Fwd: Deep sleep, nirvikalpa samadhi, Atmananda

[Guest guest]

NonDualPhil , " Greg Goode " <goode@D...> wrote:

 

Atmananda, a teacher that many had never even heard of a few years

ago, preferred to use deep sleep, and not nirvikalpa samadhi, as a

way

to teach about one's ultimate nature. They are both objectless, and

nevertheless is never said about that that " I " was not present.

Nirvikslpa samadhi is an attainment in the raja yogic path, but not

the path of direct inquiry. So Atmananda liked to use the much more

common deep sleep as a teaching pointer to the " I-principle " or

consciousness than nirvikalpa samadhi. It's more common, and less

apt

to have attachments formed because of it. The shortest quote I can

find that mentions both is here (repeated in context further below):

 

" To achieve [total renunciation, self knowledge],

the sannyasin, even after attaining the nirvikalpa

samadhi of the yogin, has to labour afresh on the

path of direct knowledge. "

 

One of the principal threads of Atmananda's teaching is that *all*

experience is just like deep sleep, even now. Objectless, and at one

with awareness, which is " I "

 

So here are three long quotes that compare the two: Taken from Nitya

Tripta's long book NOTES ON SPIRITUAL DISCOURSES OF SRI ATMANANDA.

 

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

 

19th July 1951

196. ULTIMATE REALIZATION (159)

Nirvikalpa samadhi is not the ultimate state of realization. You have

reached the highest only if you have established identity with the

real I-principle. The sahaja state alone may be said to be the

highest. We are trained in a wrong groove of thinking, from our very

birth. We have only to give up this wrong groove and take to the

right

groove of thinking.

 

9th December 1950

9. HOW IS DEEP SLEEP THE TOUCHSTONE OF ONE'S REAL NATURE? (9)

The knowledge of one object implies the ignorance of all objects

other

than that particular object. The ignorance of all objects in deep

sleep means really the positive knowledge of the self, which shines

as

happiness there. Consequently, the ignorance of the ordinary man in

deep sleep is really the knowledge of his own self, which is

happiness

and Consciousness.

 

Our deep sleep experience, according to the lower shastras, is

ignorance coupled with the sense of subjective happiness. We have

already proved that the so called ignorance of the world in deep

sleep

is nothing but the knowledge of the self, which is happiness itself.

Thus the experience in deep sleep, if properly understood, is only

one; and that is our own self, which is Happiness and Peace. The rest

of the statement is but a commentary upon this.

 

There is only one there; and hence the ignorance of the many is no

experience at all.

 

 

59. WHAT IS RENUNCIATION? (22)

Renunciation - or sannyasa - is not likely to annihilate one's

samskaras, even after the attainment of nirvikalpa samadhi in the

yogic fashion. The tendency for renunciation shows a diffidence, or

unwillingness, or fear, to look straight at the apparent world and

analyse it to its very source. So the sannyasin sometimes chooses to

get away from the apparently more dangerous parts of the world,

relying upon his own mind and intellect which are themselves parts of

the world and which he must ultimately renounce.

 

Thus, as the field of his enquiry is incomplete, his renunciation is

also incomplete. The result of such an enquiry can never be

satisfying. The enquiry can be complete only when he is able to

visualize the Reality of his own self, even in the apparent variety.

 

To achieve this, the sannyasin, even after attaining the nirvikalpa

samadhi of the yogin, has to labour afresh on the path of direct

knowledge.

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