1 00:00:51,030 --> 00:00:56,700 The world's greatest spiritual teachers from ancient to modern times have shared 2 00:00:56,700 --> 00:01:01,620 the view that the deepest truth of our being is not the property of one 3 00:01:01,620 --> 00:01:06,780 particular religion or spiritual tradition but can be found within the 4 00:01:06,780 --> 00:01:10,430 heart of each person. 5 00:01:20,510 --> 00:01:28,880 The poet Rumi said "where is that moon that never rises or sets? Where is that 6 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:36,580 soul that is neither with nor without us? Don't say it is here or there. 7 00:01:36,580 --> 00:01:45,879 All creation is "That", but for the eyes that can see. 8 00:02:49,770 --> 00:02:55,350 In the story of the Tower of Babel humanity fragmented into countless 9 00:02:55,350 --> 00:03:04,250 languages, beliefs, cultures and interests. Babel means literally "the gate of God". 10 00:03:04,250 --> 00:03:15,510 The gate is our thinking mind - our conditioned structures. For those who 11 00:03:15,510 --> 00:03:22,110 come to realize their true nature, their essence beyond name and form, they are 12 00:03:22,110 --> 00:03:28,400 initiated into the great mystery of what lies beyond the gate. 13 00:03:35,250 --> 00:03:43,080 An ancient parable, the elephant parable, has been used to describe how various 14 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:50,490 traditions are actually all pointing to one great truth. A group of blind people 15 00:03:50,490 --> 00:03:56,280 are each touching a different part of an elephant, getting a certain impression of 16 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:04,020 what an elephant is. The person standing at the elephant's leg describes the 17 00:04:04,020 --> 00:04:11,400 elephant as being like a tree. The person at the tail says the elephant is like a 18 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:20,488 rope. The elephant is like a spear, says the one standing at the tusk. If one 19 00:04:20,488 --> 00:04:25,730 touches the ear, it seems the elephant is like a fan. 20 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:34,340 The person touching the side is adamant that the elephant is like a wall. 21 00:04:34,340 --> 00:04:39,980 The problem is we touch our piece of the elephant and we believe our experience 22 00:04:39,980 --> 00:04:47,510 is the only truth. We don't acknowledge or appreciate that each person's 23 00:04:47,510 --> 00:04:53,920 experience is a different facet of the same animal. 24 00:05:16,690 --> 00:05:22,250 The perennial philosophy is an understanding that all spiritual and 25 00:05:22,250 --> 00:05:29,000 religious traditions share a single universal truth. A mystical or 26 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:34,610 transcendent reality upon which foundation all spiritual knowledge and 27 00:05:34,610 --> 00:05:44,839 doctrine has grown. 28 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:52,400 Swami Vivekananda summed up the perennial teaching when he said "the end 29 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:59,870 of all religions is the realizing of God in the soul. That is the one universal religion." 30 00:05:59,870 --> 00:06:08,300 In this film when we use the word God it is simply a metaphor for the 31 00:06:08,300 --> 00:06:16,160 transcendent, pointing to the great mystery beyond the limited egoic mind. 32 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:23,870 To realize one's true self or immanent Self is to realize one's divine nature. 33 00:06:23,870 --> 00:06:31,310 Every soul has the potential to manifest a new higher level of consciousness. To awaken 34 00:06:31,310 --> 00:07:04,170 from its slumber and its identification with form 35 00:07:04,170 --> 00:07:11,380 The writer and visionary Aldous Huxley, known for his book "Brave New World", 36 00:07:11,380 --> 00:07:16,390 also wrote a book which he entitled "The Perennial Philosophy" in which he writes 37 00:07:16,390 --> 00:07:22,270 about the one teaching that comes back over and over in history, taking the form 38 00:07:22,270 --> 00:07:29,020 of the culture in which it is realized. He writes, "The perennial philosophy is 39 00:07:29,020 --> 00:07:36,400 expressed most succinctly in the sanskrit formula "Tat Tvam Asi"; "That Thou Art." 40 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:45,130 The Atman or immanent eternal self is one with Brahman, the absolute principle 41 00:07:45,130 --> 00:07:50,830 of all existence, and the last end of every human being is 42 00:07:50,830 --> 00:08:00,090 to discover the fact for himself. To find out who he or she really is. 43 00:08:06,419 --> 00:08:12,939 Each tradition is like a facet of a jewel reflecting a unique perspective of 44 00:08:12,939 --> 00:08:19,830 the same truth, while at the same time echoing and illuminating each other. 45 00:08:19,830 --> 00:08:26,080 Whatever the language and conceptual framework used, all religions that 46 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:31,029 reflect the perennial teaching have some notion that there is a union with 47 00:08:31,029 --> 00:08:35,849 something greater, something beyond us. 48 00:09:08,860 --> 00:09:15,230 It is possible to learn from and integrate the teachings from one or many 49 00:09:15,230 --> 00:09:22,610 sources without identifying a sense of self with them. It is said that all true 50 00:09:22,610 --> 00:09:28,940 spiritual teachings are simply fingers pointing to the transcendent truth. If we 51 00:09:28,940 --> 00:09:34,730 hold on to the dogma the teaching for comfort we will be stunted in our 52 00:09:34,730 --> 00:09:42,650 spiritual evolution. To realize truth beyond any concept is letting go of all 53 00:09:42,650 --> 00:09:50,650 clinging and attachment, letting go of all religious concepts. 