WEBVTT 00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:56.700 The world's greatest spiritual teachers from ancient to modern times have shared 00:00:56.700 --> 00:01:01.620 the view that the deepest truth of our being is not the property of one 00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:06.780 particular religion or spiritual tradition but can be found within the 00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:10.430 heart of each person. 00:01:20.510 --> 00:01:28.880 The poet Rumi said "where is that moon that never rises or sets? Where is that 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:36.580 soul that is neither with nor without us? Don't say it is here or there. 00:01:36.580 --> 00:01:45.879 All creation is "That", but for the eyes that can see. 00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:55.350 In the story of the Tower of Babel humanity fragmented into countless 00:02:55.350 --> 00:03:04.250 languages, beliefs, cultures and interests. Babel means literally "the gate of God". 00:03:04.250 --> 00:03:15.510 The gate is our thinking mind - our conditioned structures. For those who 00:03:15.510 --> 00:03:22.110 come to realize their true nature, their essence beyond name and form, they are 00:03:22.110 --> 00:03:28.400 initiated into the great mystery of what lies beyond the gate. 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:43.080 An ancient parable, the elephant parable, has been used to describe how various 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:50.490 traditions are actually all pointing to one great truth. A group of blind people 00:03:50.490 --> 00:03:56.280 are each touching a different part of an elephant, getting a certain impression of 00:03:56.280 --> 00:04:04.020 what an elephant is. The person standing at the elephant's leg describes the 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 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:20.488 rope. The elephant is like a spear, says the one standing at the tusk. If one 00:04:20.488 --> 00:04:25.730 touches the ear, it seems the elephant is like a fan. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:34.340 The person touching the side is adamant that the elephant is like a wall. 00:04:34.340 --> 00:04:39.980 The problem is we touch our piece of the elephant and we believe our experience 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:47.510 is the only truth. We don't acknowledge or appreciate that each person's 00:04:47.510 --> 00:04:53.920 experience is a different facet of the same animal. 00:05:16.690 --> 00:05:22.250 The perennial philosophy is an understanding that all spiritual and 00:05:22.250 --> 00:05:29.000 religious traditions share a single universal truth. A mystical or 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.610 transcendent reality upon which foundation all spiritual knowledge and 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:44.839 doctrine has grown. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:52.400 Swami Vivekananda summed up the perennial teaching when he said "the end 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." 00:05:59.870 --> 00:06:08.300 In this film when we use the word God it is simply a metaphor for the 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:16.160 transcendent, pointing to the great mystery beyond the limited egoic mind. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:23.870 To realize one's true self or immanent Self is to realize one's divine nature. 00:06:23.870 --> 00:06:31.310 Every soul has the potential to manifest a new higher level of consciousness. To awaken 00:06:31.310 --> 00:07:04.170 from its slumber and its identification with form 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:11.380 The writer and visionary Aldous Huxley, known for his book "Brave New World", 00:07:11.380 --> 00:07:16.390 also wrote a book which he entitled "The Perennial Philosophy" in which he writes 00:07:16.390 --> 00:07:22.270 about the one teaching that comes back over and over in history, taking the form 00:07:22.270 --> 00:07:29.020 of the culture in which it is realized. He writes, "The perennial philosophy is 00:07:29.020 --> 00:07:36.400 expressed most succinctly in the sanskrit formula "Tat Tvam Asi"; "That Thou Art." 00:07:36.400 --> 00:07:45.130 The Atman or immanent eternal self is one with Brahman, the absolute principle 00:07:45.130 --> 00:07:50.830 of all existence, and the last end of every human being is 00:07:50.830 --> 00:08:00.090 to discover the fact for himself. To find out who he or she really is. 00:08:06.419 --> 00:08:12.939 Each tradition is like a facet of a jewel reflecting a unique perspective of 00:08:12.939 --> 00:08:19.830 the same truth, while at the same time echoing and illuminating each other. 00:08:19.830 --> 00:08:26.080 Whatever the language and conceptual framework used, all religions that 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:31.029 reflect the perennial teaching have some notion that there is a union with 00:08:31.029 --> 00:08:35.849 something greater, something beyond us. 00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:15.230 It is possible to learn from and integrate the teachings from one or many 00:09:15.230 --> 00:09:22.610 sources without identifying a sense of self with them. It is said that all true 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:28.940 spiritual teachings are simply fingers pointing to the transcendent truth. If we 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:34.730 hold on to the dogma the teaching for comfort we will be stunted in our 00:09:34.730 --> 00:09:42.650 spiritual evolution. To realize truth beyond any concept is letting go of all 00:09:42.650 --> 00:09:50.650 clinging and attachment, letting go of all religious concepts. 