The world's greatest spiritual teachers from ancient to modern times have shared
the view that the deepest truth of our being is not the property of one
particular religion or spiritual tradition but can be found within the
heart of each person.
The poet Rumi said "where is that moon that never rises or sets? Where is that
soul that is neither with nor without us? Don't say it is here or there.
All creation is "That", but for the eyes that can see.
In the story of the Tower of Babel humanity fragmented into countless
languages, beliefs, cultures and interests. Babel means literally "the gate of God".
The gate is our thinking mind - our conditioned structures. For those who
come to realize their true nature, their essence beyond name and form, they are
initiated into the great mystery of what lies beyond the gate.
An ancient parable, the elephant parable, has been used to describe how various
traditions are actually all pointing to one great truth. A group of blind people
are each touching a different part of an elephant, getting a certain impression of
what an elephant is. The person standing at the elephant's leg describes the
elephant as being like a tree. The person at the tail says the elephant is like a
rope. The elephant is like a spear, says the one standing at the tusk. If one
touches the ear, it seems the elephant is like a fan.
The person touching the side is adamant that the elephant is like a wall.
The problem is we touch our piece of the elephant and we believe our experience
is the only truth. We don't acknowledge or appreciate that each person's
experience is a different facet of the same animal.
The perennial philosophy is an understanding that all spiritual and
religious traditions share a single universal truth. A mystical or
transcendent reality upon which foundation all spiritual knowledge and
doctrine has grown.
Swami Vivekananda summed up the perennial teaching when he said "the end
of all religions is the realizing of God in the soul. That is the one universal religion."
In this film when we use the word God it is simply a metaphor for the
transcendent, pointing to the great mystery beyond the limited egoic mind.
To realize one's true self or immanent Self is to realize one's divine nature.
Every soul has the potential to manifest a new higher level of consciousness. To awaken
from its slumber and its identification with form
The writer and visionary Aldous Huxley, known for his book "Brave New World",
also wrote a book which he entitled "The Perennial Philosophy" in which he writes
about the one teaching that comes back over and over in history, taking the form
of the culture in which it is realized. He writes, "The perennial philosophy is
expressed most succinctly in the sanskrit formula "Tat Tvam Asi"; "That Thou Art."
The Atman or immanent eternal self is one with Brahman, the absolute principle
of all existence, and the last end of every human being is
to discover the fact for himself. To find out who he or she really is.
Each tradition is like a facet of a jewel reflecting a unique perspective of
the same truth, while at the same time echoing and illuminating each other.
Whatever the language and conceptual framework used, all religions that
reflect the perennial teaching have some notion that there is a union with
something greater, something beyond us.
It is possible to learn from and integrate the teachings from one or many
sources without identifying a sense of self with them. It is said that all true
spiritual teachings are simply fingers pointing to the transcendent truth. If we
hold on to the dogma the teaching for comfort we will be stunted in our
spiritual evolution. To realize truth beyond any concept is letting go of all
clinging and attachment, letting go of all religious concepts.
From the ego's perspective the finger pointing you to Samadhi is pointing
straight toward the abyss.
Saint John of the Cross said "If one wishes to be sure of the road they tread,
one must close their eyes and walk in the dark."
Samadhi begins with a leap into the unknown.
In the ancient traditions in order to realize Samadhi it was said that one
must ultimately turn consciousness away from all known objects; from all external
phenomena, conditioned thoughts and sensations, toward consciousness itself.
Toward the inner source; the heart or essence of one's being. In this film when
we use the word Samadhi we are pointing to the transcendent. To the highest
Samadhi which has been named Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
In Nirvikalpa Samadhi there's a cessation of self activity, of all
seeking and doing. We can only speak about what falls away as we approach it
and what reappears when we return from it. There is neither perception nor
non-perception, neither "thing" nor "no thing", neither consciousness nor
unconsciousness. It is absolute, unfathomable, and inscrutable to the mind.
When the self returns to activity there's a not knowing; a kind of rebirth,
and everything becomes new again. We are left with the perfume of the divine,
which lingers longer as one evolves on the path.
