Samadhi

 Samadhi.

As we enter into the world of meditation and of yogic explorations, we soon encounter new terms that we may not have heard before.

We hear terms such as "enlightenment" and certainly meditation is closely tied to this term "enlightenment".  As we go into the yogic world of India, then we’ll soon hear terms such as "Samadhi".

My own roots with the experience of meditation go back to when I was 18 years old and I was very fortunate to begin meditation training under the guidance of a real Indian yogi. His name was Mahindra and he was trained by a Swami Satyananda from Monghyr, Bihar. That’s the school he came from and it is recognized in India.

Then he came to Europe which is where I lived at the time being and where I met him.

I soon began the practice of the very traditional hatha yoga, asanas and pranayamas.

He trained me in mantra, kriya and other forms of meditation.

 meditation mantra meditation kriya meditation in one world incredibly traditional India based practice and when I say India based I mean to say that, what we have right now which is the yoga studios and all those classes that are available they are strangely completely separated from meditation, from this classical tradition training that I’m referring to ermm its more like an exercise people do yoga asanas yes they do breathing exercise but it ends there maybe we have ? of meditation but meditation is not something that is part of this modern yoga  training that we have yoga education that we have

So when I was engaging in this training  I was 18yrs old very very young what it means is that we had the year 1972. And so I really enjoyed this training tremendously something in my being was really really erm touched something in my being said yes this is exactly what I need I had an incredible connection with this training and naturally because of this passion that began to be activated inside myself I soon found myself practising more and spending more and more time erm with practising what I was learning spending more and more time with asanas I spent more and more time with mantra meditation  I spent more and more time with Kriya Meditation and so by the time I was 20yrs old I was easily spending four to five hours everyday with that.

And so which leads me to talking about something that yes, I wish to explain that a little bit. What I want to talk about is what is the culmination of Meditation the Yogis say meditation itself is not the end, Meditation when we experience flowering of meditation this flowering of meditation does have another name and the yogis in India call this Samadhi.

Samadhi is a flowering of meditation and flowering of Consciousness and when I use the word flowering of Consciousness then the indication here is that our consciousness as it is the Yogi’s consider it merely a potential if you practice meditation with great fervour and great intensity the practice of meditation will lead you to the flowering and will lead you to what the yogi’s call A? Samadhi.

And the first Samadhi experience that I’ve had I was 20yrs old and since that time between then and now I have had many many Samadhi experiences and Samadhi experiences have happened to me in two different ways  and I would like to explain these two different ways. And I would like to explain the two different ways in which I’ve experienced and how I am experiencing Samadhi  in this following way.

When I was 20yrs old I was one evening in our yoga school and it was after 3hours of practising yoga asanas pranayamas mantra meditation and I closed my eyes and went into meditation

And I saw myself focussing on the point at the top of my head and saw myself visualising the flame on top of my head and as I visualised this flame there seemed to be some kind of inner encouragement that I focus on the centre of the flame on top of my head and as I did that I began to hear sounds and began to hear certain movements on the top of my skull as if somebody was crashing? Against the top of my skull there was only me and the empty room. Then I began to feel as if some some my head my skull began to almost split like an egg would split it was a most bizarre and most exotic experience I’ve ever had I felt an electro magnetic pressure on top of my skull and that electro magnetic pressure became incredibly physical it was as if somebody was pushing against my skull with a finger and pressing very hard and it felt that tangible.

So that lasted for about 20 seconds and this pressure became painful actually and then suddenly this pain that I experienced on top of my head it shifted in a completed changed and transformed leading to ? what I call space

It was a strictly? Clear space it was what I would call clear radiant space and that clear radiant space rapidly and rapidly rapidly began to expand and the only way I could explain that would be that rapidly expanding space expanded to a point where it seemed there was infinity.

The infinity was clear radiant space and the clear radiant space was complete silence there was no thoughts whatsoever but there was complete Consciousness. Consciousness was there clear radiant space that was Consciousness. Clear radiant consciousness it was space.

The thing that happened from that point was that at the top of my head into my body seemed to stream an incredible amount of energy of electricity of chi as you may call it, there was electricity streaming into my head into the rest of my body and the electricity was so strong that it felt almost as if I stuck my fingers into an electric outlet and I was getting electrocuted the electricity was so strong that the body didn’t seem capable of being able to tolerate it.

And I had this feeling that if this was to continue I would certainly die, physically die and obviously I haven’t but that was the impression.

So my teacher than, I explained this to my Yogic teacher and he then said that what you have experienced the Yogi’s call Samadhi but we would say this experience of Samadhi you have had was a little bit early and I said well you know it just sort of happened. But he seemed rather happy with the fact that this had happened to me.

So, my experience of Samadhi is two fold, it is through the activation of one of the chakras as I’ve just explained because the top of the head the yogi’s say there is a chakra there are other chakras between the eyebrows the throat in the heart these chakras when they open they become space if you imagine there are points in your body that are latent that are sleeping but the moment when these points become activated the points transform and change into expanding space that’s what a chakra is a chakra is a seed a tiny tiny tiny seed it doesn’t exist to the naked eye and when this seed activates it becomes space and the space when it goes all the way to its final to its full fruition it becomes infinite space, I have experienced this also with the third eye I have experienced this also with the heart

And the experience in different chakras is of a different quality all together as the top chakra when that becomes clear radiant space it is just silent, the Tibetans call it “silence like thunder” I classify it? That is correct. The silence was so enormous that it seemed to it was like thunder filling the entire silence, silence filled the entire universe like thunder.

