Samadhi: Part 2 - It's Not What You Think (2018) - full transcript

Music: The Beginning

The world's greatest
spiritual teachers from ancient

to modern times have shared
the view that the deepest truth

of our being is not
the property of one particular religion

or spiritual tradition but can be found
within the heart of each person.

The poet Rumi said:

"Where is that moon
that never rises or sets?

Where is that soul that is
neither with nor without us?

Don't say it is here or there.

All creation is 'that'
but for the eyes that can see."

In the story of the Tower of Babel,



humanity fragmented into
countless languages, beliefs,

cultures, and interests.

Babel means literally "the gate of God."

The gate is our thinking mind,
our conditioned structures.

For those who come to
realize their true nature,

their essence beyond name and form,

they are initiated
into the great mystery

of what lies beyond the gate.

An ancient parable,
the elephant parable,

has been used to describe
how various traditions are actually

all pointing to one great truth.

A group of blind people are
each touching a different part

of an elephant, getting
a certain impression

of what an elephant is.



The person standing at the elephant's leg

describes the elephant
as being like a tree.

Music: The Gayatri Mantra

The person at the tail says
the elephant is like a rope.

The elephant is like a spear, says

the one standing at the tusk.

If one touches the ear,
it seems the elephant is like a fan.

The person touching the side is adamant

that the elephant is like a wall.

The problem is we touch
our piece of the elephant,

and we believe our
experience is the only truth.

We don't acknowledge or appreciate

that each person's
experience is a different facet

of the same animal.

[singing in Sanskrit]

The perennial philosophy
is an understanding

that all spiritual and
religious traditions

share a single universal truth,
a mystical or transcendent

reality upon which
foundation all spiritual knowledge

and doctrine has grown.

Swami Vivekananda summed
up the perennial teaching

when he said: "The end of all religions

is the realizing of God in the soul.

That is the one universal religion."

In this film, when we use the word God,

it is simply a metaphor
for the transcendent,

pointing to the great mystery
beyond the limited egoic mind.

To realize one's true self
or immanent* self
* Permanent, inherent.

is to realize one's divine nature.

Every soul has the potential
to manifest a new higher

level of consciousness,

to awaken from its slumber and
its identification with form.

The writer and visionary Aldous Huxley,

known for his book "Brave New World,"

also wrote a book which he entitled
"The Perennial Philosophy",

in which he writes about
the one teaching that

comes back over and over
in history, taking

the form of the culture
in which it is realized.

He writes: "The perennial
philosophy is expressed most

succinctly in the Sanskrit formula:

The Atman or immanent eternal self

is one with Brahman, the absolute
principle of all existence;

and the last end of every human being

is to discover the fact for himself,

to find out who he or she really is."

Music: Om Ram Ramaya

Each tradition is like
a facet of a jewel reflecting

a unique perspective of
the same truth while at the same time

echoing and illuminating each other.

Whatever the language and
conceptual framework used,

all religions that reflect
the perennial teaching

have some notion that there is
a union with something greater,

something beyond us.

[singing in Sanskrit]

It is possible to learn from
and integrate the teachings

from one or many sources without
identifying a sense of self with them.

It is said that all true
spiritual teachings are simply

fingers pointing to
the transcendent truth.

If we hold on to the dogma,
the teaching, for comfort,

we will be stunted in
our spiritual evolution.

To realize truth beyond any concept

is letting go of all
clinging and attachment,

letting go of all religious concepts.

From the ego's perspective,
the finger pointing you to Samadhi

is pointing straight toward the abyss.

Saint John of the Cross* said,
* Spanish mystic and poet,
a Carmelite monk and priest (1542-91).

"If one wishes to be sure of
the road they tread,

one must close their eyes
and walk in the dark."

[singing in Sanskrit]

Samadhi begins with
a leap into the unknown.

[throat chant]

In the ancient traditions,
in order to realize Samadhi,

it was said that one must
ultimately turn consciousness

away from all known objects,
from all external phenomena,

conditioned thoughts and sensations,

toward consciousness itself,
toward the inner source,

the heart or essence of one's being.

In this film, when we use the word samadhi,

we are pointing to the transcendent,

to the highest Samadhi, which has

been named Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

In Nirvikalpa Samadhi,
there is a cessation of self activity,

of all seeking and doing.

We can only speak about
what falls away as we approach it

and what reappears
when we return from it.

