HOW DOES A UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHY
AND RELIGION
APPROACH THE UNIVERSE?
SAMADHI
Reason asks"
"How does consciousness open up?"
The word samadhi runs throughout all Vedic literature.
The idea is, whatever the religion
a saint belongs to, he or she has gone into samadhi.
Higher states of consciousness
samadhi ordinarily refers to high states
of consciousness. For instance, Swami
Vivekananda says: "The mind can exist on a
still higher plane, the super-conscious. When the
mind has attained to that state, which is called
Samadhi-perfect concentration, super-consciousness
- it goes beyond the limits of reason, and comes
face to face with facts which no instinct or reason
can ever know."
Everyday consciousness
However, samadhi not only describes a higher state of consciousness. It also represents this superconscious power emerging
through all of our daily events in the form of
evolving levels of concentration and insights.
Samadhi or concentration is a dynamic feature of the mind
in all its habitual states. Whether restless, dull, distracted, concentrated, or under control, our mind is always growing and maturing. And in heightened moments, the mind periodically calms down and is able
to access a Transcendent state of consciousness. Nevertheless, in all of our experience, from making scientific discoveries to artistic creation, or just our every day insights and understandings, our lives are taking on greater meaning.
Our attempts are generally on the surface
Ordinarily, our minds remain superficial and constricted, stuck in loops and old habits
which run very deep.
Nevertheless, according to this model of samadhi, in spite of our old habits and tapes,
we're opening out into this ultimate Unity or Reality
slowly, bit by bit.
Gradually life moves towards the divine
And we're doing it by concentrating on the things
we're interested in. We're bonding or unifying with jobs, relationships, new insights and understandings, all of this giving rise to
secular knowledge.
Gradually, we're
opening and clarifying our understanding in regards to the
world around us, stepping beyond our existing
boundaries in little ways. So, this larger, underlying
Awareness is manifesting indirectly, through all
of the lesser secular samadhis, these limited unions,
fusions and harmonizations with external truths.
"With God, every knowledge is sacred. Knowledge
is God. Infinite knowledge abides within every one
in the fullest measure. You are not really ignorant
though you may appear to be so. You are incarnations
of God, all of you. You are incarnations of the
Almighty, Omnipresent Divine Principle. You may
laugh at me now, but the time will come when you
will understand. You must. Nobody will be left behind."
-
Swami Vivekananda
The limitations of secular knowing
The problem is that this can never give rise to real union with the divine. But the concentration of a one-pointed mind, which
is occupied with one thought, along with the practice
of a high moral foundation, gradually weakens and
loosens all attachments within the mind and paves
the way to a spiritual realization that is truly
liberating.
This approach says, whatever our tradition,
whether we commit our attention to the teachings
of a prophet, to an all loving personality, or to a
higher, all inclusive principle, our consciousness, we will get beyond our inner mental
conditionings, because, peace, love and freedom
is our essence. This larger truth must emerge.