00:09:53.680 --> 00:09:59.860 From the ego's perspective the finger pointing you to Samadhi is pointing 00:09:59.860 --> 00:10:04.470 straight toward the abyss. 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, 00:10:11.660 --> 00:10:17.650 one must close their eyes and walk in the dark." 00:10:50.660 --> 00:10:55.940 Samadhi begins with a leap into the unknown. 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:14.269 In the ancient traditions in order to realize Samadhi it was said that one 00:11:14.269 --> 00:11:20.449 must ultimately turn consciousness away from all known objects; from all external 00:11:20.449 --> 00:11:27.519 phenomena, conditioned thoughts and sensations, toward consciousness itself. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:36.980 Toward the inner source; the heart or essence of one's being. In this film when 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:42.290 we use the word Samadhi we are pointing to the transcendent. To the highest 00:11:42.290 --> 00:11:48.339 Samadhi which has been named Nirvikalpa Samadhi. 00:11:53.010 --> 00:11:59.160 In Nirvikalpa Samadhi there's a cessation of self activity, of all 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:06.149 seeking and doing. We can only speak about what falls away as we approach it 00:12:06.149 --> 00:12:13.199 and what reappears when we return from it. There is neither perception nor 00:12:13.199 --> 00:12:21.000 non-perception, neither "thing" nor "no thing", neither consciousness nor 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:34.089 unconsciousness. It is absolute, unfathomable, and inscrutable to the mind. 00:12:34.089 --> 00:12:39.920 When the self returns to activity there's a not knowing; a kind of rebirth, 00:12:39.920 --> 00:12:46.220 and everything becomes new again. We are left with the perfume of the divine, 00:12:46.220 --> 00:12:54.309 which lingers longer as one evolves on the path. 00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:07.110 There are numerous types of Samadhi described in the ancient traditions and 00:13:07.110 --> 00:13:13.570 language has created much confusion over the years. We are choosing to use the 00:13:13.570 --> 00:13:18.190 word Samadhi to point to the transcendent union, but we could have 00:13:18.190 --> 00:13:24.790 used a word from another tradition just as easily. Samadhi is an ancient Sanskrit 00:13:24.790 --> 00:13:30.970 term common to the Vedic yogic and Samkhya traditions of India, and has 00:13:30.970 --> 00:13:38.410 permeated many other spiritual traditions. Samadhi is the eighth limb of 00:13:38.410 --> 00:13:42.490 Patanjali's eight limbs of the yoga, and the eighth 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:50.200 part of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha used the word "Nirvana", 00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:57.510 the cessation of "vana" or the cessation of self activity. 00:13:58.260 --> 00:14:07.330 Patanjali described yoga or Samadhi as "chitta vritti nirodha", the Sanskrit 00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:16.470 meaning "cessation of the whirlpool or spiral of mind." It is a disentangling of 00:14:16.470 --> 00:14:47.700 consciousness from the entire matrix or creatrixof mind. 00:14:50.040 --> 00:14:56.439 Samadhi does not signify any concept because to realize it requires a 00:14:56.439 --> 00:15:00.660 dropping of the conceptual mind. 00:15:02.010 --> 00:15:08.519 Different religions have used various words to describe the divine union. 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:16.690 In fact the word religion itself means something similar. In Latin "religare" 00:15:16.690 --> 00:15:24.430 means to re-bind or reconnect. It's a similar meaning to the word yoga which 00:15:24.430 --> 00:15:33.610 means to yoke, to unite the worldly with the transcendent. In Islam it is 00:15:33.610 --> 00:15:39.310 reflected in the ancient Arabic meaning of the word Islam itself which means 00:15:39.310 --> 00:15:47.170 submission or supplication to God. It signifies a total humbling or surrender 00:15:47.170 --> 00:15:52.750 of the self structure. 00:15:52.750 --> 00:16:03.120 Christian mystics such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Ãvila and 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:10.149 Saint John of the Cross describe a divine union with God, the kingdom of God 00:16:10.149 --> 00:16:19.589 within. In the Gospel of Thomas, Christ said "the kingdom is not here or there. 