What Is Aware of Even Being?

So what would you define as Samadhi?

So let’s go very slowly, maybe this gives me an opportunity to talk about the core of the message so to speak, the core of what we are trying to do here. Maybe in that the quesHon would be answered and if not you can tell me, ‘but you didn’t answer my quesHon.’ [Chuckles] So we can look at it aaram se- no rush. When you say ‘the feeling’, I think that is just for communicaHon purposes, but Awareness by itself is not a feeling. And That which is aware of the Being within which this enHre play of all percepHons including feelings, is that Awareness that we are speaking about. So many Hmes what happens is that because we have used the term Awareness in the world to signify a sort of aZenHveness which makes it feel like I can be more aware or less aware depending on how much aZenHon is present on a parHcular way of perceiving. Then we can say, I am more aware or less aware. And then we may even look at the sense of Being as a feeling but actually all feelings are just by-products of that sense of existence. So why it is important to clarify that is that many Hmes there is this idea that my aZenHon can rest in Awareness or my aZenHon can rest in my Being and for the Being we can somewhat say like that- I can keep my aZenHon on my sense of Being [Silence] it can feel like that but actually it is sHll being kept on the sense or the Presence of this Being itself. Now to make it simpler (I can hear the words coming out of this mouth, I can hear the need to be simplified a bit) so when I ask you ,Are you aware now? What is your answer?

So what knowledge did you refer to to make that confirmaHon? [Silence]

Independent of knowledge. Did you have a percep#on of it? [Silence]

So way beyond all worldly ways of knowing things, you see, this quesHon is like a bypass because for most other quesHons, in fact I can try and go as far as to say all other quesHons if it not an object of your percepHon and neither is it an object of conceptual [points to his head] knowledge, you would say ‘no’. Is there is red colored balloon on the screen? [Silence] You would say no because it is unperceived. And yet only for Awareness although it is unperceived we can sHll confirm yes. Now this is a nuclear sort of discovery, it’s atomic! But what happens is the mind will quickly try to mess that up and say, ‘But, but, this, this…’ So just for a moment just try to assimilate that that there is something which is able to recognize this ever present Awareness without needing any phenomena, without needing any conceptual knowledge. So this discovery is to discover that Self, that Reality which does not come and go and it is independent of the appearance and disappearance of the manifest universe. So this is what all spiritual pracHces, all methods of recogniHon, all inquiry, is meant for this simple discovery. And what is the discovery-only that which is always present. In fact ‘always’ beyond Hme, it is not a now-ness which is in Hme. It is always there but not as an object of Hme. So if there is a spiritual pracHce which is about using worldly means of operaHng in some way – whether it is a mental repeHHon of something, whether it is physical movement of some sort, or any step-one, two, three, it at best can be a way to allow us to just dive into this primal recogniHon which is beyond all percepHon. Now what happened is that in these, in this sort of preparaHon, in this sort of preparatory movements many pracHces and techniques were developed by various great Masters, they had intuiHve insights into various things. And many Hmes in the process of that pracHce, in coming to this true insight which is ever available, you see, either before or aeer coming to that insight, you could experience your Being in various modaliHes which are unfamiliar in the normal way of human interacHon or human existence. So you could experience for example that all there is is my Presence, my Being and not experience the body sensaHons, the breath, any other phenomena, you see. Now some would call it some kind of Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi or something, Turiya or something like that. But all of these things will become very natural for you, they’ll become very natural for you. Then there are some cases where you are just experiencing your sense of Being and your experiencing your own breath, like Consciousness has thinned out so that you’re only experiencing a minor aspect of the universe. In fact it is not projecHng anything else, it is just projecHng that and that can be called another sort of Samadhi. So in the spectrum between just pure Awareness like deep sleep and the full vibrancy of all the states which are appearing, as you’re experimenHng with yourself, with your Being and you’re experimenHng with various pracHces and methods to discover what you truly are you will experience your Being in all of these modaliHes. Now the Sages have in one way or the other, have defined these and said, this is Savikalpa, this is Nirvikalpa, this is this state, this is that state. But in the direct Satsang like this, where we are talking about That which is primal, the most primal from which all of this, including the sense of Being arises, we don’t put too much emphasis on those things. There is no repulsion to them but there’s not too much aZracHon either because what has been found is many Hmes these states can be very aZracHve and what can happen is the mind can make a sense of accomplishment out of them and then it becomes about trying to get to a parHcular state knowing fully well conceptually that everything that comes will go, so it cannot be the final, you see? So it can at best be an aid to the recogniHon, it may feel like at Hmes my aZenHon is so distracted by everything in this manifest, by all the colors and light and sounds of this world, then someHmes it may just make sense to close your eyes-doesn’t give that much room for aZenHon to get distracted. Then it may get distracted by internal percepHons like memories, like the mind itself, like thoughts, like emoHons, sensaHons, like pain-pleasure all of these sensaHons. So you may say, okay that is sHll too distracHng for me, how can I go even deeper so you may get instrucHon from a Master who may say, just keep your aZenHon on your sense of Being or sense of existence-I am. So then you may rest on that. Or the Master may say, What is Aware even of Being? Just be concerned with that. Don’t worry about everything else, let it come and go. So depending on the kind of teaching and the kind of Master you are following then that pracHce or technique could vary from expression to expression of the Sage or the Master, But here are many many different Indian tradiHons which emphasize on reaching a Samadhi kind of state and there are many many tradiHons which don’t speak of Samadhi at all. So it is beauHful if it is something that your being guided to on the path you are following, if the Master is guiding you to towards that kind of poinHng then there’s nothing wrong with it. But here we don’t emphasize so much on it because I’ve noHced that when you have these experiences then they themselves can seem like ‘This is it! Now I have to hold onto to this and if this is not there then I’m not being my complete Self or not recognizing myself completely’ which is all fallacy actually. The Self is that which doesn’t come and go and everything that comes and goes is part of the manifest leela of the Self itself. So I hope that sort of answered what you asked. You’re free to ask more if you like.