There are numerous types of Samadhi described in the ancient traditions and
language has created much confusion over the years. We are choosing to use the
word Samadhi to point to the transcendent union, but we could have
used a word from another tradition just as easily. Samadhi is an ancient Sanskrit
term common to the Vedic yogic and Samkhya traditions of India, and has
permeated many other spiritual traditions. Samadhi is the eighth limb of
Patanjali's eight limbs of the yoga, and the eighth
part of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha used the word "Nirvana",
the cessation of "vana" or the cessation of self activity.
Patanjali described yoga or Samadhi as "chitta vritti nirodha", the Sanskrit
meaning "cessation of the whirlpool or spiral of mind." It is a disentangling of
consciousness from the entire matrix or creatrixof mind.
Samadhi does not signify any concept because to realize it requires a
dropping of the conceptual mind.
Different religions have used various words to describe the divine union.
In fact the word religion itself means something similar. In Latin "religare"
means to re-bind or reconnect. It's a similar meaning to the word yoga which
means to yoke, to unite the worldly with the transcendent. In Islam it is
reflected in the ancient Arabic meaning of the word Islam itself which means
submission or supplication to God. It signifies a total humbling or surrender
of the self structure.
Christian mystics such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Ãvila and
Saint John of the Cross describe a divine union with God, the kingdom of God
within. In the Gospel of Thomas, Christ said "the kingdom is not here or there.
Rather the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth and men do not
see it." The works of the Greek philosophers Plato, Plotinus, Parmenides,
and Heraclitus when seen through the lens of the perennial teaching point
towards the same wisdom. Plotinus teaches that the greatest human endeavor is to
guide the human soul towards the supreme state of perfection and union
with the One.
The Lakota medicine and holy man Black Elk said "The first peace, which is the
most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they
realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers. And
when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Great Spirit and
that this Center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.
On the path to awakening unless we are in Samadhi
there are always two polarities, two doorways one can enter. Two dimensions:
one towards pure consciousness the other towards the phenomenal world. The upward
current toward the absolute, and the downward current toward Maya and all
that is manifested, both seen and unseen. The relationship between relative and
absolute could be summed up in the following quote by Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj: "Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love is knowing I am everything, and
between the two my life moves."
What is born of this union is a new divine consciousness. Something is born
out of the marriage or union of these polarities or the collapse of dualistic
identification, yet what is born is not a thing and it was never born.
Consciousness flowers creating something new, creating what you could call a
perennial Trinity.
God the Father, the transcendent, unknowable and changeless, is united with
the Divine Feminine, which is everything that changes. This union brings about an
alchemical transformation; a kind of death and rebirth.
In the Vedic teachings the divine union is represented by two fundamental forces
Shiva and Shakti. The names and faces of the various gods change throughout
history but their fundamental attributes remain. What is born out of this union is
a new divine consciousness, a new way of being in the world. Two polarities
inseparably one. A universal energy that is without center, free of limitation.
It is pure love. There's nothing to be gained or lost
because it is utterly empty but absolutely full.
Whether it is the mystery schools of Mesopotamia, the spiritual traditions of
the Babylonians and Assyrians, religions of ancient Egypt,
Nubian and Kemetic cultures of ancient Africa, the shamanic and native
traditions around the world, the mysticism of ancient Greece, the Gnostics
the Non-dualists the Buddhists the Taoists, Jews, Zoroastrians, Jain's, Muslims,
or Christians one finds that their common link is their highest spiritual
insights have allowed their adherents to realize Samadhi.
The actual word Samadhi means something like to realize the sameness or oneness
in all things. It means Union. It is uniting all aspects
of yourself. But do not mistake intellectual understanding for the
actual realization of Samadhi. It is your stillness, your emptiness that unites all
levels of the spiral of life
It is through the ancient teaching of Samadhi that humanity can begin to
understand the common source of all religions and come into alignment once
again with the spiral of life, Great Spirit, Dhamma or the Tao.