When you go to the third eye it’s a different experience when you go the heart chakra it’s a different experience.

When the heart chakra opens it is all of a sudden, the empty feeling is space is there also but it has a completely different quality in the hear the quality is like you fell into a pot of honey, its so unbearably sweet, you could die in that moment you wouldn’t care because you are light you cannot die, your body might die but you cannot.

You are this clear radiant space forever you were you are you shall be regardless of what happens, you are this clear radiant space this infinite clear radiant space of Consciousness that is who you are.

You don’t know it because you are asleep when you go for Yogic training you wake up that’s whats called Awakening that’s whats called Enlightenment, you wake up.

In the third eye also is the same thing when the activation starts between the eyebrows then what you will experience as you receive an electro magnetic presence between your eyebrows and this electro magnetic presence becomes stronger and stronger and stronger until it also changes and becomes expanding space the pressure the electro magnetic presence turns into rapidly expanding space. As I mentioned that before on the top of the head

But again the flavour here is different the flavour here is one of luminosity of Joy of theres a presence of unexplainable intelligence, knowing and the same thing as I was saying before happens in the heart except that that clear radiant space becomes infinite space it is all sweet, it is so sweet.

So all these experiences that I have just mentioned they belong to one category of how I have experienced Samadhi. I don’t know if there is more than two categories but I have experienced just two categories the one I just mentioned and then there is another one that doesn’t seem to go directly with these modalities of pressures or expanding space from one of the chakras.

The other one that I experienced that I have experienced to this day is when the Yogis say there is such experience of Anahata Nada, Anahata Nada it is the sound of the heart and the sound of the hear the way I experienced it I suddenly hear an incredibly high pitched whistle in my right ear or my left ear it can change normally its in my right ear usually and so I hear a very very high pitched whistle in my right ear and instantly the moment this whistle sound starts it instantly turns also into expanding space. Its quite different.

That’s the other way and the Yogi’s say when you hear the Anahata Nada then you must focus on that instantly because the Anahata Nada the experience of Anahata Nada is an indication that you are one hair away from Samadhi.

The Yogi’s say that you could hear all kinds of sound you could hear music, you could hear sitar all kinds of different sounds, rushing of water or we talk about that but I personally have never experienced that I have only ever in over 46yrs I’ve only experienced this whistling sound and its always the same, the moment you hear the sound the sound turns into expanding space, just like the chakras  would turn into expanding space except that the point where the expansion starts is the hearing of the sound. The sound becomes expanding space there is absolute no mind and there is no thought.

Samadhi is the experience of no mind.

Your mind is gone, its not there and fascinatingly you are there and you are there much much better. You are infinite space without the mind and that’s why Enlightenment is also called the experience of no mind.

That’s why Bernadette Roberts she used that term, she called it the experience of no mind. The good news is that its not just something that its not just something that happens to Indian Yogi’s the good news is that it can happen perfectly well to western people and that’s very good news indeed.

The Yogi’s say when you hear the Anahata Nada when you hear the sound in your ears, they know that it can change from the right to the left ear and that is known and I can testify to that, they say you must focus, you must drop everything that you’re doing, this is very very important this is an opportunity don’t go and focus elsewhere, close your eyes and focus on the sound,  Anahata Nada means Samadhi is near.

And these are the two ways that I have experienced, two categories of how I have experienced Samadhi.

And I thought today would be a good time to mention this.

And my message to you is, meditate as much as possible, today is my 30^th day of meditation, meditating 7hours a day and it’s a very creative way of spending my time and again, meditate as much as possible.

Christ said, “…seeketh the kingdom of God with all your heart…” and what he was saying by that was that nothing else was important.

Whats important is that you go back to the source of your existence, nothing else matters if you think other things are more important then you are diverted as George Harrison says “… you are diverted, you’re corrupted…”.

The Buddha says the same thing, the Buddha said that “…do not stop striving for Enlightenment ever, until its there now this is said by a man who said, “…I’m going to sit under this tree, until I’m Enlightened…” which he did for 49days. He was looking for Enlightenment for 49days.

And Gurdjieff says in order to find Enlightenment you have to engage in superhuman effort, focus.

All three say the same thing, focus, you have to focus, you have to engage in focus and that focus that quest for awakening the quest for enlightenment the quest for Samadhi, once you move into that domain of existence you separate yourself truly from the rest of humanity because most humanity doesn’t care, what are you doing looking for enlightenment, I think you’re crazy.

Christ doesn’t think you’re crazy, Buddha doesn’t think you’re crazy, Gurdjieff doesn’t think you’re crazy, Osho doesn’t think you’re crazy and I don’t think you’re crazy.

Thank you, Good Luck in your endeavours

Andreas Mamet

(conversation with Shahida Sidduqe 15^th April 2020, typed with permission)