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| The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book 1 - The Problem of Union |
| 18. A further stage of samadhi is achieved when through
one-pointed thought, the outer activity is quieted. In this stage the chitta is responsive
only to subjective impressions. The word "samadhi" is subject to various
interpretations, and is applied to different stages of yogi achievement. This makes it
somewhat difficult for the average student when studying the various commentaries. Perhaps
one of the easiest ways to realize its meaning is to remember that [36] the word
"Sama" has reference to the faculty of the mind-stuff (or chitta) to take form
or to modify itself according to the external impressions. These external impressions
reach the mind via the senses. When the aspirant to yoga can control his organs of
sense-perception so that they no longer telegraph to the mind their reactions to that
which is perceived, two things are brought about: This is one of the early stages of samadhi but is not the samadhi of the adept. It is a
condition of intense internal activity instead of external; it is an attitude of
one-pointed concentration. The aspirant is, however, responsive to impressions from the
subtler realms and to modifications arising from those perceptions which are still more
subjective. He becomes aware of a new field of knowledge, though as yet he knows not what
it is. He ascertains that there is a world which cannot be known through the medium of the
five senses but which the right use of the organ of the mind will reveal. He gets a
perception of what may lie back of the words found in a later sutra as translated by
Charles Johnston, which expresses this thought in particularly clear terms: "The seer is pure vision... he looks out through the vesture of the mind."
(Book II Sutra 20) The preceding sutra dealt with what may be [37] called meditation with seed or with an
object; this sutra suggests the next stage, meditation without seed or without that which
the physical brain would recognize as an object. It might be of value here if the six stages of meditation dealt with by Patanjali are
mentioned as they give a clue to the entire process of unfoldment dealt with in this book:
It is of value here to note that the student begins by aspiring to that which
lies beyond his ken and ends by being inspired by that which he has sought to know.
Concentration (or intense focusing) results in meditation and meditation flowers forth as
contemplation. |
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