There is neither perception
nor non-perception,

neither thing nor no-thing,

neither consciousness
nor unconsciousness.

It is absolute, unfathomable
and inscrutable to the mind.

[non-English singing]

When the self returns to activity,

there's a not knowing,
a kind of rebirth,

and everything becomes new again.

We are left with
the perfume of the divine,

which lingers longer
as one evolves on the path.

[non-English singing]

There are numerous types
of Samadhi described

in the ancient traditions,
and language has created

much confusion over the years.

We are choosing to
use the word "Samadhi"

to point to the transcendent union,

but we could have used a word from
another tradition just as easily.

Samadhi is an ancient Sanskrit
term common to the Vedic,

Yogic, and Samkhya traditions of India

and has permeated many
other spiritual traditions.

Samadhi is the eighth limb of
Patanjali's eight limbs of the yoga

and the eighth part of
the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path.

The Buddha used the word "nirvana",

the cessation of vana or
the cessation of self-activity.

Patanjali described yoga or Samadhi as

the Sanskrit meaning "cessation of
the whirlpool or spiral of mind."

It is a disentangling of consciousness

from the entire matrix,
or creatrix, of mind.

Samadhi does not signify any concept,

because to realize it requires
a dropping of the conceptual mind.

Different religions
have used various words

to describe the divine union.

In fact, the word "religion"
itself means something similar.

In Latin, means to rebind or reconnect.

It's a similar meaning to the word yoga,
which means to yoke,

to unite the worldly
with the transcendent.

In Islam, it is reflected in
the ancient Arabic meaning

of the word "Islam" itself,
which means submission

or supplication to God.

It signifies a total humbling or
surrender of the self-structure.

Christian mystics such as
Saint Francis of Assisi,

Saint Teresa of Avila

and Saint John of the Cross

describe a divine union with God
the kingdom of God within.

In the Gospel of Thomas, Christ said,

"The kingdom is not here or there.

Rather, the kingdom of the Father

is spread out upon the Earth,
and men do not see it."

The works of the Greek
philosophers Plato, Plotinus,

Parmenides and Heraclitus,

when seen through the lens
of the perennial teaching,

point towards the same wisdom.

Plotinus teaches that
the greatest human endeavor

is to guide the human soul
towards the supreme state

of perfection and union with the One.

The Lakota* medicine man and holy man,
Black Elk, said,
* An American Indian people
of western South Dakota.

"which is the most important,

is that which comes
within the souls of men

when they realize their relationship,
their oneness

with the universe and all its powers,

and when they realize that
at the center of the universe

dwells Great Spirit and that
this center is really everywhere.

[American Indian chant]

On the path to awakening,
unless we are in Samadhi,

there are always two polarities,
two doorways one can enter,

two dimensions,

one towards pure consciousness,

the other towards the phenomenal world

the upward current toward the absolute

and the downward current toward Maya

and all that is manifested,
both seen and unseen.

The relationship between
relative and absolute

could be summed up in
the following quote

by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing.

Love is knowing I am everything.

And between the two my life moves."

What is born of this union is
a new divine consciousness.

Something is born out of the marriage
or union of these polarities,

or the collapse of dualistic identification.

Yet what is born is not a thing,
and it was never born.

Consciousness flowers,
creating something new,

creating what you could
call a perennial trinity.

God the Father, the transcendent,

unknowable, and changeless is united

with the Divine Feminine,
which is everything that changes.

This union brings about an
alchemical transformation,

a kind of death and rebirth.

In the Vedic teachings, the divine union

is represented by two fundamental forces,

Shiva and Shakti.

The names and faces of the various gods

change throughout history, but
their fundamental attributes remain.

What is born out of this union
is a new divine consciousness,

a new way of being in the world,

two polarities, inseparably one,
a universal energy

that is without center,
free of limitation.

It is pure love.

There is nothing to be gained or lost,

because it is utterly
empty but absolutely full.

Whether it is the mystery
schools of Mesopotamia,

the spiritual traditions of
the Babylonians and Assyrians,

religions of ancient Egypt,
Nubian and Kemetic cultures

of ancient Africa,
the shamanic and native traditions

around the world,
the mysticism of ancient Greece,

the Gnostics, the nondualists,
the Buddhists, the Taoists,

Jews, Zoroastrians, Jains,
Muslims or Christians,

one finds that their common link is

their highest spiritual insights
have allowed their adherents

to realize Samadhi.