The spiral is the bridge that extends from the microcosm to the macrocosm.
From your DNA to the inner Lotus of energy that extends through the chakras,
to the spiral arms of galaxies.
Every level of soul is expressed through the spiral as ever-evolving branches,
living, exploring. True Samadhi is realizing the emptiness
of all levels of self. All sheaths of the soul. The spiral is the endless play of
duality and the cycle of life and death.
At times we forget our connection to the source.
The lens we look through is very small and we identify with being a limited
creature creeping upon the Earth, only to once again complete the journey back to
the source;
to the center that is everywhere.
Chuang Tzu said "When there is no more separation between this and that, it is
called the still point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the spiral
one can see the infinite in all things."
The ancient mantra "om mani padme hum" has a poetic meaning. One awakens or
realizes the jewel within the lotus. Your true nature awakens within the soul,
within the world AS the world.
Using the Hermetic principle "As above so below, as below so above", we can use
analogies to begin to understand the relationship between mind and stillness,
relative and absolute.
A way to begin to grasp the non-conceptual nature of Samadhi is to
use the analogy of the black hole.
A black hole is traditionally described as a region of space with a massive
gravitational field so powerful that no light or matter can escape. New theories
postulate that all objects from the tiniest microscopic particles to
macrocosmic formations like galaxies have a black hole or mysterious
singularity at their center. In this analogy we're going to use this new
definition of a black hole as "the center that is everywhere".
In Zen there are many poems and koans that bring us face to face with the
gateless gate. One must pass the gateless gate to realize Samadhi.
An event horizon is a boundary in space-time beyond which events cannot
affect an outside observer, which means that whatever is happening beyond the
event horizon is unknowable to you. You could say that the event horizon of a
black hole is analogous to the gateless gate. It is the threshold between the
self and no self. There is no "me" that passes the event horizon.
In the center of a black hole is the one-dimensional singularity containing
the mass of billions of Suns in an unimaginably small space. Effectively an
infinite mass. Literally a universe in something infinitesimally smaller than a
grain of sand. The singularity is something unfathomable beyond time and
space. According to physics movement is impossible, the existence of things is
impossible. Whatever it is, it does not belong to the
world of perception, yet it cannot be described as merely stillness.
It is beyond stillness and movement. When you realize the center that is
everywhere and nowhere, duality breaks down, form and emptiness
time and the timeless.
One could call it a dynamic stillness or a pregnant emptiness, within the center
of absolute darkness. The Taoist teacher Lao Tse said
"Darkness within darkness the gateway to all understanding."
The writer and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell describes a recurring
symbol, part of the perennial philosophy which he calls the Axis Mundi; the
central point or the highest mountain. The pole
around which all revolves. The point where stillness and movement are
together. From this Center a mighty flowering tree is realized. A Bodhi tree
that joins all worlds. Just as a Sun gets sucked into a black hole, when you
approach the great reality, your life starts to revolve around it and you
begin to disappear.
As you approach the immanent self, it can be terrifying to the ego structure. The
guardians of the gate are there to test those on their journey.
One must be willing to face one's greatest fears and at the same time
accept one's inherent power. To bring light to the unconscious terrors and the
hidden beauty within. If your mind is not moved, if there's no self reacting, then
all phenomena produced by the unconscious arises and passes away.
This is the point in the spiritual journey where faith is most needed. What do we
mean by faith? Faith is not the same as belief. Belief is accepting something on
the level of mind to bring comfort and assurance. Belief is the mind's way of
labeling or controlling experience. Faith is actually the opposite. Faith is
staying in the place of complete not knowing, accepting whatever arises from
the unconscious. Faith is surrendering to the pull of the singularity, to the
dissolving or dismantling of the self in order to pass the gateless gate.
The evolution and structure of a galaxy is closely tied to the scale of its
black hole just as your evolution is tied to the presence of the immanent
Self, the singularity that is your true nature.
