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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3757, Saturday, December 26, 2009, Editor: Mark
Realize yourself as the ocean of consciousness in which all
happens. This is not difficult. A little of attentiveness, of
close observation of oneself, and you will see that no event is
outside your consciousness.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
Ocean of Forms
I dive down into the depth of the ocean of forms,
hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.
No more sailing from harbor to harbor with this my weather-beaten
boat.
The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves.
And now I am eager to die into the deathless.
Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss
where swells up the music of toneless strings
I shall take this harp of my life.
I shall tune it to the notes of forever,
and when it has sobbed out its last utterance,
lay down my silent harp at the feet of the silent.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Ramana Maharshi on Deep Sleep, Trance and Samadhi State
Question : What is the difference between deep sleep, laya [a
trancelike state in which the mind is temporarily in abeyance]
and samadhi?
Ramana Maharshi : In deep sleep the mind is merged and not
destroyed. That which merges reappears. It may happen in
meditation also. But the mind which is destroyed cannot reappear.
The yogi's aim must be to destroy it and not to sink into laya.
In the peace of meditation, laya sometimes ensues but it is not
enough. It must be supplemented by other practices for destroying
the mind.
Some people have gone into yogic samadhi with a trifling thought
and after a long time awakened in the trail of the same thought.
In the meantime generations have passed in the world. Such a yogi
has not destroyed his mind. The true destruction of the mind is
the non-recognition of it as being apart from the Self. Even now
the mind is not. Recognise it. How can you do it if not in
everyday activities which go on automatically? Know that the mind
promoting them is not real but is only a phantom proceeding from
the Self. That is how the mind is destroyed.
Question : Can the meditator be affected by physical disturbances
during nirvikalpa samadhi? My friend and I disagree on this
point.
Ramana Maharshi - Both of you are right. One of you is referring
to kevala and the other to sahaja samadhi. In both cases the mind
is immersed in the bliss of the Self. In the former, physical
movements may cause disturbance to the meditator, because the
mind has not completely died out. It is still alive and can, as
after deep sleep, at any moment be active again.
It is compared to a bucket, which, although completely submerged
under water, can be pulled out by a rope which is still attached
to it. In sahaja, the mind has sunk completely into the Self,
like the bucket which has got drowned in the depths of the well
along with its rope. In sahaja there is nothing left to be
disturbed or pulled back to the world. One's activities then
resemble that of the child who sucks its mother's milk in sleep,
and is hardly aware of the feeding.
Question : How can one function in the world in such a state?
Ramana Maharshi : One who accustoms himself naturally to
meditation and enjoys the bliss of meditation will not lose his
samadhi state whatever external work he does, whatever thoughts
may come to him. That is sahaja nirvikalpa. Sahaja nirvikalpa is
nasa [total destruction of the mind] whereas kevala nirvikalpa is
laya [temporary abeyance of the mind].
Those who are in the laya samadhi state will have to bring the
mind back under control from time to time. If the mind is
destroyed, as it is in sahaja samadhi, it will never sprout
again. Whatever is done by such people is just incidental, they
will never slide down from their high state.
Those that are in the kevala nirvikalpa state are not realized,
they are still seekers. Those who are in the sahaja nirvikalpa
state are like a light in a windless place, or the ocean without
waves; that is, there is no movement in them. They cannot find
anything which is different from themselves. For those who do not
reach that state, everything appears to be different from
themselves.
Question : Is the experience of kevala nirvikalpa the same as
that of sahaja, although one comes down from it to the relative
world?
Ramana Maharshi : There is neither coming down nor going up - he
who goes up and down is not real. In kevala nirvikalpa there is
the mental bucket still in existence under the water, and it can
be pulled out at any moment. Sahaja is like the river that has
linked up with the ocean from which there is no return. Why do
you ask all these questions? Go on practising till you have the
experience yourself.
Question : What is the use of samadhi and does thought subsist
then?
Ramana Maharshi : Samadhi alone can reveal the truth. Thoughts
cast a veil over reality, and so it is not realized as such in
states other than samadhi. In samadhi there is only the feeling
`I am' and no thoughts. The experience of `I am' is `being
still'.
Question : How can I repeat the experience of samadhi or the
stillness that I obtain here in your presence?
Ramana Maharshi : Your present experience is due to the influence
of the atmosphere in which you find yourself. Can you have it
outside this atmosphere? The experience is spasmodic. Until it
becomes permanent, practice is necessary.
Ramana Maharshi from Be As You are
The shop of Oneness,
The Ocean that has many harbours,
Yet where there is no division
Between man and man, or woman,
But only a unity of souls
In the process of return to their Creator,
Whose breath lives inside each one
And helps to guide us home.
- Rumi
All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that
the ocean merges into the drop.
- Kabir