00:16:19.589 --> 00:16:25.569 Rather the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth and men do not 00:16:25.569 --> 00:16:35.019 see it." The works of the Greek philosophers Plato, Plotinus, Parmenides, 00:16:35.019 --> 00:16:41.410 and Heraclitus when seen through the lens of the perennial teaching point 00:16:41.410 --> 00:16:50.620 towards the same wisdom. Plotinus teaches that the greatest human endeavor is to 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:57.129 guide the human soul towards the supreme state of perfection and union 00:16:57.129 --> 00:17:00.919 with the One. 00:17:02.660 --> 00:17:10.949 The Lakota medicine and holy man Black Elk said "The first peace, which is the 00:17:10.949 --> 00:17:15.900 most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they 00:17:15.900 --> 00:17:21.900 realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers. And 00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:27.869 when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Great Spirit and 00:17:27.869 --> 00:17:36.170 that this Center is really everywhere. It is within each of us. 00:17:59.370 --> 00:18:03.720 On the path to awakening unless we are in Samadhi 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:11.310 there are always two polarities, two doorways one can enter. Two dimensions: 00:18:11.310 --> 00:18:19.650 one towards pure consciousness the other towards the phenomenal world. The upward 00:18:19.650 --> 00:18:25.680 current toward the absolute, and the downward current toward Maya and all 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:33.030 that is manifested, both seen and unseen. The relationship between relative and 00:18:33.030 --> 00:18:37.250 absolute could be summed up in the following quote by Sri Nisargadatta 00:18:37.250 --> 00:18:46.550 Maharaj: "Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love is knowing I am everything, and 00:18:46.550 --> 00:18:54.020 between the two my life moves." 00:18:54.020 --> 00:19:01.320 What is born of this union is a new divine consciousness. Something is born 00:19:01.320 --> 00:19:06.890 out of the marriage or union of these polarities or the collapse of dualistic 00:19:06.890 --> 00:19:16.690 identification, yet what is born is not a thing and it was never born. 00:19:18.740 --> 00:19:25.080 Consciousness flowers creating something new, creating what you could call a 00:19:25.080 --> 00:19:28.460 perennial Trinity. 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:35.230 God the Father, the transcendent, unknowable and changeless, is united with 00:19:35.230 --> 00:19:43.540 the Divine Feminine, which is everything that changes. This union brings about an 00:19:43.540 --> 00:19:49.740 alchemical transformation; a kind of death and rebirth. 00:19:51.610 --> 00:19:57.690 In the Vedic teachings the divine union is represented by two fundamental forces 00:19:57.690 --> 00:20:06.460 Shiva and Shakti. The names and faces of the various gods change throughout 00:20:06.460 --> 00:20:13.990 history but their fundamental attributes remain. What is born out of this union is 00:20:13.990 --> 00:20:22.650 a new divine consciousness, a new way of being in the world. Two polarities 00:20:22.650 --> 00:20:30.910 inseparably one. A universal energy that is without center, free of limitation. 00:20:30.910 --> 00:20:35.090 It is pure love. There's nothing to be gained or lost 00:20:35.090 --> 00:20:51.130 because it is utterly empty but absolutely full. 00:20:51.130 --> 00:20:57.429 Whether it is the mystery schools of Mesopotamia, the spiritual traditions of 00:20:57.429 --> 00:21:02.460 the Babylonians and Assyrians, religions of ancient Egypt, 00:21:02.460 --> 00:21:08.080 Nubian and Kemetic cultures of ancient Africa, the shamanic and native 00:21:08.080 --> 00:21:15.150 traditions around the world, the mysticism of ancient Greece, the Gnostics 00:21:15.150 --> 00:21:30.240 the Non-dualists the Buddhists the Taoists, Jews, Zoroastrians, Jain's, Muslims, 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:37.030 or Christians one finds that their common link is their highest spiritual 00:21:37.030 --> 00:21:43.709 insights have allowed their adherents to realize Samadhi. 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:52.420 The actual word Samadhi means something like to realize the sameness or oneness 00:21:52.420 --> 00:21:59.920 in all things. It means Union. It is uniting all aspects 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:07.870 of yourself. But do not mistake intellectual understanding for the 00:22:07.870 --> 00:22:16.120 actual realization of Samadhi. It is your stillness, your emptiness that unites all 00:22:16.120 --> 00:22:46.270 levels of the spiral of life 00:22:55.090 --> 00:23:00.250 It is through the ancient teaching of Samadhi that humanity can begin to 00:23:00.250 --> 00:23:05.380 understand the common source of all religions and come into alignment once 00:23:05.380 --> 00:23:12.810 again with the spiral of life, Great Spirit, Dhamma or the Tao. 00:23:13.860 --> 00:23:21.019 The spiral is the bridge that extends from the microcosm to the macrocosm. 00:23:23.380 --> 00:23:30.630 From your DNA to the inner Lotus of energy that extends through the chakras, 00:23:30.630 --> 00:23:35.640 to the spiral arms of galaxies. 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:42.650 Every level of soul is expressed through the spiral as ever-evolving branches, 00:23:42.650 --> 00:23:50.570 living, exploring. True Samadhi is realizing the emptiness 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 00:24:00.140 --> 00:24:05.800 duality and the cycle of life and death. 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:18.099 At times we forget our connection to the source. 