54 00:09:53,680 --> 00:09:59,860 From the ego's perspective the finger pointing you to Samadhi is pointing 55 00:09:59,860 --> 00:10:04,470 straight toward the abyss. 56 00:10:05,630 --> 00:10:11,660 Saint John of the Cross said "If one wishes to be sure of the road they tread, 57 00:10:11,660 --> 00:10:17,650 one must close their eyes and walk in the dark." 58 00:10:50,660 --> 00:10:55,940 Samadhi begins with a leap into the unknown. 59 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:14,269 In the ancient traditions in order to realize Samadhi it was said that one 60 00:11:14,269 --> 00:11:20,449 must ultimately turn consciousness away from all known objects; from all external 61 00:11:20,449 --> 00:11:27,519 phenomena, conditioned thoughts and sensations, toward consciousness itself. 62 00:11:27,519 --> 00:11:36,980 Toward the inner source; the heart or essence of one's being. In this film when 63 00:11:36,980 --> 00:11:42,290 we use the word Samadhi we are pointing to the transcendent. To the highest 64 00:11:42,290 --> 00:11:48,339 Samadhi which has been named Nirvikalpa Samadhi. 65 00:11:53,010 --> 00:11:59,160 In Nirvikalpa Samadhi there's a cessation of self activity, of all 66 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:06,149 seeking and doing. We can only speak about what falls away as we approach it 67 00:12:06,149 --> 00:12:13,199 and what reappears when we return from it. There is neither perception nor 68 00:12:13,199 --> 00:12:21,000 non-perception, neither "thing" nor "no thing", neither consciousness nor 69 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:34,089 unconsciousness. It is absolute, unfathomable, and inscrutable to the mind. 70 00:12:34,089 --> 00:12:39,920 When the self returns to activity there's a not knowing; a kind of rebirth, 71 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:46,220 and everything becomes new again. We are left with the perfume of the divine, 72 00:12:46,220 --> 00:12:54,309 which lingers longer as one evolves on the path. 73 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:07,110 There are numerous types of Samadhi described in the ancient traditions and 74 00:13:07,110 --> 00:13:13,570 language has created much confusion over the years. We are choosing to use the 75 00:13:13,570 --> 00:13:18,190 word Samadhi to point to the transcendent union, but we could have 76 00:13:18,190 --> 00:13:24,790 used a word from another tradition just as easily. Samadhi is an ancient Sanskrit 77 00:13:24,790 --> 00:13:30,970 term common to the Vedic yogic and Samkhya traditions of India, and has 78 00:13:30,970 --> 00:13:38,410 permeated many other spiritual traditions. Samadhi is the eighth limb of 79 00:13:38,410 --> 00:13:42,490 Patanjali's eight limbs of the yoga, and the eighth 80 00:13:42,490 --> 00:13:50,200 part of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha used the word "Nirvana", 81 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:57,510 the cessation of "vana" or the cessation of self activity. 82 00:13:58,260 --> 00:14:07,330 Patanjali described yoga or Samadhi as "chitta vritti nirodha", the Sanskrit 83 00:14:07,330 --> 00:14:16,470 meaning "cessation of the whirlpool or spiral of mind." It is a disentangling of 84 00:14:16,470 --> 00:14:47,700 consciousness from the entire matrix or creatrixof mind. 85 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:56,439 Samadhi does not signify any concept because to realize it requires a 86 00:14:56,439 --> 00:15:00,660 dropping of the conceptual mind. 87 00:15:02,010 --> 00:15:08,519 Different religions have used various words to describe the divine union. 88 00:15:08,519 --> 00:15:16,690 In fact the word religion itself means something similar. In Latin "religare" 89 00:15:16,690 --> 00:15:24,430 means to re-bind or reconnect. It's a similar meaning to the word yoga which 90 00:15:24,430 --> 00:15:33,610 means to yoke, to unite the worldly with the transcendent. In Islam it is 91 00:15:33,610 --> 00:15:39,310 reflected in the ancient Arabic meaning of the word Islam itself which means 92 00:15:39,310 --> 00:15:47,170 submission or supplication to God. It signifies a total humbling or surrender 93 00:15:47,170 --> 00:15:52,750 of the self structure. 94 00:15:52,750 --> 00:16:03,120 Christian mystics such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Ãvila and 95 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:10,149 Saint John of the Cross describe a divine union with God, the kingdom of God 96 00:16:10,149 --> 00:16:19,589 within. In the Gospel of Thomas, Christ said "the kingdom is not here or there. 97 00:16:19,589 --> 00:16:25,569 Rather the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth and men do not 98 00:16:25,569 --> 00:16:35,019 see it." The works of the Greek philosophers Plato, Plotinus, Parmenides, 99 00:16:35,019 --> 00:16:41,410 and Heraclitus when seen through the lens of the perennial teaching point 100 00:16:41,410 --> 00:16:50,620 towards the same wisdom. Plotinus teaches that the greatest human endeavor is to 101 00:16:50,620 --> 00:16:57,129 guide the human soul towards the supreme state of perfection and union 102 00:16:57,129 --> 00:17:00,919 with the One. 103 00:17:02,660 --> 00:17:10,949 The Lakota medicine and holy man Black Elk said "The first peace, which is the 104 00:17:10,949 --> 00:17:15,900 most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they 105 00:17:15,900 --> 00:17:21,900 realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers. And 106 00:17:21,900 --> 00:17:27,869 when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Great Spirit and 107 00:17:27,869 --> 00:17:36,170 that this Center is really everywhere. It is within each of us. 108 00:17:59,370 --> 00:18:03,720 On the path to awakening unless we are in Samadhi 109 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:11,310 there are always two polarities, two doorways one can enter. Two dimensions: 110 00:18:11,310 --> 00:18:19,650 one towards pure consciousness the other towards the phenomenal world. The upward 111 00:18:19,650 --> 00:18:25,680 current toward the absolute, and the downward current toward Maya and all 112 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:33,030 that is manifested, both seen and unseen. The relationship between relative and 113 00:18:33,030 --> 00:18:37,250 absolute could be summed up in the following quote by Sri Nisargadatta 114 00:18:37,250 --> 00:18:46,550 Maharaj: "Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love is knowing I am everything, and 115 00:18:46,550 --> 00:18:54,020 between the two my life moves." 