We can't see the black hole but we can know about it by the way things move
around it, by how it interacts with physical reality. In the same way we
cannot see our true nature. The immanent self is not a thing, but we can observe
enlightened action. As the Zen master Suzuki said, "There are, strictly speaking,
no enlightened people. There is only enlightened activity."
We can't see it just as the eye cannot see itself. We can't see it because it is
that by which seeing is possible. Like the black hole Samadhi is not
nothingness, and neither is it a thing. It is the collapse of the duality of
thing and no thing. There is no gate to enter the great reality,
but there are infinite paths. The paths the Dharma's are like an endless spiral
with no beginning and no end. No one can pass the gateless gate. No one's mind has
ever figured out how and none ever will. No one can pass the gateless gate,
so be no one.
Samadhi is the pathless path, the golden key. It is the end of our identification
with the self structures that separate our inner and outer worlds.
There are many developmental models which describe the layers or levels of
the self structure. We will use an example which is very ancient. In the
Upanishads, the sheaths which cover the Atman or soul are called koshas. Each
kosha is like a mirror. A layer of the self structure; a veil or level of maya
which distracts us from realizing our true nature if we are identified with it.
Most people see the reflections and believe that that is who they are.
One mirror reflects the animal layer, the physical body. Another mirror reflects
your mind, your thoughts your instincts, and perceptions. Another your inner
energy or prana which you can observe when you turn inward. Another mirror
reflects on the level of the Imaginal which is the higher mind or wisdom layer,
and there are layers of transcendental or non dual bliss that are experienced
as one approaches Samadhi.
There are potentially countless mirrors or aspects of self that one can
differentiate, and they are constantly changing.
Most people have yet to discover the pranic, higher mind, and non dual bliss
layers. They don't even know they exist.
These layers are informing your life but you do not see them. The hidden mirrors
actually inform our lives more than the ones that are visible.
They are unseen because for most people they are not fully illuminated by
consciousness. Like Indra's net of jewels, the mirrors all reflect each other and
the reflections reflect every other reflection infinitely. A change on one
level simultaneously affects all levels.
Some of these mirrors may be left in the shadows unless we are fortunate enough
to have a competent guide to help us shine light upon them. The truth is we
don't know what we don't know. Now imagine that you shatter all the mirrors.
There's nothing reflecting you back to yourself. Where are you?
When the mind becomes still the mirrors cease to reflect. There is no more
subject and object. But do not mistake the primordial state for nothingness or
oblivion. The immanent self is not something but neither is it nothing.
The source is not a thing it is emptiness or stillness itself. It
is an emptiness that is the source of all things. Form is realized as exactly
emptiness, emptiness is realized as exactly form. This source is the great
womb of creation, pregnant with all possibilities.
Samadhi is the awakening of impersonal consciousness. Just as when you are
having a dream, upon awakening you realize that everything in the dream was
just in your mind. Upon realizing Samadhi it is realized that
everything in this world is happening within levels upon levels of energy and
consciousness. It is all mirrors within mirrors, dreams within dreams. The you
that you think you are is both the dream and the dreamer.
Whatever we say in this film let it go don't capture it with the mind. The soul
is dreaming, dreaming the dream of you.
The dream is everything that is changing, but it is possible to realize the
changeless. This realization cannot be understood with the limited
individual mind.
When we return from Nirvikalpa Samadhi the mirrors begin to reflect again and
it is realized that the world you now think you are living in is actually you.
Not the limited you which is only a temporary reflection, but you are aware
of your true nature as the source of all that IS. This dawning of higher wisdom,
the embryo, "prajna" or gnosis is what is born out of Samadhi. According to the
book of Job Chokhmah or wisdom comes from nothingness. This point of wisdom is both
infinitely small and yet encompasses the whole of being, but it remains
incomprehensible until it has given shape and form in the palace of mirrors,
called "binah", the womb carved out by higher wisdom which gives shape to the
embryonic Spirit of God.