The actual word Samadhi means
something like

to realize the sameness
or oneness in all things.

It means union.

It is uniting all aspects of yourself.

But do not mistake
intellectual understanding

for the actual realization of Samadhi.

It is your stillness, your emptiness

that unites all levels
of the spiral of life.

It is through the ancient
teaching of Samadhi

that humanity can begin to understand

the common source of all religions

and come into alignment
once again with the spiral of life,

Great Spirit, Dhamma or the Tao.

The spiral is the bridge that extends
from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

From your DNA to
the inner Lotus of energy

that extends through the chakras
to the spiral arms of galaxies,

every level of soul is
expressed through the spiral

as ever-evolving branches,
living, exploring.

True Samadhi is realizing the emptiness

of all levels of self,
all sheaths of the soul.

The spiral is the endless play of duality

and the cycle of life and death.

At times, we forget
our connection to the source.

The lens we look through is very small.

And we identify with being
a limited creature creeping

upon the Earth only to once again
complete the journey back to the source,

to the center that is everywhere.

Chuang Tzu said: "When there
is no more separation between

this and that, it is called
the still-point of the Tao.

At the still-point in
the center of the spiral,

one can see the infinite in all things."

The ancient mantra

has a poetic meaning:

one awakens or realizes
the jewel within the Lotus.

Your true nature awakens within the soul,
within the world, as the world.

Using the Hermetic* principle
"as above, so below;
* An ancient occult tradition encompassing
alchemy, astrology and theosophy.

as below, so above",
we can use analogies

to begin to understand
the relationship between mind

and stillness, relative and absolute.

A way to begin to grasp
the non-conceptual nature

of Samadhi is to use
the analogy of the black hole.

A black hole is traditionally
described as a region of space

with a massive gravitational
field so powerful

that no light or matter can escape.

New theories postulate that all objects,
from the tiniest microscopic particles

to macrocosmic formations

like galaxies, have a black
hole or mysterious singularity

at their center.

In this analogy, we're going to use

this new definition of a black hole

as the center that is everywhere.

In Zen, there are many poems and koans

that bring us face to face
with the gateless gate.

One must pass the gateless
gate to realize Samadhi.

An event horizon is a boundary
in space-time beyond which

events cannot effect
an outside observer,

which means that whatever is
happening beyond the event horizon

is unknowable to you.

You could say that
the event horizon of a black hole

is analogous to the gateless gate.

It is the threshold between
the self and no-self.

There is no "me" that
passes the event horizon.

In the center of a black hole is
the one-dimensional singularity

containing the mass of billions of suns

in an unimaginably small space,
effectively an infinite mass,

literally a universe in
something infinitesimally

smaller than a grain of sand.

The singularity is something unfathomable,

beyond time and space.

According to physics,
movement is impossible.

The existence of things is impossible.

Whatever it is, it does not belong

to the world of perception.

Yet it cannot be described
as merely stillness.

It is beyond stillness and movement.

When you realize the center
that is everywhere and nowhere,

duality breaks down:

form and emptiness,
time and the timeless.

One could call it a dynamic stillness

or a pregnant emptiness
within the center

of absolute darkness.

The Taoist teacher Lao-tzu* said,
"Darkness within darkness,

the gateway to all understanding."
* Lao the Master (6th c. BC), Chinese philosopher
regarded as the founder of Taoism and author of
the Tao-te-Ching, its most sacred scripture.

The writer and comparative
mythologist Joseph Campbell

describes a recurring symbol,

part of the perennial philosophy
which he calls the axis mundi,

the central point or
the highest mountain,

the pole around which all revolves,

the point where stillness
and movement are together.

From this center, a mighty flowering tree

is realized,
a Bodhi tree* that joins all worlds.
* Tree of perfect knowledge.

Just as a sun gets sucked into
a black hole, when you approach

the Great Reality,
your life starts to revolve around it,

and you begin to disappear.

[throat chant]

As you approach the immanent self,

it can be terrifying
to the ego structure.

The guardians of the gate are there

to test those on their journey.

One must be willing to
face one's greatest fears

and at the same time
accept one's inherent power

to bring light to
the unconscious terrors

and the hidden beauty within.

If your mind is not moved,
if there is no self reacting,

then all phenomena
produced by the unconscious

arises and passes away.

This is the point in
the spiritual journey

where faith is most needed.