116 00:18:54,020 --> 00:19:01,320 What is born of this union is a new divine consciousness. Something is born 117 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:06,890 out of the marriage or union of these polarities or the collapse of dualistic 118 00:19:06,890 --> 00:19:16,690 identification, yet what is born is not a thing and it was never born. 119 00:19:18,740 --> 00:19:25,080 Consciousness flowers creating something new, creating what you could call a 120 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,460 perennial Trinity. 121 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:35,230 God the Father, the transcendent, unknowable and changeless, is united with 122 00:19:35,230 --> 00:19:43,540 the Divine Feminine, which is everything that changes. This union brings about an 123 00:19:43,540 --> 00:19:49,740 alchemical transformation; a kind of death and rebirth. 124 00:19:51,610 --> 00:19:57,690 In the Vedic teachings the divine union is represented by two fundamental forces 125 00:19:57,690 --> 00:20:06,460 Shiva and Shakti. The names and faces of the various gods change throughout 126 00:20:06,460 --> 00:20:13,990 history but their fundamental attributes remain. What is born out of this union is 127 00:20:13,990 --> 00:20:22,650 a new divine consciousness, a new way of being in the world. Two polarities 128 00:20:22,650 --> 00:20:30,910 inseparably one. A universal energy that is without center, free of limitation. 129 00:20:30,910 --> 00:20:35,090 It is pure love. There's nothing to be gained or lost 130 00:20:35,090 --> 00:20:51,130 because it is utterly empty but absolutely full. 131 00:20:51,130 --> 00:20:57,429 Whether it is the mystery schools of Mesopotamia, the spiritual traditions of 132 00:20:57,429 --> 00:21:02,460 the Babylonians and Assyrians, religions of ancient Egypt, 133 00:21:02,460 --> 00:21:08,080 Nubian and Kemetic cultures of ancient Africa, the shamanic and native 134 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:15,150 traditions around the world, the mysticism of ancient Greece, the Gnostics 135 00:21:15,150 --> 00:21:30,240 the Non-dualists the Buddhists the Taoists, Jews, Zoroastrians, Jain's, Muslims, 136 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:37,030 or Christians one finds that their common link is their highest spiritual 137 00:21:37,030 --> 00:21:43,709 insights have allowed their adherents to realize Samadhi. 138 00:21:44,940 --> 00:21:52,420 The actual word Samadhi means something like to realize the sameness or oneness 139 00:21:52,420 --> 00:21:59,920 in all things. It means Union. It is uniting all aspects 140 00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:07,870 of yourself. But do not mistake intellectual understanding for the 141 00:22:07,870 --> 00:22:16,120 actual realization of Samadhi. It is your stillness, your emptiness that unites all 142 00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:46,270 levels of the spiral of life 143 00:22:55,090 --> 00:23:00,250 It is through the ancient teaching of Samadhi that humanity can begin to 144 00:23:00,250 --> 00:23:05,380 understand the common source of all religions and come into alignment once 145 00:23:05,380 --> 00:23:12,810 again with the spiral of life, Great Spirit, Dhamma or the Tao. 146 00:23:13,860 --> 00:23:21,019 The spiral is the bridge that extends from the microcosm to the macrocosm. 147 00:23:23,380 --> 00:23:30,630 From your DNA to the inner Lotus of energy that extends through the chakras, 148 00:23:30,630 --> 00:23:35,640 to the spiral arms of galaxies. 149 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:42,650 Every level of soul is expressed through the spiral as ever-evolving branches, 150 00:23:42,650 --> 00:23:50,570 living, exploring. True Samadhi is realizing the emptiness 151 00:23:50,570 --> 00:24:00,140 of all levels of self. All sheaths of the soul. The spiral is the endless play of 152 00:24:00,140 --> 00:24:05,800 duality and the cycle of life and death. 153 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:18,099 At times we forget our connection to the source. 154 00:24:19,940 --> 00:24:27,899 The lens we look through is very small and we identify with being a limited 155 00:24:27,899 --> 00:24:33,629 creature creeping upon the Earth, only to once again complete the journey back to 156 00:24:33,629 --> 00:24:36,110 the source; 157 00:24:37,639 --> 00:24:46,330 to the center that is everywhere. 158 00:24:48,010 --> 00:24:55,060 Chuang Tzu said "When there is no more separation between this and that, it is 159 00:24:55,060 --> 00:25:02,040 called the still point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the spiral 160 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:10,299 one can see the infinite in all things." 161 00:25:13,730 --> 00:25:22,960 The ancient mantra "om mani padme hum" has a poetic meaning. One awakens or 162 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:31,269 realizes the jewel within the lotus. Your true nature awakens within the soul, 163 00:25:31,269 --> 00:25:36,880 within the world AS the world. 