00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:27.899 The lens we look through is very small and we identify with being a limited 00:24:27.899 --> 00:24:33.629 creature creeping upon the Earth, only to once again complete the journey back to 00:24:33.629 --> 00:24:36.110 the source; 00:24:37.639 --> 00:24:46.330 to the center that is everywhere. 00:24:48.010 --> 00:24:55.060 Chuang Tzu said "When there is no more separation between this and that, it is 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 00:25:02.040 --> 00:25:10.299 one can see the infinite in all things." 00:25:13.730 --> 00:25:22.960 The ancient mantra "om mani padme hum" has a poetic meaning. One awakens or 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:31.269 realizes the jewel within the lotus. Your true nature awakens within the soul, 00:25:31.269 --> 00:25:36.880 within the world AS the world. 00:25:50.010 --> 00:25:57.760 Using the Hermetic principle "As above so below, as below so above", we can use 00:25:57.760 --> 00:26:03.419 analogies to begin to understand the relationship between mind and stillness, 00:26:03.419 --> 00:26:07.049 relative and absolute. 00:26:12.830 --> 00:26:18.740 A way to begin to grasp the non-conceptual nature of Samadhi is to 00:26:18.740 --> 00:26:24.980 use the analogy of the black hole. 00:26:24.999 --> 00:26:30.609 A black hole is traditionally described as a region of space with a massive 00:26:30.609 --> 00:26:37.209 gravitational field so powerful that no light or matter can escape. New theories 00:26:37.209 --> 00:26:42.809 postulate that all objects from the tiniest microscopic particles to 00:26:42.809 --> 00:26:48.359 macrocosmic formations like galaxies have a black hole or mysterious 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:55.479 singularity at their center. In this analogy we're going to use this new 00:26:55.479 --> 00:27:01.589 definition of a black hole as "the center that is everywhere". 00:27:06.630 --> 00:27:13.590 In Zen there are many poems and koans that bring us face to face with the 00:27:13.590 --> 00:27:23.590 gateless gate. One must pass the gateless gate to realize Samadhi. 00:27:23.590 --> 00:27:30.249 An event horizon is a boundary in space-time beyond which events cannot 00:27:30.249 --> 00:27:36.070 affect an outside observer, which means that whatever is happening beyond the 00:27:36.070 --> 00:27:43.210 event horizon is unknowable to you. You could say that the event horizon of a 00:27:43.210 --> 00:27:50.470 black hole is analogous to the gateless gate. It is the threshold between the 00:27:50.470 --> 00:28:00.890 self and no self. There is no "me" that passes the event horizon. 00:28:00.890 --> 00:28:07.010 In the center of a black hole is the one-dimensional singularity containing 00:28:07.010 --> 00:28:13.580 the mass of billions of Suns in an unimaginably small space. Effectively an 00:28:13.580 --> 00:28:20.450 infinite mass. Literally a universe in something infinitesimally smaller than a 00:28:20.450 --> 00:28:27.110 grain of sand. The singularity is something unfathomable beyond time and 00:28:27.110 --> 00:28:35.419 space. According to physics movement is impossible, the existence of things is 00:28:35.419 --> 00:28:40.650 impossible. Whatever it is, it does not belong to the 00:28:40.650 --> 00:28:46.140 world of perception, yet it cannot be described as merely stillness. 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:53.880 It is beyond stillness and movement. When you realize the center that is 00:28:53.880 --> 00:29:01.159 everywhere and nowhere, duality breaks down, form and emptiness 00:29:01.159 --> 00:29:05.820 time and the timeless. 00:29:05.820 --> 00:29:13.390 One could call it a dynamic stillness or a pregnant emptiness, within the center 00:29:13.390 --> 00:29:22.080 of absolute darkness. The Taoist teacher Lao Tse said 00:29:22.080 --> 00:29:29.540 "Darkness within darkness the gateway to all understanding." 00:29:38.630 --> 00:29:45.330 The writer and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell describes a recurring 00:29:45.330 --> 00:29:52.400 symbol, part of the perennial philosophy which he calls the Axis Mundi; the 00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:57.090 central point or the highest mountain. The pole 00:29:57.090 --> 00:30:02.820 around which all revolves. The point where stillness and movement are 00:30:02.820 --> 00:30:11.820 together. From this Center a mighty flowering tree is realized. A Bodhi tree 00:30:11.820 --> 00:30:24.810 that joins all worlds. Just as a Sun gets sucked into a black hole, when you 00:30:24.810 --> 00:30:31.470 approach the great reality, your life starts to revolve around it and you 00:30:31.470 --> 00:30:35.030 begin to disappear. 00:30:38.700 --> 00:30:46.450 As you approach the immanent self, it can be terrifying to the ego structure. The 00:30:46.450 --> 00:30:53.330 guardians of the gate are there to test those on their journey. 00:30:53.330 --> 00:30:59.460 One must be willing to face one's greatest fears and at the same time 00:30:59.460 --> 00:31:07.950 accept one's inherent power. To bring light to the unconscious terrors and the 00:31:07.950 --> 00:31:19.650 hidden beauty within. If your mind is not moved, if there's no self reacting, then 00:31:19.650 --> 00:31:26.400 all phenomena produced by the unconscious arises and passes away. 