Difference Between Surface Level Quietness Meditation And Deep Subconscious Level Silent Samadhi

Ektaji explains the difference between surface-level quietness and deep subconscious level silent Samadhi in this talk. The aim of any meditation technique is to take you to Silence and once you reach there, one should stay with the silence by dropping all the anchors of techniques.

Samadhi = complete immersion in Silence.
(Sam - means Equanimity)

Transcript

Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Welcome to Buddha Sangha.

The word Samadhi has really been hyper exaggerated through the ages.

For meditators it is very simple to attain Samadhi.

Samadhi simply means complete immersion in silence.

Many meditators who have been meditating for a long time reach this state very easily.

The only obstacle on their path is the method that they were using to get there.

Some use mantras,

Some use a guided meditation.

All these external sounds become an obstacle because to reach Samadhi all you need is complete external silence.

Only when there is external silence can you internally immerse into the internal silence.

So I am not saying that don't use mantras or don't use guided meditations.

This is the beginning step is what I am saying.

When you are climbing up the ladder you use the bottom most step to reach up.

Then you have to let go of that bottom most step and then step up.

Again you have to let go of this step to go up.

Do you see what I am saying?

So any external sound,

Guided meditation,

Mantra etc is just the first step.

You cannot keep holding on to this step if you want to progress higher.

So when you are sitting and meditating and you have taken the first step of the mantra then you have to let go of the attachment to the mantra.

You have to let go of the attachment to the sound because the purpose of that sound was to take you into silence which is the next step.

Now that you have come into silence now just be in that silence.

If a mantra guided meditation is not taking you into that inner silence then discard it and pick up something else.

You will have to experiment with several things out there to figure out what clicks for you.

Just like there are so many flavours of ice cream in the market.

Baskin Robbins itself has 33 flavours and I am not advertising for them.

But each one of us has a different flavour that appeals to our tongue.

Just like that.

There will be different meditation that will appeal to each one of us.

Appeal means what?

That which will take us into silence not that which we like from the intellectual or the level of the mind.

You see what I am saying?

There is a difference between the two.

I can like something because it is the most popular thing or it is a trend and everybody is just following that.

Or there is another way where I hit silence quicker.

Do you see what I am saying?

The trend is not necessarily what works for you.

So you figure out what takes you into silence quicker and then you drown deep into that silence.

I am not saying that you will immediately become a Mahatma or a Sadhu.

No.

It will take its time.

Simply Samadhi is attaining that state of Sam.

Sam or Samatha means equanimity where the mind is not going up and down and up and down and up and down.

How does the mind go up and down?

You have a pleasant feeling.

The graph goes up.

You have an unpleasant feeling.

The graph goes down.

Again you have a pleasant feeling.

The graph goes up.

And this continues.

Have you noticed?

Feelings and thoughts work hand in hand on this graph.

Buddha had meditated with all the contemporary saints of his time and had done all the meditations including those that led to Samadhi.

But he said that even after doing all these,

My Raghas and Dveshas have not been wiped away.

So something is wrong.

What is the point of attaining a Samadhi which does not take my suffering away?

And my suffering is caused by my own grieving and aversions.

It's got nothing to do with external people's situations and things.

He understood this truth very clearly that my own Raghas and Dveshas,

My own grieveings and aversions are the cause of my Dukkha.

And second,

Doing these techniques of Samadhi is not wiping away these Raghas and Dveshas.

So when I go into Samadhi,

I am very quiet,

I am very relaxed,

I am very centred.

But when I come out of it,

I am the same person who has that craving that aversion is angry at this,

Annoyed at that,

Disappointed at this,

Super excited at that,

Passionate about this.

So the graph again goes up and down.

He said,

There has to be some way,

Some type of a Samadhi in which I learn the skill to reduce these crests and troughs of the graph.

And they become smaller and smaller and finally become equanimous in real life.

He then set out to find the right kind of Samadhi and that is what is called Samyak Samadhi,

Samma Samadhi,

Kolsam Samadhi or right kind of Samadhi.

The word Samadhi itself is translated in many books as concentration or absorption or emotion.

It doesn't matter how you translate it.

It means that my mind is not scattered,

It is completely inside and silent and collected.

So collectiveness would be a better translation.

Now it does not mean that in this mind thoughts don't come up.

Thoughts come up but they are not disturbing thoughts.

Secondly,

In this Samadhi,

A sincere spiritual seeker figures out the truth of his own mind.

Buddha said,

If you don't experiment with your mind,

If you don't find what is the root cause of your own suffering,

You will never be able to come out of suffering.

How many ever times you do Samadhi,

You will never be able to come out of your suffering because you have not figured out what is the root cause of my suffering.