164 00:25:50,010 --> 00:25:57,760 Using the Hermetic principle "As above so below, as below so above", we can use 165 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:03,419 analogies to begin to understand the relationship between mind and stillness, 166 00:26:03,419 --> 00:26:07,049 relative and absolute. 167 00:26:12,830 --> 00:26:18,740 A way to begin to grasp the non-conceptual nature of Samadhi is to 168 00:26:18,740 --> 00:26:24,980 use the analogy of the black hole. 169 00:26:24,999 --> 00:26:30,609 A black hole is traditionally described as a region of space with a massive 170 00:26:30,609 --> 00:26:37,209 gravitational field so powerful that no light or matter can escape. New theories 171 00:26:37,209 --> 00:26:42,809 postulate that all objects from the tiniest microscopic particles to 172 00:26:42,809 --> 00:26:48,359 macrocosmic formations like galaxies have a black hole or mysterious 173 00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:55,479 singularity at their center. In this analogy we're going to use this new 174 00:26:55,479 --> 00:27:01,589 definition of a black hole as "the center that is everywhere". 175 00:27:06,630 --> 00:27:13,590 In Zen there are many poems and koans that bring us face to face with the 176 00:27:13,590 --> 00:27:23,590 gateless gate. One must pass the gateless gate to realize Samadhi. 177 00:27:23,590 --> 00:27:30,249 An event horizon is a boundary in space-time beyond which events cannot 178 00:27:30,249 --> 00:27:36,070 affect an outside observer, which means that whatever is happening beyond the 179 00:27:36,070 --> 00:27:43,210 event horizon is unknowable to you. You could say that the event horizon of a 180 00:27:43,210 --> 00:27:50,470 black hole is analogous to the gateless gate. It is the threshold between the 181 00:27:50,470 --> 00:28:00,890 self and no self. There is no "me" that passes the event horizon. 182 00:28:00,890 --> 00:28:07,010 In the center of a black hole is the one-dimensional singularity containing 183 00:28:07,010 --> 00:28:13,580 the mass of billions of Suns in an unimaginably small space. Effectively an 184 00:28:13,580 --> 00:28:20,450 infinite mass. Literally a universe in something infinitesimally smaller than a 185 00:28:20,450 --> 00:28:27,110 grain of sand. The singularity is something unfathomable beyond time and 186 00:28:27,110 --> 00:28:35,419 space. According to physics movement is impossible, the existence of things is 187 00:28:35,419 --> 00:28:40,650 impossible. Whatever it is, it does not belong to the 188 00:28:40,650 --> 00:28:46,140 world of perception, yet it cannot be described as merely stillness. 189 00:28:46,140 --> 00:28:53,880 It is beyond stillness and movement. When you realize the center that is 190 00:28:53,880 --> 00:29:01,159 everywhere and nowhere, duality breaks down, form and emptiness 191 00:29:01,159 --> 00:29:05,820 time and the timeless. 192 00:29:05,820 --> 00:29:13,390 One could call it a dynamic stillness or a pregnant emptiness, within the center 193 00:29:13,390 --> 00:29:22,080 of absolute darkness. The Taoist teacher Lao Tse said 194 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:29,540 "Darkness within darkness the gateway to all understanding." 195 00:29:38,630 --> 00:29:45,330 The writer and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell describes a recurring 196 00:29:45,330 --> 00:29:52,400 symbol, part of the perennial philosophy which he calls the Axis Mundi; the 197 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:57,090 central point or the highest mountain. The pole 198 00:29:57,090 --> 00:30:02,820 around which all revolves. The point where stillness and movement are 199 00:30:02,820 --> 00:30:11,820 together. From this Center a mighty flowering tree is realized. A Bodhi tree 200 00:30:11,820 --> 00:30:24,810 that joins all worlds. Just as a Sun gets sucked into a black hole, when you 201 00:30:24,810 --> 00:30:31,470 approach the great reality, your life starts to revolve around it and you 202 00:30:31,470 --> 00:30:35,030 begin to disappear. 203 00:30:38,700 --> 00:30:46,450 As you approach the immanent self, it can be terrifying to the ego structure. The 204 00:30:46,450 --> 00:30:53,330 guardians of the gate are there to test those on their journey. 205 00:30:53,330 --> 00:30:59,460 One must be willing to face one's greatest fears and at the same time 206 00:30:59,460 --> 00:31:07,950 accept one's inherent power. To bring light to the unconscious terrors and the 207 00:31:07,950 --> 00:31:19,650 hidden beauty within. If your mind is not moved, if there's no self reacting, then 208 00:31:19,650 --> 00:31:26,400 all phenomena produced by the unconscious arises and passes away. 209 00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:33,330 This is the point in the spiritual journey where faith is most needed. What do we 210 00:31:33,330 --> 00:31:42,360 mean by faith? Faith is not the same as belief. Belief is accepting something on 211 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:49,170 the level of mind to bring comfort and assurance. Belief is the mind's way of 212 00:31:49,170 --> 00:31:57,390 labeling or controlling experience. Faith is actually the opposite. Faith is 213 00:31:57,390 --> 00:32:03,360 staying in the place of complete not knowing, accepting whatever arises from 214 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:10,260 the unconscious. Faith is surrendering to the pull of the singularity, to the 215 00:32:10,260 --> 00:32:27,040 dissolving or dismantling of the self in order to pass the gateless gate. 216 00:32:28,340 --> 00:32:34,830 The evolution and structure of a galaxy is closely tied to the scale of its 217 00:32:34,830 --> 00:32:40,380 black hole just as your evolution is tied to the presence of the immanent 218 00:32:40,380 --> 00:32:46,550 Self, the singularity that is your true nature. 