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:33.330 This is the point in the spiritual journey where faith is most needed. What do we 00:31:33.330 --> 00:31:42.360 mean by faith? Faith is not the same as belief. Belief is accepting something on 00:31:42.360 --> 00:31:49.170 the level of mind to bring comfort and assurance. Belief is the mind's way of 00:31:49.170 --> 00:31:57.390 labeling or controlling experience. Faith is actually the opposite. Faith is 00:31:57.390 --> 00:32:03.360 staying in the place of complete not knowing, accepting whatever arises from 00:32:03.360 --> 00:32:10.260 the unconscious. Faith is surrendering to the pull of the singularity, to the 00:32:10.260 --> 00:32:27.040 dissolving or dismantling of the self in order to pass the gateless gate. 00:32:28.340 --> 00:32:34.830 The evolution and structure of a galaxy is closely tied to the scale of its 00:32:34.830 --> 00:32:40.380 black hole just as your evolution is tied to the presence of the immanent 00:32:40.380 --> 00:32:46.550 Self, the singularity that is your true nature. 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 00:32:53.190 --> 00:33:01.380 around it, by how it interacts with physical reality. In the same way we 00:33:01.380 --> 00:33:08.720 cannot see our true nature. The immanent self is not a thing, but we can observe 00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:16.790 enlightened action. As the Zen master Suzuki said, "There are, strictly speaking, 00:33:16.790 --> 00:33:25.819 no enlightened people. There is only enlightened activity." 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 00:33:34.280 --> 00:33:41.030 that by which seeing is possible. Like the black hole Samadhi is not 00:33:41.030 --> 00:33:48.260 nothingness, and neither is it a thing. It is the collapse of the duality of 00:33:48.260 --> 00:33:56.899 thing and no thing. There is no gate to enter the great reality, 00:33:56.899 --> 00:34:04.759 but there are infinite paths. The paths the Dharma's are like an endless spiral 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 00:34:13.010 --> 00:34:22.730 ever figured out how and none ever will. No one can pass the gateless gate, 00:34:22.730 --> 00:34:29.120 so be no one. 00:34:43.969 --> 00:34:53.369 Samadhi is the pathless path, the golden key. It is the end of our identification 00:34:53.370 --> 00:35:15.060 with the self structures that separate our inner and outer worlds. 00:35:15.060 --> 00:35:20.400 There are many developmental models which describe the layers or levels of 00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:28.380 the self structure. We will use an example which is very ancient. In the 00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:36.030 Upanishads, the sheaths which cover the Atman or soul are called koshas. Each 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 00:35:44.040 --> 00:35:51.320 which distracts us from realizing our true nature if we are identified with it. 00:35:51.320 --> 00:35:59.670 Most people see the reflections and believe that that is who they are. 00:35:59.670 --> 00:36:07.110 One mirror reflects the animal layer, the physical body. Another mirror reflects 00:36:07.110 --> 00:36:14.580 your mind, your thoughts your instincts, and perceptions. Another your inner 00:36:14.580 --> 00:36:21.030 energy or prana which you can observe when you turn inward. Another mirror 00:36:21.030 --> 00:36:26.490 reflects on the level of the Imaginal which is the higher mind or wisdom layer, 00:36:26.490 --> 00:36:33.300 and there are layers of transcendental or non dual bliss that are experienced 00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:36.950 as one approaches Samadhi. 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:42.530 There are potentially countless mirrors or aspects of self that one can 00:36:42.530 --> 00:36:50.640 differentiate, and they are constantly changing. 00:36:50.640 --> 00:36:56.220 Most people have yet to discover the pranic, higher mind, and non dual bliss 00:36:56.220 --> 00:37:01.069 layers. They don't even know they exist. 00:37:01.190 --> 00:37:09.029 These layers are informing your life but you do not see them. The hidden mirrors 00:37:09.029 --> 00:37:13.880 actually inform our lives more than the ones that are visible. 00:37:13.880 --> 00:37:19.349 They are unseen because for most people they are not fully illuminated by 00:37:19.349 --> 00:37:28.680 consciousness. Like Indra's net of jewels, the mirrors all reflect each other and 00:37:28.680 --> 00:37:35.940 the reflections reflect every other reflection infinitely. A change on one 00:37:35.940 --> 00:37:41.690 level simultaneously affects all levels. 00:37:42.420 --> 00:37:48.670 Some of these mirrors may be left in the shadows unless we are fortunate enough 00:37:48.670 --> 00:37:55.120 to have a competent guide to help us shine light upon them. The truth is we 00:37:55.120 --> 00:38:03.480 don't know what we don't know. Now imagine that you shatter all the mirrors. 00:38:03.480 --> 00:38:12.420 There's nothing reflecting you back to yourself. Where are you? 00:38:14.140 --> 00:38:23.349 When the mind becomes still the mirrors cease to reflect. There is no more 00:38:23.349 --> 00:38:32.980 subject and object. But do not mistake the primordial state for nothingness or 00:38:32.980 --> 00:38:47.719 oblivion. The immanent self is not something but neither is it nothing. 