What do we mean by faith?

Faith is not the same as belief.

Belief is accepting something
on the level of mind

to bring comfort and assurance.

Belief is the mind's way of labeling
or controlling experience.

Faith is actually the opposite.

Faith is staying in
the place of complete

not knowing, accepting whatever
arises from the unconscious.

Faith is surrendering to
the pull of the singularity,

to the dissolving or
dismantling of the self

in order to pass the gateless gate.

The evolution and structure of a galaxy

is closely tied to
the scale of its black hole,

just as your evolution is tied to
the presence of the immanent self,

the singularity that is your true nature.

We can't see the black hole,
but we can know about it

by the way things move around it,

by how it interacts
with physical reality.

In the same way,
we cannot see our true nature.

The immanent self is not a thing.

But we can observe enlightened action.

As the Zen master Suzuki said,
"There are, strictly speaking,

no enlightened people.

There is only enlightened activity."

We can't see it,
just as the eye cannot see itself.

We can't see it because it is that

by which seeing is possible.

Like the black hole,
Samadhi is not nothingness,

and neither is it a thing.

It is the collapse of
the duality of thing and no-thing.

There is no gate to
enter the Great Reality.

But there are infinite paths.

The paths, the dharmas,
are like an endless spiral

with no beginning and no end.

No one can pass the gateless gate.

No one's mind has ever figured out how,
and none ever will.

No one can pass the gateless gate.

So be no one.

Samadhi is the pathless path,
the golden key.

It is the end of our identification
with the self-structures

that separate our inner and outer worlds.

There are many developmental models

which describe the layers or levels
of the self-structure.

We will use an example
which is very ancient.

In the Upanishads, the sheaths
which cover the Atman or soul

are called koshas.

Each kosha is like a mirror,
a layer of the self-structure,

a veil or level of Maya which distracts us

from realizing our true nature,
if we are identified with it.

Most people see
the reflections and believe

that that is who they are.

One mirror reflects the animal layer,
the physical body.

Another mirror reflects your mind

your thoughts,
your instincts and perceptions.

Another, your inner energy or prana

which you can observe
when you turn inward.

Another mirror reflects on the level

of the imaginal which is
the higher mind or wisdom layer.

And there are layers of transcendental
or nondual bliss

that are experienced
as one approaches Samadhi.

There are potentially countless mirrors,
or aspects of self,

that one can differentiate,
and they are constantly changing.

Most people have yet to
discover the pranic, higher mind

and nondual bliss layers.

They don't even know they exist.

These layers are informing your life,
but you do not see them.

The hidden mirrors
actually inform our lives

more than the ones that are visible.

They are unseen because for most people

they are not fully
illuminated by consciousness.

Like Indra's net of jewels,
the mirrors all reflect each other,

and the reflections reflect
every other reflection infinitely.

A change on one level simultaneously

affects all levels.

Some of these mirrors
may be left in the shadows,

unless we are fortunate enough
to have a competent guide

to help us shine light upon them.

The truth is we don't know
what we don't know.

Now, imagine that you
shatter all the mirrors.

[music changes]

There's nothing reflecting
you back to yourself.

Where are you?

When the mind becomes still,
the mirrors cease to reflect.

There is no more subject and object.

But do not mistake the primordial state

for nothingness or oblivion.

The immanent self is not something,

but neither is it nothing.

This source is not a thing.

It is emptiness or stillness itself.

It is an emptiness that
is the source of all things.

Form is realized as exactly emptiness.

Emptiness is realized as exactly form.

This source is the great womb of creation

pregnant with all possibilities.

Samadhi is the awakening
of impersonal consciousness.

Just as when you are having a dream,
upon awakening,

you realize that
everything in the dream

was just in your mind.

Upon realizing Samadhi, it is realized

that everything in this world
is happening within levels

upon levels of energy
and consciousness.

It is all mirrors within mirrors,
dreams within dreams.

The you that you think
you are is both the dream

and the dreamer.

Whatever we say in
this film, let it go.

Don't capture it with the mind.

The soul is dreaming,
dreaming the dream of you.

The dream is everything
that is changing.

But it is possible to
realize the changeless.

This realization cannot be understood
with the limited individual mind.

When we return from Nirvikalpa Samadhi,

the mirrors begin to reflect again,

and it is realized that
the world you now think

you are living in is actually you.