219 00:32:47,700 --> 00:32:53,190 We can't see the black hole but we can know about it by the way things move 220 00:32:53,190 --> 00:33:01,380 around it, by how it interacts with physical reality. In the same way we 221 00:33:01,380 --> 00:33:08,720 cannot see our true nature. The immanent self is not a thing, but we can observe 222 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:16,790 enlightened action. As the Zen master Suzuki said, "There are, strictly speaking, 223 00:33:16,790 --> 00:33:25,819 no enlightened people. There is only enlightened activity." 224 00:33:25,990 --> 00:33:34,280 We can't see it just as the eye cannot see itself. We can't see it because it is 225 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:41,030 that by which seeing is possible. Like the black hole Samadhi is not 226 00:33:41,030 --> 00:33:48,260 nothingness, and neither is it a thing. It is the collapse of the duality of 227 00:33:48,260 --> 00:33:56,899 thing and no thing. There is no gate to enter the great reality, 228 00:33:56,899 --> 00:34:04,759 but there are infinite paths. The paths the Dharma's are like an endless spiral 229 00:34:04,759 --> 00:34:13,010 with no beginning and no end. No one can pass the gateless gate. No one's mind has 230 00:34:13,010 --> 00:34:22,730 ever figured out how and none ever will. No one can pass the gateless gate, 231 00:34:22,730 --> 00:34:29,120 so be no one. 232 00:34:43,969 --> 00:34:53,369 Samadhi is the pathless path, the golden key. It is the end of our identification 233 00:34:53,370 --> 00:35:15,060 with the self structures that separate our inner and outer worlds. 234 00:35:15,060 --> 00:35:20,400 There are many developmental models which describe the layers or levels of 235 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:28,380 the self structure. We will use an example which is very ancient. In the 236 00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:36,030 Upanishads, the sheaths which cover the Atman or soul are called koshas. Each 237 00:35:36,030 --> 00:35:44,040 kosha is like a mirror. A layer of the self structure; a veil or level of maya 238 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:51,320 which distracts us from realizing our true nature if we are identified with it. 239 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:59,670 Most people see the reflections and believe that that is who they are. 240 00:35:59,670 --> 00:36:07,110 One mirror reflects the animal layer, the physical body. Another mirror reflects 241 00:36:07,110 --> 00:36:14,580 your mind, your thoughts your instincts, and perceptions. Another your inner 242 00:36:14,580 --> 00:36:21,030 energy or prana which you can observe when you turn inward. Another mirror 243 00:36:21,030 --> 00:36:26,490 reflects on the level of the Imaginal which is the higher mind or wisdom layer, 244 00:36:26,490 --> 00:36:33,300 and there are layers of transcendental or non dual bliss that are experienced 245 00:36:33,300 --> 00:36:36,950 as one approaches Samadhi. 246 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:42,530 There are potentially countless mirrors or aspects of self that one can 247 00:36:42,530 --> 00:36:50,640 differentiate, and they are constantly changing. 248 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:56,220 Most people have yet to discover the pranic, higher mind, and non dual bliss 249 00:36:56,220 --> 00:37:01,069 layers. They don't even know they exist. 250 00:37:01,190 --> 00:37:09,029 These layers are informing your life but you do not see them. The hidden mirrors 251 00:37:09,029 --> 00:37:13,880 actually inform our lives more than the ones that are visible. 252 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:19,349 They are unseen because for most people they are not fully illuminated by 253 00:37:19,349 --> 00:37:28,680 consciousness. Like Indra's net of jewels, the mirrors all reflect each other and 254 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:35,940 the reflections reflect every other reflection infinitely. A change on one 255 00:37:35,940 --> 00:37:41,690 level simultaneously affects all levels. 256 00:37:42,420 --> 00:37:48,670 Some of these mirrors may be left in the shadows unless we are fortunate enough 257 00:37:48,670 --> 00:37:55,120 to have a competent guide to help us shine light upon them. The truth is we 258 00:37:55,120 --> 00:38:03,480 don't know what we don't know. Now imagine that you shatter all the mirrors. 259 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:12,420 There's nothing reflecting you back to yourself. Where are you? 260 00:38:14,140 --> 00:38:23,349 When the mind becomes still the mirrors cease to reflect. There is no more 261 00:38:23,349 --> 00:38:32,980 subject and object. But do not mistake the primordial state for nothingness or 262 00:38:32,980 --> 00:38:47,719 oblivion. The immanent self is not something but neither is it nothing. 263 00:38:47,750 --> 00:38:57,349 The source is not a thing it is emptiness or stillness itself. It 264 00:38:57,349 --> 00:39:05,720 is an emptiness that is the source of all things. Form is realized as exactly 265 00:39:05,720 --> 00:39:16,880 emptiness, emptiness is realized as exactly form. This source is the great 266 00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:23,320 womb of creation, pregnant with all possibilities. 267 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:47,710 Samadhi is the awakening of impersonal consciousness. Just as when you are 268 00:39:47,710 --> 00:39:53,619 having a dream, upon awakening you realize that everything in the dream was 269 00:39:53,619 --> 00:39:58,930 just in your mind. Upon realizing Samadhi it is realized that 270 00:39:58,930 --> 00:40:04,600 everything in this world is happening within levels upon levels of energy and 271 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:13,150 consciousness. It is all mirrors within mirrors, dreams within dreams. The you 272 00:40:13,150 --> 00:40:20,520 that you think you are is both the dream and the dreamer. 