00:38:47.750 --> 00:38:57.349 The source is not a thing it is emptiness or stillness itself. It 00:38:57.349 --> 00:39:05.720 is an emptiness that is the source of all things. Form is realized as exactly 00:39:05.720 --> 00:39:16.880 emptiness, emptiness is realized as exactly form. This source is the great 00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:23.320 womb of creation, pregnant with all possibilities. 00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:47.710 Samadhi is the awakening of impersonal consciousness. Just as when you are 00:39:47.710 --> 00:39:53.619 having a dream, upon awakening you realize that everything in the dream was 00:39:53.619 --> 00:39:58.930 just in your mind. Upon realizing Samadhi it is realized that 00:39:58.930 --> 00:40:04.600 everything in this world is happening within levels upon levels of energy and 00:40:04.600 --> 00:40:13.150 consciousness. It is all mirrors within mirrors, dreams within dreams. The you 00:40:13.150 --> 00:40:20.520 that you think you are is both the dream and the dreamer. 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 00:40:43.530 --> 00:40:48.890 is dreaming, dreaming the dream of you. 00:40:49.130 --> 00:40:56.970 The dream is everything that is changing, but it is possible to realize the 00:40:56.970 --> 00:41:13.410 changeless. This realization cannot be understood with the limited 00:41:13.410 --> 00:41:22.310 individual mind. 00:41:22.310 --> 00:41:29.020 When we return from Nirvikalpa Samadhi the mirrors begin to reflect again and 00:41:29.020 --> 00:41:36.550 it is realized that the world you now think you are living in is actually you. 00:41:36.550 --> 00:41:43.970 Not the limited you which is only a temporary reflection, but you are aware 00:41:43.970 --> 00:41:53.800 of your true nature as the source of all that IS. This dawning of higher wisdom, 00:41:53.800 --> 00:42:04.220 the embryo, "prajna" or gnosis is what is born out of Samadhi. According to the 00:42:04.220 --> 00:42:13.040 book of Job Chokhmah or wisdom comes from nothingness. This point of wisdom is both 00:42:13.040 --> 00:42:18.890 infinitely small and yet encompasses the whole of being, but it remains 00:42:18.890 --> 00:42:24.970 incomprehensible until it has given shape and form in the palace of mirrors, 00:42:24.970 --> 00:42:31.760 called "binah", the womb carved out by higher wisdom which gives shape to the 00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:50.330 embryonic Spirit of God. 00:42:50.330 --> 00:43:00.600 [music] "Abwoon d'bashmaya" by Indiajiva 00:43:07.570 --> 00:43:14.650 The existence of the mirrors or the minds existence is not a problem. On the 00:43:14.650 --> 00:43:22.030 contrary, the error or aberration of human perception is that we identify 00:43:22.030 --> 00:43:32.620 ourselves with it. This illusion, that we are the limited self, is Maya. The yogic 00:43:32.620 --> 00:43:38.020 teachings say that to realize Samadhi one must observe the meditation object 00:43:38.020 --> 00:43:49.630 until it disappears until you disappear into it or it into you. Although the 00:43:49.630 --> 00:43:55.930 language in the various traditions is dissimilar at their root they all point 00:43:55.930 --> 00:44:00.850 towards a cessation of self-identification and self-centered 00:44:00.850 --> 00:44:08.140 activity. The Buddha always taught in negative terms. He taught to investigate 00:44:08.140 --> 00:44:14.670 directly into the working of the self structure. He didn't say what Samadhi was 00:44:14.670 --> 00:44:23.500 except that it was the end of suffering. In Advaita Vedanta there's a term "neti 00:44:23.500 --> 00:44:31.200 neti" which means "not this not that." People on the path to self-realization 00:44:31.200 --> 00:44:37.810 inquire into their true nature, or the nature of Brahman by first discovering 00:44:37.810 --> 00:44:42.489 what they are not. 00:44:42.720 --> 00:44:49.180 Similarly in Christianity St. Teresa of Avila described an approach to prayer 00:44:49.180 --> 00:44:56.620 based on the negative path, or via negativa. A prayer of quiet, surrender and 00:44:56.620 --> 00:45:02.760 union, which is the only way to approach the absolute. 00:45:03.400 --> 00:45:09.009 Through this gradual process of stripping away one drops anything that 00:45:09.009 --> 00:45:17.680 is not permanent, anything that is changing. The mind the ego construct and 00:45:17.680 --> 00:45:24.160 all phenomena, including the hidden layers of self. The unconscious must 00:45:24.160 --> 00:45:30.999 become transparent in order to reflect the one source. If there is some deep 00:45:30.999 --> 00:45:37.359 knowing or some self operating in the unconscious then our lives remain locked 00:45:37.359 --> 00:45:44.519 into a labyrinth of hidden patterns that comprise the undiscovered self. 00:45:47.960 --> 00:45:55.289 When all layers of self are revealed as empty then one becomes free from the 00:45:55.289 --> 00:46:00.019 self. Free from all concepts 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. 00:46:11.160 --> 00:46:22.240 Who experiences the breath? Who experiences the taste? 00:46:22.240 --> 00:46:35.880 Who experiences the chant, the ritual, the dance, the mountain? Witness the witness, 00:46:35.880 --> 00:46:39.630 observed the observer. 00:46:40.220 --> 00:46:47.210 At first when you observe the observer you will only see the false self, but if 00:46:47.210 --> 00:46:52.300 you are persistent it will give way. 00:46:54.020 --> 00:47:00.140 Inquire directly into who or what experiences. 