Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the non-conceptual recognition of what we are.
Channel: Dharma Servant
Date: 2011-04-18

I'm contemplating Nirvikalpa Samadhi with my spiritual friend. I recently read a definition of Nirvikalpa Samadhi on the internet, which stated that it is the highest state of concentration in which the soul loses all sense of being different from the universal self, but it is only a temporary state from which there is a return to ego consciousness.

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is recognizing what we truly are. It's not a state, because a state is a state of something, just like ice is a state of water, steam is a state of water, rain is a state of water, a flowing river is a state of water, but water is water. Whether it's a flowing river, a still pond, the deep blue ocean, or a trickling stream, the essence of water is water, and the state factor in these things is the condition.

What we truly are, which is the non-conceptual recognition of what we are, is not a state, and it happens in the absence of states. For example, if I were to recognize myself just sitting and being what I am, it would be like sitting relaxed with awareness of what I am. A state would be if I were dancing, angry, happy, or acting in a certain way. In the same way, a hypnotist can take people in stage hypnosis and convince them that they're Elvis or in love with someone, and then the person acts according to the hypnotic command. The hypnotic state and the actions that go with it are all one state.

If a person goes through life constantly identified with conditions of their mind, body, and thoughts, they're all literal states and combinations of mind, body, and thought states, but all there is is consciousness. So, when there's an absence of states, consciousness is what it is, and after recognizing this, if I start dancing and moving again, the knowingness that I am, which wasn't a state, isn't then absent in the presence of states. Then one knows what one is in the presence of states.

It just so happens that there is a simultaneity of understanding, a transcendent understanding that transcends the states, meaning it's still present in the midst of activity. It's not a stillness that is the absence of activity; it's a stillness that was underlying activity all the while. It's like the silence of the mind is always there, in the presence of thoughts or in the absence of thoughts. In deep meditation, in the absence of thoughts, the silence is seemingly amplified, but it's not a silence created by the absence of thoughts. It's a silence revealed in the absence of thoughts, and when thoughts return, the silence is still there, making the thoughts possible.

So, these are some considerations and musings on the way this body sees Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

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