273 00:40:33,559 --> 00:40:43,530 Whatever we say in this film let it go don't capture it with the mind. The soul 274 00:40:43,530 --> 00:40:48,890 is dreaming, dreaming the dream of you. 275 00:40:49,130 --> 00:40:56,970 The dream is everything that is changing, but it is possible to realize the 276 00:40:56,970 --> 00:41:13,410 changeless. This realization cannot be understood with the limited 277 00:41:13,410 --> 00:41:22,310 individual mind. 278 00:41:22,310 --> 00:41:29,020 When we return from Nirvikalpa Samadhi the mirrors begin to reflect again and 279 00:41:29,020 --> 00:41:36,550 it is realized that the world you now think you are living in is actually you. 280 00:41:36,550 --> 00:41:43,970 Not the limited you which is only a temporary reflection, but you are aware 281 00:41:43,970 --> 00:41:53,800 of your true nature as the source of all that IS. This dawning of higher wisdom, 282 00:41:53,800 --> 00:42:04,220 the embryo, "prajna" or gnosis is what is born out of Samadhi. According to the 283 00:42:04,220 --> 00:42:13,040 book of Job Chokhmah or wisdom comes from nothingness. This point of wisdom is both 284 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:18,890 infinitely small and yet encompasses the whole of being, but it remains 285 00:42:18,890 --> 00:42:24,970 incomprehensible until it has given shape and form in the palace of mirrors, 286 00:42:24,970 --> 00:42:31,760 called "binah", the womb carved out by higher wisdom which gives shape to the 287 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:50,330 embryonic Spirit of God. 288 00:42:50,330 --> 00:43:00,600 [music] "Abwoon d'bashmaya" by Indiajiva 289 00:43:07,570 --> 00:43:14,650 The existence of the mirrors or the minds existence is not a problem. On the 290 00:43:14,650 --> 00:43:22,030 contrary, the error or aberration of human perception is that we identify 291 00:43:22,030 --> 00:43:32,620 ourselves with it. This illusion, that we are the limited self, is Maya. The yogic 292 00:43:32,620 --> 00:43:38,020 teachings say that to realize Samadhi one must observe the meditation object 293 00:43:38,020 --> 00:43:49,630 until it disappears until you disappear into it or it into you. Although the 294 00:43:49,630 --> 00:43:55,930 language in the various traditions is dissimilar at their root they all point 295 00:43:55,930 --> 00:44:00,850 towards a cessation of self-identification and self-centered 296 00:44:00,850 --> 00:44:08,140 activity. The Buddha always taught in negative terms. He taught to investigate 297 00:44:08,140 --> 00:44:14,670 directly into the working of the self structure. He didn't say what Samadhi was 298 00:44:14,670 --> 00:44:23,500 except that it was the end of suffering. In Advaita Vedanta there's a term "neti 299 00:44:23,500 --> 00:44:31,200 neti" which means "not this not that." People on the path to self-realization 300 00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:37,810 inquire into their true nature, or the nature of Brahman by first discovering 301 00:44:37,810 --> 00:44:42,489 what they are not. 302 00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:49,180 Similarly in Christianity St. Teresa of Avila described an approach to prayer 303 00:44:49,180 --> 00:44:56,620 based on the negative path, or via negativa. A prayer of quiet, surrender and 304 00:44:56,620 --> 00:45:02,760 union, which is the only way to approach the absolute. 305 00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:09,009 Through this gradual process of stripping away one drops anything that 306 00:45:09,009 --> 00:45:17,680 is not permanent, anything that is changing. The mind the ego construct and 307 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:24,160 all phenomena, including the hidden layers of self. The unconscious must 308 00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:30,999 become transparent in order to reflect the one source. If there is some deep 309 00:45:30,999 --> 00:45:37,359 knowing or some self operating in the unconscious then our lives remain locked 310 00:45:37,359 --> 00:45:44,519 into a labyrinth of hidden patterns that comprise the undiscovered self. 311 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:55,289 When all layers of self are revealed as empty then one becomes free from the 312 00:45:55,289 --> 00:46:00,019 self. Free from all concepts 313 00:46:03,750 --> 00:46:11,160 A turning point in your evolution is when you realize you don't know who you are. 314 00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:22,240 Who experiences the breath? Who experiences the taste? 315 00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:35,880 Who experiences the chant, the ritual, the dance, the mountain? Witness the witness, 316 00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:39,630 observed the observer. 317 00:46:40,220 --> 00:46:47,210 At first when you observe the observer you will only see the false self, but if 318 00:46:47,210 --> 00:46:52,300 you are persistent it will give way. 319 00:46:54,020 --> 00:47:00,140 Inquire directly into who or what experiences. 320 00:47:00,140 --> 00:47:10,040 Unblinkingly, piercingly, penetratingly, with the full force of your being. 321 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,060 [music] "Gate, Gate, paragate. Parasum gate, bodhisvaha." (Meaning: gone, gone, far beyond, completely beyond the awakened source IS) 322 00:47:19,579 --> 00:47:32,356 - Untranslated subtitle - 323 00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:57,140 There is no self that awakens. There is no YOU that awakens. What you are 324 00:47:57,140 --> 00:48:03,500 awakening from is the illusion of the separate self. From the dream of a 325 00:48:03,500 --> 00:48:08,120 limited "you". To talk about it is meaningless. 