[music] "Abwoon d'bashmaya" by Indiajiva
The existence of the mirrors or the minds existence is not a problem. On the
contrary, the error or aberration of human perception is that we identify
ourselves with it. This illusion, that we are the limited self, is Maya. The yogic
teachings say that to realize Samadhi one must observe the meditation object
until it disappears until you disappear into it or it into you. Although the
language in the various traditions is dissimilar at their root they all point
towards a cessation of self-identification and self-centered
activity. The Buddha always taught in negative terms. He taught to investigate
directly into the working of the self structure. He didn't say what Samadhi was
except that it was the end of suffering. In Advaita Vedanta there's a term "neti
neti" which means "not this not that." People on the path to self-realization
inquire into their true nature, or the nature of Brahman by first discovering
what they are not.
Similarly in Christianity St. Teresa of Avila described an approach to prayer
based on the negative path, or via negativa. A prayer of quiet, surrender and
union, which is the only way to approach the absolute.
Through this gradual process of stripping away one drops anything that
is not permanent, anything that is changing. The mind the ego construct and
all phenomena, including the hidden layers of self. The unconscious must
become transparent in order to reflect the one source. If there is some deep
knowing or some self operating in the unconscious then our lives remain locked
into a labyrinth of hidden patterns that comprise the undiscovered self.
When all layers of self are revealed as empty then one becomes free from the
self. Free from all concepts
A turning point in your evolution is when you realize you don't know who you are.
Who experiences the breath? Who experiences the taste?
Who experiences the chant, the ritual, the dance, the mountain? Witness the witness,
observed the observer.
At first when you observe the observer you will only see the false self, but if
you are persistent it will give way.
Inquire directly into who or what experiences.
Unblinkingly, piercingly, penetratingly, with the full force of your being.
[music] "Gate, Gate, paragate. Parasum gate, bodhisvaha." (Meaning: gone, gone, far beyond, completely beyond the awakened source IS)
- Untranslated subtitle -
There is no self that awakens. There is no YOU that awakens. What you are
awakening from is the illusion of the separate self. From the dream of a
limited "you". To talk about it is meaningless.
There must be an actual cessation of the self to realize directly what it is, and
once it is realized there is nothing that can be said about it. As soon as you
say something you are back in the mind. I have already said too much.
We normally have three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.
Samadhi is sometimes referred to as the fourth state, the ground state of
consciousness. A primordial awakeness that can become present continuously and
in parallel with the other consciousness states. In Vedanta this is called Turiya
Other terms for Turiya are Christ consciousness, Krishna consciousness,
Buddha nature or Sahaja Samadhi. In Sahaja Samadhi the immanent Self stays
present along with the full use of all human functions. The stillness is
unmoving at the center of the spiral of changing phenomena.
Thoughts, feelings, sensations and energy revolve around it at the circumference
but the degree of stillness or I-am-ness remains during outer activity exactly as
in meditation. It is possible that the immanent self will remain present even
during deep sleep; that your awareness of I am does not come and go even as states
of consciousness change.
This is yogic sleep.
In the Song of Songs, or the Song of Solomon from the Hebrew Bible or Old
Testament, it reads "I sleep but my heart waketh". This realization of the eternal
impersonal consciousness is reflected in the words of Christ when he said
"Before Abraham was, I AM."
One consciousness that shines through countless faces, countless forms.
At first it's like a fragile flame born out of the polarities within you.
Masculine penetrating consciousness with a surrender or opening of feminine
energy. It is delicate, and easily lost, and one must take great care to protect
it and keep it alive until it is mature.
Samadhi is simultaneously a timeless state of consciousness and a stage in an
unfolding development process. Something organic and growing in time.
As one spends more and more time in Samadhi, in the now, in the timeless,
one takes more and more direction from the heart, the soul or Atman, and less from
the conditioned structure.
This is how one becomes free of the lower mind. Free of pathological thinking.
The inner wiring changes. Energy no longer flows unconsciously in the old
conditioned structures, which is another way of saying one is no longer
identified with the self structure, with the outer world of form.