00:47:00.140 --> 00:47:10.040 Unblinkingly, piercingly, penetratingly, with the full force of your being. 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) 00:47:19.579 --> 00:47:32.356 - Untranslated subtitle - 00:47:47.840 --> 00:47:57.140 There is no self that awakens. There is no YOU that awakens. What you are 00:47:57.140 --> 00:48:03.500 awakening from is the illusion of the separate self. From the dream of a 00:48:03.500 --> 00:48:08.120 limited "you". To talk about it is meaningless. 00:48:08.120 --> 00:48:15.130 There must be an actual cessation of the self to realize directly what it is, and 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 00:48:23.540 --> 00:48:39.510 say something you are back in the mind. I have already said too much. 00:48:39.510 --> 00:48:46.030 We normally have three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. 00:48:46.030 --> 00:48:53.380 Samadhi is sometimes referred to as the fourth state, the ground state of 00:48:53.380 --> 00:49:00.460 consciousness. A primordial awakeness that can become present continuously and 00:49:00.460 --> 00:49:10.470 in parallel with the other consciousness states. In Vedanta this is called Turiya 00:49:10.950 --> 00:49:17.220 Other terms for Turiya are Christ consciousness, Krishna consciousness, 00:49:17.220 --> 00:49:26.680 Buddha nature or Sahaja Samadhi. In Sahaja Samadhi the immanent Self stays 00:49:26.680 --> 00:49:33.670 present along with the full use of all human functions. The stillness is 00:49:33.670 --> 00:49:38.580 unmoving at the center of the spiral of changing phenomena. 00:49:38.580 --> 00:49:45.630 Thoughts, feelings, sensations and energy revolve around it at the circumference 00:49:45.630 --> 00:49:54.130 but the degree of stillness or I-am-ness remains during outer activity exactly as 00:49:54.130 --> 00:50:02.680 in meditation. It is possible that the immanent self will remain present even 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 00:50:11.800 --> 00:50:15.450 of consciousness change. 00:50:20.420 --> 00:50:24.190 This is yogic sleep. 00:50:24.660 --> 00:50:29.970 In the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon from the Hebrew Bible or Old 00:50:29.970 --> 00:50:40.010 Testament, it reads "I sleep but my heart waketh". This realization of the eternal 00:50:40.010 --> 00:50:47.040 impersonal consciousness is reflected in the words of Christ when he said 00:50:47.040 --> 00:50:54.360 "Before Abraham was, I AM." 00:50:56.289 --> 00:51:08.820 One consciousness that shines through countless faces, countless forms. 00:51:16.470 --> 00:51:22.640 At first it's like a fragile flame born out of the polarities within you. 00:51:22.640 --> 00:51:29.160 Masculine penetrating consciousness with a surrender or opening of feminine 00:51:29.160 --> 00:51:36.089 energy. It is delicate, and easily lost, and one must take great care to protect 00:51:36.089 --> 00:51:40.849 it and keep it alive until it is mature. 00:51:43.800 --> 00:51:50.850 Samadhi is simultaneously a timeless state of consciousness and a stage in an 00:51:50.850 --> 00:51:58.310 unfolding development process. Something organic and growing in time. 00:52:04.520 --> 00:52:13.990 As one spends more and more time in Samadhi, in the now, in the timeless, 00:52:13.990 --> 00:52:22.520 one takes more and more direction from the heart, the soul or Atman, and less from 00:52:22.520 --> 00:52:28.280 the conditioned structure. 00:52:28.810 --> 00:52:38.410 This is how one becomes free of the lower mind. Free of pathological thinking. 00:52:38.410 --> 00:52:45.109 The inner wiring changes. Energy no longer flows unconsciously in the old 00:52:45.109 --> 00:52:51.859 conditioned structures, which is another way of saying one is no longer 00:52:51.859 --> 00:53:09.829 identified with the self structure, with the outer world of form. 00:53:10.920 --> 00:53:17.309 To realize Samadhi requires an effort so great that it becomes a total surrender 00:53:17.309 --> 00:53:24.720 of oneself, and a surrender so encompassing that it is a complete 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 00:53:33.869 --> 00:53:41.400 surrender, yin and yang. A sort of effortless effort. 00:53:47.430 --> 00:53:55.330 The Indian mystic and yogi Paramahamsa Ramakrishna said "do not seek 00:53:55.330 --> 00:54:02.620 illumination unless you seek it as one whose hair is on fire seeks a pond" 00:54:02.620 --> 00:54:06.300 You seek it with your whole being. 00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:12.840 During one's ego transcending practice it takes great courage, vigilance and 00:54:12.840 --> 00:54:21.850 perseverance to keep the embryo alive. To not fall back into the patterns of the 00:54:21.850 --> 00:54:28.120 world. It takes a willingness to go against the current, against the 00:54:28.120 --> 00:54:35.590 inexorable crush of the matrix, and the grinding wheels of samsara. Every breath 00:54:35.590 --> 00:54:43.870 every thought, every action must be for realizing the Source. Samadhi is not 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 00:54:51.490 --> 00:54:59.380 duality that only exists in the mind. The actual realization of Samadhi is so 00:54:59.380 --> 00:55:05.440 simple so undifferentiated that it is always misconstrued through language 00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:12.610 which is inherently dualistic. There is only one primordial consciousness that 00:55:12.610 --> 00:55:21.160 awakens as the world but it has been obscured by many layers of mind. Like the 00:55:21.160 --> 00:55:27.610 Sun hidden behind the clouds as each layer of mind is dropped one's essence 00:55:27.610 --> 00:55:30.900 is revealed. 