the desire from

both and you will be in your own centre. But it does not suggest how

that desire can be taken away. It can only be done by knowing, that

the happiness experienced in either case is not the outcome of either

the Samadhi or the object, but that it is your own real nature and

therefore intrinsic in you. All effort to achieve one's own real

nature is meaningless; because it stands already achieved. So the

desire for the fruit >vanishes and you stand in the Reality.

 

>1st January, 1953

3. CAN THE SAHAJA STATE BE CALLED A CONTINUOUS SAMADHI?

No! If you are so particular about using the word Samadhi, you may

say you are >then in a permanent Samadhi.

 

>8th August, 1952

161. WHAT IS THE SAHAJA STATE?

>A Jnanin, by experiencing the ultimate Happiness, knows that he

experiences nothing new and that the limitation he used to put upon

Happiness before Realization was a mere illusion. Thus he knows that

what one experiences as limited happiness apparently ensuing from

objects, is in fact that unlimited ultimate Happiness itself. So

even if a Sage appears to be leading a normal life as before, he does

not see the world as the onlookers see it. Even when the others

thing that he is hunting after objects of pleasure, He from His own

stand is always enjoying His Swarupananda. A Sage in the Sahaja

state does not bother himself -- as far as he is concerned -- with

explaining the objective world or its activities. Death for him has

taken place long ago at the momeht of his first realizing the Truth.

The subsequent stoppage of prana long after, and the consequent

paralysis of the body which we usually call death does not denote the

moment of the death to be deeply convinced that the Reality is far

beyond both seeing and not-seeing by the senses. You only witness

these perceptions and the perceptions in no way affect you. Though

the eye shows the palace on the backdrop (curtain) on the stage most

realistically to you, the intellect from behind tells you it is not

real, and you readily accept the correction. So also though sense

organs show the objects to be real, the " I-Principle " standing behind

the sense organs, corrects them and tells you it is all illusion.

The Sage readily accepts this position and lets the body and mind

continue to function as before, just as he who sees the curtain

continues to see the palace on the curtain as before, but does not

allow himself to be carried >away by the eye's verdict.

 

>You cannot help seeing if you look through the eyes. The only means

of avoiding seeing is to cease looking through the eyes. But the

Sage does not want to perform that vain labour. He is content with

resting in the Ultimate Truth whatever may be the activitythe mind

and body are engaged in. We talk ignorantly of the activities of the

Sage. It is a clear contradiction in terms. The Sage is that

principle transcending both activity and inactivity. So the Sage

cannot take to any activity as the Sage, and that which is engaged in

any activity is not the Sage. In short, that which is visible to our

sense organs or mind is not the Sage. The Sage is invisible, and the

background of all our perceptions -- the Ultimate Reality. We can in

no way reconcile the Sage and the activity we so ignorantly attribute

to >him.

 

>You say you went to Sasthamangalam in the bus. Except boarding ald

alighting from the bus you did not perform any other activity. All

motion belonged to the bus and yet you say you went, attributing the

motion of the bus to yourself who was only a silent witness to the

activity of the bus. Still you claim to have gone to

Sasthamangalam. This is the play of ignorance. The Sage does not

claim the activity of anything else for himself. He always gives the

devil his due and never >identifies himself with the body, senses or

mind.

 

>Now applying the illustration of the bus subjectively, we find that

the bus represents the objective group of the body, senses and

generic mind, and 'you' in the bu stand for the real " I-Principle " .

Therefore even when the Sage (the real " I-Principle " ) has withdrawn

all identification from the objective group, that group is left

intact to function as accurately and intelligently as before under

the guidance of the very same " ignorance " which was guiding it

before. What you call " intelligence " is based upon pure ignorance

which is as much dead matter as the >body, from the standpoint of the

Reality.

 

>16th September, 1951

206. WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SAHAJA STATE?

You are established in what is really meant or what really happens

when you say 'you know' or 'you love'. By knowing or loving, an

object is actually brought nearer and nearer to your own self, until

at last it merges in you as Consciousness or >Peace. Love and

Consciousness-pure, always annihilate the Ego.

 

In statements such as " He who sees " , " He who hears " , " He who thinks "

etc., the unqualified " He " is the Absolute Reality itself. He who is

able to realise this, is in the Sahaja state. Even after realizing

that what you have seen is a rope, it is quite possible to see the

snake in the rope with all its details. But you can never be

frightened by that snake, because you know full well that it is your

own creation. This is how a Jnanin in the Sahaja state sees the

world in the Self, but is in no way >affected by it.

 

>Sri Chattampiswami often used to say, " Al this is the manyness of

the One. "

 

>Sri Sankara -- " Perception of the object is but oblation to the fire

of knowledge. "

 

>Gurunathan (Atmananda) -- One (1) is the Truth. What you call two

is not two but " one-one " and three but " one-one-one " and so on. The

word " two " makes you forget the one, which is the real background and

substance of all numbers. But when you say " one-one " it serves the

same purposes as two, but does not make you forget the

Reality. " Two " does not really exist at any time. So look at all

objects without forgetting their common background, the " I-Principle "

or >Consciousness. This is Sahaja state.

 

--end--