326 00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:15,130 There must be an actual cessation of the self to realize directly what it is, and 327 00:48:15,130 --> 00:48:23,540 once it is realized there is nothing that can be said about it. As soon as you 328 00:48:23,540 --> 00:48:39,510 say something you are back in the mind. I have already said too much. 329 00:48:39,510 --> 00:48:46,030 We normally have three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. 330 00:48:46,030 --> 00:48:53,380 Samadhi is sometimes referred to as the fourth state, the ground state of 331 00:48:53,380 --> 00:49:00,460 consciousness. A primordial awakeness that can become present continuously and 332 00:49:00,460 --> 00:49:10,470 in parallel with the other consciousness states. In Vedanta this is called Turiya 333 00:49:10,950 --> 00:49:17,220 Other terms for Turiya are Christ consciousness, Krishna consciousness, 334 00:49:17,220 --> 00:49:26,680 Buddha nature or Sahaja Samadhi. In Sahaja Samadhi the immanent Self stays 335 00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:33,670 present along with the full use of all human functions. The stillness is 336 00:49:33,670 --> 00:49:38,580 unmoving at the center of the spiral of changing phenomena. 337 00:49:38,580 --> 00:49:45,630 Thoughts, feelings, sensations and energy revolve around it at the circumference 338 00:49:45,630 --> 00:49:54,130 but the degree of stillness or I-am-ness remains during outer activity exactly as 339 00:49:54,130 --> 00:50:02,680 in meditation. It is possible that the immanent self will remain present even 340 00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:11,800 during deep sleep; that your awareness of I am does not come and go even as states 341 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,450 of consciousness change. 342 00:50:20,420 --> 00:50:24,190 This is yogic sleep. 343 00:50:24,660 --> 00:50:29,970 In the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon from the Hebrew Bible or Old 344 00:50:29,970 --> 00:50:40,010 Testament, it reads "I sleep but my heart waketh". This realization of the eternal 345 00:50:40,010 --> 00:50:47,040 impersonal consciousness is reflected in the words of Christ when he said 346 00:50:47,040 --> 00:50:54,360 "Before Abraham was, I AM." 347 00:50:56,289 --> 00:51:08,820 One consciousness that shines through countless faces, countless forms. 348 00:51:16,470 --> 00:51:22,640 At first it's like a fragile flame born out of the polarities within you. 349 00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:29,160 Masculine penetrating consciousness with a surrender or opening of feminine 350 00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:36,089 energy. It is delicate, and easily lost, and one must take great care to protect 351 00:51:36,089 --> 00:51:40,849 it and keep it alive until it is mature. 352 00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:50,850 Samadhi is simultaneously a timeless state of consciousness and a stage in an 353 00:51:50,850 --> 00:51:58,310 unfolding development process. Something organic and growing in time. 354 00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:13,990 As one spends more and more time in Samadhi, in the now, in the timeless, 355 00:52:13,990 --> 00:52:22,520 one takes more and more direction from the heart, the soul or Atman, and less from 356 00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:28,280 the conditioned structure. 357 00:52:28,810 --> 00:52:38,410 This is how one becomes free of the lower mind. Free of pathological thinking. 358 00:52:38,410 --> 00:52:45,109 The inner wiring changes. Energy no longer flows unconsciously in the old 359 00:52:45,109 --> 00:52:51,859 conditioned structures, which is another way of saying one is no longer 360 00:52:51,859 --> 00:53:09,829 identified with the self structure, with the outer world of form. 361 00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:17,309 To realize Samadhi requires an effort so great that it becomes a total surrender 362 00:53:17,309 --> 00:53:24,720 of oneself, and a surrender so encompassing that it is a complete 363 00:53:24,720 --> 00:53:33,869 effort of one's being; all of one's energy. It is a balance of effort and 364 00:53:33,869 --> 00:53:41,400 surrender, yin and yang. A sort of effortless effort. 365 00:53:47,430 --> 00:53:55,330 The Indian mystic and yogi Paramahamsa Ramakrishna said "do not seek 366 00:53:55,330 --> 00:54:02,620 illumination unless you seek it as one whose hair is on fire seeks a pond" 367 00:54:02,620 --> 00:54:06,300 You seek it with your whole being. 368 00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:12,840 During one's ego transcending practice it takes great courage, vigilance and 369 00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:21,850 perseverance to keep the embryo alive. To not fall back into the patterns of the 370 00:54:21,850 --> 00:54:28,120 world. It takes a willingness to go against the current, against the 371 00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:35,590 inexorable crush of the matrix, and the grinding wheels of samsara. Every breath 372 00:54:35,590 --> 00:54:43,870 every thought, every action must be for realizing the Source. Samadhi is not 373 00:54:43,870 --> 00:54:51,490 realized by effort nor is it effortless. Let go of effort and non effort; it's a 374 00:54:51,490 --> 00:54:59,380 duality that only exists in the mind. The actual realization of Samadhi is so 375 00:54:59,380 --> 00:55:05,440 simple so undifferentiated that it is always misconstrued through language 376 00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:12,610 which is inherently dualistic. There is only one primordial consciousness that 377 00:55:12,610 --> 00:55:21,160 awakens as the world but it has been obscured by many layers of mind. Like the 378 00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:27,610 Sun hidden behind the clouds as each layer of mind is dropped one's essence 379 00:55:27,610 --> 00:55:30,900 is revealed. 