00:55:33.180 --> 00:55:39.480 As each layer of mind is dropped, people call it a different Samadhi. They give 00:55:39.480 --> 00:55:45.260 names to different experiences or different types of phenomena 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 00:56:00.290 --> 00:56:04.600 it your mind will always miss it. 00:56:05.170 --> 00:56:13.040 Actually Samadhi is not simple or difficult; it is only the mind that makes 00:56:13.040 --> 00:56:19.850 it so. When there is no mind there's no problem, because the mind is 00:56:19.850 --> 00:56:28.720 what needs to stop before it is realized. It is not a happening at all. 00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:44.170 The most concise teaching of Samadhi is perhaps found in this phrase: 00:56:44.170 --> 00:56:55.530 "Be still and know." 00:56:59.190 --> 00:57:05.490 How can we use words and images to convey stillness? How can we convey 00:57:05.490 --> 00:57:12.869 silence by making noise? Rather than talking about Samadhi as an intellectual 00:57:12.869 --> 00:57:22.740 concept, this film is a radical call to inaction. A call to meditation, inner 00:57:22.740 --> 00:57:31.010 silence and inner prayer. A call to STOP. 00:57:38.420 --> 00:57:45.140 Stop everything that is driven by the pathological egoic mind. 00:57:46.270 --> 00:57:50.190 Be still and know. 00:57:54.470 --> 00:57:59.890 No one can tell you what will emerge from the stillness. 00:57:59.910 --> 00:58:05.720 It is a call to act from the spiritual heart. 00:58:21.500 --> 00:58:30.050 It's like remembering something ancient. The soul wakes up and remembers itself. 00:58:30.050 --> 00:58:37.260 It has been a sleeping passenger but now the emptiness awakens and realizes 00:58:37.260 --> 00:58:43.439 itself as all things. 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 00:58:50.869 --> 00:58:57.500 describe to a blind person what color is. Your mind can't know. It can't 00:58:57.500 --> 00:59:06.559 manufacture it. To realize Samadhi is to see in a different way, not to see 00:59:06.559 --> 00:59:12.579 separate things but to recognize the seer. 00:59:15.360 --> 00:59:24.840 St. Francis of Assisi said "what you are looking for is what is looking." Once you 00:59:24.840 --> 00:59:34.290 have seen the moon you can recognize it in every reflection. The true self has 00:59:34.290 --> 00:59:42.920 always been there, it is in everything, but you have not realized its presence. 00:59:43.070 --> 00:59:50.750 When you learn to recognize and abide as the true self beyond the mind and senses 00:59:50.750 --> 01:00:08.530 it is possible to experience awe at the most mundane. We become AWE. 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 01:00:15.530 --> 01:00:26.020 desire. You can't try to be still because your very effort is movement. 01:00:26.020 --> 01:00:34.570 Realize the stillness that is always already present. 01:00:34.570 --> 01:00:37.570 Be the stillness and know 01:00:38.840 --> 01:00:45.140 When all preferences are dropped the source will be revealed, but do not cling 01:00:45.140 --> 01:00:57.140 even to the source. The great reality, Tao is not one not two. Ramana Maharshi said 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 01:01:07.580 --> 01:01:20.750 and the great reality." If you believe what is being said you've missed it. 01:01:20.750 --> 01:01:27.500 If you disbelieve you've also missed it. Belief and disbelief operate on the 01:01:27.500 --> 01:01:34.900 level of mind. They require a knowing, but if you enter into your own investigation 01:01:34.900 --> 01:01:40.370 examining all of the aspects of your own being, finding out who is doing the 01:01:40.370 --> 01:01:46.340 investigating, if you're willing to live by the principle "not my will but higher 01:01:46.340 --> 01:01:53.540 will be done," if you're willing to travel beyond all-knowing then you may realize 01:01:53.540 --> 01:01:59.600 what I've attempted to point towards. Only then will you taste for yourself 01:01:59.600 --> 01:02:07.940 the profound mystery and beauty of simply existing. 01:02:08.450 --> 01:02:16.070 There is another possibility for life. There is something sacred, unfathomable 01:02:16.070 --> 01:02:22.570 that can be discovered in the still depths of your being, beyond concepts, 01:02:22.570 --> 01:02:33.920 beyond dogmas, beyond conditioned activity and all preferences. It is not 01:02:33.920 --> 01:02:41.410 acquired by techniques, rituals or practices. There is no "how" to get it. 01:02:41.410 --> 01:02:54.140 There's no system. There's no way to The Way. As they say in Zen 01:02:54.140 --> 01:03:01.160 it is discovering your original face before you were born. It is not about 01:03:01.160 --> 01:03:10.010 adding more to yourself. It is becoming a light unto oneself; a light that dispels 01:03:10.010 --> 01:03:20.210 the illusion of the self. Life will always remain unfulfilled 01:03:20.210 --> 01:03:26.920 and the heart will always remain restless until it comes to rest in that 01:03:26.920 --> 01:03:32.650 mystery beyond name and form. 01:04:04.059 --> 01:04:06.059 [music] Om Shreem Lakshmi