Meditation (Part - 3) The Seamless Flow

Part – 3 The Seamless Flow

Till now we have learnt that in meditation we select an object and keep focus on it. Focusing an object means only one thought (object) in mind and as we try to focus on object other disruptive thoughts keep coming in mind and don’t allow us to keep focus on object. By practice, gradually we are able to focus on one thought continuously by 30 to 40 seconds and now we are ready to enter second stage from concentration to meditation.

Step 2: Meditation

Many people confuse between meditation and concentration and often take concentration as meditation. They sit for 20 to 30 minutes and try to focus on one thought but other intrusive thoughts keep coming and actually they never enter in meditation stage from concentration stage. The major transformation occurs when you enter in meditation stage from concentration change is that you start to observe Swarupa of object. Till now you were only seeing Rupa of object. (Pl read Part - 1 to understand the difference between Rupa and Swarupa) As you will see Swarupa of object something change will happen in object. It may be change in color or change in shape or something else depends upon object selected by you. But still you can’t see Swarupa of object. You just reached near to it. The actual Swarupa of object emanates clearly in Samadhi. The uninterrupted flow of mind towards the object chosen for meditation is called the Meditation. In this stage the distractions are eliminated completely and practitioner can focus on the object as long as he wants. When you see a drop of water from a microscope your field of vision is defined and limited and you can’t see anything else outside the periphery of water but you can see lot of movements going on in drop of water. You can see suspended particles and bacteria etc. The same thing occurs in meditation. When you confine your focus in a limited area you are successful to eliminate intrusive thoughts but lot of action happens in object and you are ready to dive in the ocean of marvels of meditation. The Rupa of object is lost and Swarupa that is actually the real nature of object starts to emerge out.

Continuity (The Seamless Flow) is the most important parameter in this process and on technical parameters, continuity is the only thing that distinguishes meditation to concentration. Continuity of mind on one object is very important since if other thought comes in your mind that means mind lost the grip over object and that means mind griped another object. Continuity is the unit to measure the control over mind. How long you can continuously focus on an object is the criteria that how well you are advancing in practicing and are you able to enter in next stage that is Samadhi or not. The diagram below explains the thought processing going on in meditation stage. You can observe in the meditation there is no other thought only one object and as you go deeper you are losing your consciousness. The circle over alphabets represents your consciousness. You can see as you are going deeper in meditation you start to lose your consciousness and when you lose your consciousness completely you are ready for last and final stage: Samadhi

Step 3: Samadhi

The main difference between meditation and Samadhi is consciousness. In meditation there are two entities: You and Object but in Samadhi there is only one entity and that is object. There are no you. You don’t exist at the time of Samadhi. You completely lost your consciousness and become one with object. There is no mind at the stage of Samadhi.

Welcome in the real world.

Now you are ready to explore real world that is hidden behind the phenomenal world.

In the meditation stage, Practitioner almost has reached on the gate of real world, he is successfully removed all the distractions but still he can’t enter in the real world since a last distraction is still exists and that last distraction is your mind. The mind itself is preventing to realize the very essence of object in meditation stage. So it is necessary to remove this final distraction before to reach in the stage of Samadhi. Mind is consciousness so if there is no mind no self-consciousness and all the great work has been accomplished when we completely lose self-consciousness. Just imagine a jug full of water pouring water into a glass. Imagine water in jug as mind, glass as object so when jug has poured all water into glass, there is no water in jug to pour so no filled jug at all. Same happened in Samadhi as the object of mind feel continuously the mind there is no question to empty the mind.

What happens in Samadhi?

In the state of Samadhi, Your physiological functions of body keep going as usual but there is no response of the body to the outside world and there is no mind object relationship. Mind and object becomes one so as we lose the mind there is no brain. There is no mind and brain and at this stage a new higher faculty comes into picture and reality hidden behind the object takes place through this faculty.  Samadhi is the source of transcendent knowledge, wisdom, strength and mystical powers. Now one question may arise in your mind why we can’t see real nature (Swarupa) of object in normal state? Why it is compulsory to go into Samadhi to understand the real nature of object and answer of those question is very subtle and pl try to understand it clearly:

As explained in previous articles about the automatic nature of mind. Any impression, thought or bias which mind has apart the object of meditation will stand in the way between you and object and you can’t understand the real nature of object. The knowledge that you get in your normal state about object is actually the knowledge that what mind thinks and not the real knowledge so when there is no mind then there is no bias and real knowledge of object comes out. In very simple words it can be explained by the example of sunglasses. When you are wearing sunglasses you will see the world by the color of glass, you can’t see real color of world so if you want to see the real color of world you need to remove the sunglass same is with mind. Compare mind with sunglass. If you want to see the real nature of object you need to remove the mind between you and object and it happens only when we have completely lost our consciousness. Till there is desire in your mind it will be very difficult to diffuse the mind since that desire won’t allow mind to diffuse. So a long step by step practice required for reaching the stage in Samadhi and here the first 5 steps of Patanjali played very crucial role but it doesn’t mean that you should not do practice. You should keep practicing. I know the persons who reached the Samadhi in just first attempt. Life is continuous. You don’t know in your previous births you almost had reached to doors of Samadhi.

In these three articles we talked about Dharna (Concentration), Dhyan (Meditation) and Samadhi. The entire process can be summarized in 4 easy steps:

1. Choose the object for meditation
2. Concentration: keep focusing on object. Slowly slowly remove all other thoughts and keep focus only on one object
3. Meditation: Now there is only one thought in your mind. Thought of object of mind
4. Samadhi: Now there is only object. There are not you. You lost your consciousness

Samadhi is the last step in this process but actually its first step in the real world, the state of super consciousness. Samadhi itself is a long process. Moksha obviously the last stage of Samadhi but in between there are lot of stages. There are different stages of Samadhi. Sabija Samadhi, Nirbija Samadhi, even Sabija Samadhi can be classified in four different type of Samadhi. Purpose of this article is not to explain different type of Samadhi. It’s a different and long subject and better to experience it. Different types of objects disclose their real nature at different stages of Samadhi and that depends upon complexity of object.

If you have read all three articles of series then till now you must have understood that meditation is not an exercise of stress management or anger management or self-talking or relaxation as self-called Gurus talk about it. It is muck beyond then these materialistic benefits. Pl beware of the fake gurus or meditation teachers. No one can teach you meditation. It’s only you who can experience it. If anyone charges money from you to teach meditation then assume he doesn’t know anything about meditation because there is no value of materialistic things in the ocean of this real world.

Samyama

The complete process started from concentration to Samadhi is called Samyama. Samyama opens the door to not only for real knowledge but also so super physical powers and Sidhis.