To realize Samadhi requires an effort so great that it becomes a total surrender
of oneself, and a surrender so encompassing that it is a complete
effort of one's being; all of one's energy. It is a balance of effort and
surrender, yin and yang. A sort of effortless effort.
The Indian mystic and yogi Paramahamsa Ramakrishna said "do not seek
illumination unless you seek it as one whose hair is on fire seeks a pond"
You seek it with your whole being.
During one's ego transcending practice it takes great courage, vigilance and
perseverance to keep the embryo alive. To not fall back into the patterns of the
world. It takes a willingness to go against the current, against the
inexorable crush of the matrix, and the grinding wheels of samsara. Every breath
every thought, every action must be for realizing the Source. Samadhi is not
realized by effort nor is it effortless. Let go of effort and non effort; it's a
duality that only exists in the mind. The actual realization of Samadhi is so
simple so undifferentiated that it is always misconstrued through language
which is inherently dualistic. There is only one primordial consciousness that
awakens as the world but it has been obscured by many layers of mind. Like the
Sun hidden behind the clouds as each layer of mind is dropped one's essence
is revealed.
As each layer of mind is dropped, people call it a different Samadhi. They give
names to different experiences or different types of phenomena
but Samadhi is so simple that when you are told what it is and how to realize
it your mind will always miss it.
Actually Samadhi is not simple or difficult; it is only the mind that makes
it so. When there is no mind there's no problem, because the mind is
what needs to stop before it is realized. It is not a happening at all.
The most concise teaching of Samadhi is perhaps found in this phrase:
"Be still and know."
How can we use words and images to convey stillness? How can we convey
silence by making noise? Rather than talking about Samadhi as an intellectual
concept, this film is a radical call to inaction. A call to meditation, inner
silence and inner prayer. A call to STOP.
Stop everything that is driven by the pathological egoic mind.
Be still and know.
No one can tell you what will emerge from the stillness.
It is a call to act from the spiritual heart.
It's like remembering something ancient. The soul wakes up and remembers itself.
It has been a sleeping passenger but now the emptiness awakens and realizes
itself as all things.
You can't imagine what Samadhi is with the limited egoic mind just as you can't
describe to a blind person what color is. Your mind can't know. It can't
manufacture it. To realize Samadhi is to see in a different way, not to see
separate things but to recognize the seer.
St. Francis of Assisi said "what you are looking for is what is looking." Once you
have seen the moon you can recognize it in every reflection. The true self has
always been there, it is in everything, but you have not realized its presence.
When you learn to recognize and abide as the true self beyond the mind and senses
it is possible to experience awe at the most mundane. We become AWE.
Do not try to be free of desires because wanting to be free of desires is a
desire. You can't try to be still because your very effort is movement.
Realize the stillness that is always already present.
Be the stillness and know
When all preferences are dropped the source will be revealed, but do not cling
even to the source. The great reality, Tao is not one not two. Ramana Maharshi said
"The self is only one. If it is limited it is the ego, if unlimited it is infinite
and the great reality." If you believe what is being said you've missed it.
If you disbelieve you've also missed it. Belief and disbelief operate on the
level of mind. They require a knowing, but if you enter into your own investigation
examining all of the aspects of your own being, finding out who is doing the
investigating, if you're willing to live by the principle "not my will but higher
will be done," if you're willing to travel beyond all-knowing then you may realize
what I've attempted to point towards. Only then will you taste for yourself
the profound mystery and beauty of simply existing.
There is another possibility for life. There is something sacred, unfathomable
that can be discovered in the still depths of your being, beyond concepts,
beyond dogmas, beyond conditioned activity and all preferences. It is not
acquired by techniques, rituals or practices. There is no "how" to get it.
There's no system. There's no way to The Way. As they say in Zen
it is discovering your original face before you were born. It is not about
adding more to yourself. It is becoming a light unto oneself; a light that dispels
the illusion of the self. Life will always remain unfulfilled
and the heart will always remain restless until it comes to rest in that
mystery beyond name and form.
[music] Om Shreem Lakshmi