The moment I recognize,

Oh this is the root cause,

Then I have to uproot it.

But to uproot it,

I have to first identify it,

Correct?

The Samadhi in which you go in with a scientific temper,

You explore the depths of your mind.

You figure out what is it that is spoiling this peace.

What is it that is taking away this collectiveness of the mind and making it totally a scattered mind,

A scattered brain.

What is responsible for this little silent lake to have that first ripple that ruins the peace,

The serenity.

So Buddha was very scientific in his temper and that is what he taught that if you meditate and reach a silent state,

That is where your exploration should begin.

You observe reality as it is,

Not as you want it to be,

Not as you want it to not be,

But just as it is.

And observing reality,

Observing,

Observing,

Observing,

Observing,

You will have that first thought which will disturb this quiet observation.

And there you will figure out,

Ahh,

This first thought that disturbed my serenity,

This is creating turbulence.

Now,

Where did this thought come from and how did this thought generate?

Am I generating it?

Buddha had a scientific temper.

It's Samadhi,

He said,

When the lake is absolutely silent and there is no ripple,

You will notice that the first ripple comes up.

The first strength of a real sadhana is to not react to the first ripple and it settles down on its own.

This first ripple comes on account of the past mental conditioning that you have.

In the past,

You have encouraged certain thoughts and those go and sit in your karma bank as sankhara's.

That first thought comes up and causes that first ripple.

A real sadhana learns the skill of not reacting to this first thought or that first ripple and that ripple dies down.

But,

The sadhana who is not skilled yet,

What does he do?

When the first ripple is created,

He reacts to the ripple.

It's like throwing more stones in.

What will happen?

More ripples come up.

And then you throw more stones in because you are reacting to that feeling and more ripples are created and more ripples are created and then you cannot meditate anymore.

Doesn't this happen to all of us?

Yeah?

That's because we do not have the real thirst of ending our own dukkha.

We just want to practice meditation to just get temporary,

Superficial silence of the mind.

We are not interested in the deep silence of the mind.

There is this conscious level of the mind,

Then there is a subconscious level and there is an unconscious level of the mind.

We are very interested in only silencing this conscious mind.

It's more like a temporary suppression.

It does not help and it does not last long.

If you are looking for a long lasting solution to come out of this continuous turbulence in the deeper levels of the mind,

You will have to work on identifying what is the cause of your dukkha.

And that can be done only in the silence of Samadhi.

Again,

An external guided meditation,

A mantra,

A sound cannot take you very deep.

It takes you to the conscious mind.

Silence only.

The depth is only till there because you came using the medium of sound which is not natural,

Which is not reality.

Therefore,

Buddha came up with the most essential thing about Samadhi.

He said,

Be with what is.

Be with reality as it is.

Not as you want it to be,

Not as you want it to not be.

So,

He came up with the techniques of just observing normal breath,

Not modulating the breath,

Not creating any sound,

Not doing any breathing exercise but just simple natural breath.

Reality as it is for me right now.

The other technique he came up with was observing the sensations that are happening in the body to me right now in this moment.

The sensations that are happening,

Not what I want them to be,

Not what I want them to not be but what they are right now.

This is called Samyak Samadhi,

The right kind of Samadhi.

One where you see reality as it is,

Where you observe reality as it is and then you immerse in the silence of reality.

That takes you into the deeper corners of the mind where sound cannot take you.

Second Samyak Samadhi is that where some wisdom about my mind is revealed to me.

I go in to look at what disturbs my peace and figure out the way to uproot that source of suffering or dukkha in me.

And third Samyak Samadhi is that where I learn to not react,

Just be some equanimous.

Being equanimous more and more and more takes you deeper and deeper and deeper into the mind with this scientific temper recognising that this particular thing is the cause of my dukkha.

And this is the way to eliminate my dukkha.

The spiritual seeker comes up with his own wisdom.

That wisdom nobody can give it to you and nobody can take it away from you.

Even Iktah cannot give you the wisdom that you can experience when you go into meditation.

Again that meditation must be only with the medium of reality.

And external sound is not reality.

It is created.

It is unnatural.

It is okay for the first step on the spiritual path as a beginner but as you graduate higher you must learn to let go of the sound and immerse into silence to experience the depths of Samadhi.

May you all attain Samyak Samadhi,

The right kind of Samadhi.

Apu Dhipu Bhava.

Be your own light.

Be your own light.

Reviews

I appreciate your help getting past the chatter to a level of understanding, thank uyou

I am 11 months into following my personal path to enlightenment. Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom 🙏 namaste

Thank you for being able to explain it so clearly!!!