380 00:55:33,180 --> 00:55:39,480 As each layer of mind is dropped, people call it a different Samadhi. They give 381 00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:45,260 names to different experiences or different types of phenomena 382 00:55:55,010 --> 00:56:00,290 but Samadhi is so simple that when you are told what it is and how to realize 383 00:56:00,290 --> 00:56:04,600 it your mind will always miss it. 384 00:56:05,170 --> 00:56:13,040 Actually Samadhi is not simple or difficult; it is only the mind that makes 385 00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:19,850 it so. When there is no mind there's no problem, because the mind is 386 00:56:19,850 --> 00:56:28,720 what needs to stop before it is realized. It is not a happening at all. 387 00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:44,170 The most concise teaching of Samadhi is perhaps found in this phrase: 388 00:56:44,170 --> 00:56:55,530 "Be still and know." 389 00:56:59,190 --> 00:57:05,490 How can we use words and images to convey stillness? How can we convey 390 00:57:05,490 --> 00:57:12,869 silence by making noise? Rather than talking about Samadhi as an intellectual 391 00:57:12,869 --> 00:57:22,740 concept, this film is a radical call to inaction. A call to meditation, inner 392 00:57:22,740 --> 00:57:31,010 silence and inner prayer. A call to STOP. 393 00:57:38,420 --> 00:57:45,140 Stop everything that is driven by the pathological egoic mind. 394 00:57:46,270 --> 00:57:50,190 Be still and know. 395 00:57:54,470 --> 00:57:59,890 No one can tell you what will emerge from the stillness. 396 00:57:59,910 --> 00:58:05,720 It is a call to act from the spiritual heart. 397 00:58:21,500 --> 00:58:30,050 It's like remembering something ancient. The soul wakes up and remembers itself. 398 00:58:30,050 --> 00:58:37,260 It has been a sleeping passenger but now the emptiness awakens and realizes 399 00:58:37,260 --> 00:58:43,439 itself as all things. 400 00:58:44,390 --> 00:58:50,869 You can't imagine what Samadhi is with the limited egoic mind just as you can't 401 00:58:50,869 --> 00:58:57,500 describe to a blind person what color is. Your mind can't know. It can't 402 00:58:57,500 --> 00:59:06,559 manufacture it. To realize Samadhi is to see in a different way, not to see 403 00:59:06,559 --> 00:59:12,579 separate things but to recognize the seer. 404 00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:24,840 St. Francis of Assisi said "what you are looking for is what is looking." Once you 405 00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:34,290 have seen the moon you can recognize it in every reflection. The true self has 406 00:59:34,290 --> 00:59:42,920 always been there, it is in everything, but you have not realized its presence. 407 00:59:43,070 --> 00:59:50,750 When you learn to recognize and abide as the true self beyond the mind and senses 408 00:59:50,750 --> 01:00:08,530 it is possible to experience awe at the most mundane. We become AWE. 409 01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:15,530 Do not try to be free of desires because wanting to be free of desires is a 410 01:00:15,530 --> 01:00:26,020 desire. You can't try to be still because your very effort is movement. 411 01:00:26,020 --> 01:00:34,570 Realize the stillness that is always already present. 412 01:00:34,570 --> 01:00:37,570 Be the stillness and know 413 01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:45,140 When all preferences are dropped the source will be revealed, but do not cling 414 01:00:45,140 --> 01:00:57,140 even to the source. The great reality, Tao is not one not two. Ramana Maharshi said 415 01:00:57,140 --> 01:01:07,580 "The self is only one. If it is limited it is the ego, if unlimited it is infinite 416 01:01:07,580 --> 01:01:20,750 and the great reality." If you believe what is being said you've missed it. 417 01:01:20,750 --> 01:01:27,500 If you disbelieve you've also missed it. Belief and disbelief operate on the 418 01:01:27,500 --> 01:01:34,900 level of mind. They require a knowing, but if you enter into your own investigation 419 01:01:34,900 --> 01:01:40,370 examining all of the aspects of your own being, finding out who is doing the 420 01:01:40,370 --> 01:01:46,340 investigating, if you're willing to live by the principle "not my will but higher 421 01:01:46,340 --> 01:01:53,540 will be done," if you're willing to travel beyond all-knowing then you may realize 422 01:01:53,540 --> 01:01:59,600 what I've attempted to point towards. Only then will you taste for yourself 423 01:01:59,600 --> 01:02:07,940 the profound mystery and beauty of simply existing. 424 01:02:08,450 --> 01:02:16,070 There is another possibility for life. There is something sacred, unfathomable 425 01:02:16,070 --> 01:02:22,570 that can be discovered in the still depths of your being, beyond concepts, 426 01:02:22,570 --> 01:02:33,920 beyond dogmas, beyond conditioned activity and all preferences. It is not 427 01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:41,410 acquired by techniques, rituals or practices. There is no "how" to get it. 428 01:02:41,410 --> 01:02:54,140 There's no system. There's no way to The Way. As they say in Zen 429 01:02:54,140 --> 01:03:01,160 it is discovering your original face before you were born. It is not about 430 01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:10,010 adding more to yourself. It is becoming a light unto oneself; a light that dispels 431 01:03:10,010 --> 01:03:20,210 the illusion of the self. Life will always remain unfulfilled 432 01:03:20,210 --> 01:03:26,920 and the heart will always remain restless until it comes to rest in that 433 01:03:26,920 --> 01:03:32,650 mystery beyond name and form. 434 01:04:04,059 --> 01:04:06,059 [music] Om Shreem Lakshmi