Not the limited you,
which is only a temporary reflection,

but you are aware of your true nature

as the source of all that is.

This dawning of higher wisdom

the embryo, prajna or gnosis,

is what is born out of Samadhi.

According to the Book of Job,

comes from nothingness.

This point of wisdom is
both infinitely small

and yet encompasses the whole of being.

But it remains incomprehensible until it

is given shape and form in
the palace of mirrors called Binah,

the womb carved out by higher
wisdom which gives shape

to the embryonic spirit of God.

Music: Abwoon D'Bashmaya
(The Lord's Prayer in Aramaic)

The existence of the mirrors or
the mind's existence is not a problem.

On the contrary, the error
or aberration of human perception

is that we identify ourselves with it.

This illusion that we are the limited self
is Maya.

The yogic teachings say
that to realize Samadhi,

one must observe the meditation
object until it disappears

until you disappear
into it or it into you.

Although the language in
the various traditions

is dissimilar, at their root they all

point towards a cessation
of self-identification

and self-centered activity.

The Buddha always taught
in negative terms.

He taught to investigate directly

into the working of the self-structure.

He didn't say what
Samadhi was except that it

was the end of suffering.

In Advaita Vedanta, there is a term

which means "not this, not that".

People on the path to self-realization

inquire into their true nature,
or the nature of Brahman,

by first discovering what they are not.

Similarly, in Christianity,
Saint Teresa of Avila described

an approach to prayer
based on the negative path,

or via negativa, a prayer of quiet,
surrender, and union,

which is the only way to
approach the absolute.

Through this gradual
process of stripping away,

one drops anything
that is not permanent,

anything that is changing

the mind, the ego construct,
and all phenomena,

including the hidden layers of self.

The unconscious must
become transparent in order

to reflect the one source.

If there is some deep knowing
or some self operating

in the unconscious, then our lives

remain locked into
a labyrinth of hidden patterns

that comprise the undiscovered self.

When all layers of self
are revealed as empty,

then one becomes free from the self,
free from all concepts.

A turning point in your evolution is
when you realize you don't know who you are.

Music: Gate Gate,
The Heart Sutra Deep Voice Chant

Who experiences the breath?

Who experiences the taste?

Who experiences the chant,
the ritual, the dance,

the mountain?

Witness the witness.

Observe the observer.

At first, when you observe the observer,

you will only see the false self.

But if you are persistent,
it will give way.

[throat chant]

Inquire directly into who or
what experiences unblinkingly,

piercingly, penetratingly,
with the full force of your being.

[throat chant in Sanskrit]

There is no self that awakens.

There is no you that awakens.

What you are awakening
from is the illusion

of the separate self,
from the dream of a limited you.

To talk about it is meaningless.

There must be an actual
cessation of the self

to realize directly what it is.

And once it is realized,
there is nothing

that can be said about it.

As soon as you say something,
you are back in the mind.

I have already said too much.

We normally have three
states of consciousness:

Samadhi is sometimes referred
to as the fourth state,

the ground state of consciousness,
a primordial awakeness that

can become present
continuously and in parallel

with the other consciousness states.

In Vedanta, this is called

Other terms for turiya
are Christ consciousness,

Krishna consciousness, Buddha nature or

In Sahaja Samadhi, the immanent self

stays present along with the full use

of all human functions.

The stillness is unmoving
at the center of the spiral

of changing phenomenon.

Thoughts, feelings, sensations,
and energy revolve around it

at the circumference.

But the degree of stillness or I-am-ness

remains during outer activity,
exactly as in meditation.

It is possible that the immanent
self will remain present,

even during deep sleep,
that your awareness of "I am"

does not come and go,
even as states of consciousness change.

This is yogic sleep.

In the Song of Songs,
or the Song of Solomon,

from the Hebrew Bible,
or Old Testament, it reads,

"I sleep, but my heart waketh."

This realization of the eternal
impersonal consciousness

is reflected in the words
of Christ when he said.

"Before Abraham was, I am."

One consciousness that
shines through countless faces,

countless forms.

At first, it's like a fragile flame

borne out of the polarities within you,

masculine penetrating consciousness

with a surrender or opening
of feminine energy.

It is delicate and easily lost.

And one must take great care
to protect it and keep it alive

until it is mature.

Samadhi is simultaneously
a timeless state of consciousness

and a stage in an unfolding
development process,

something organic and growing in time.

As one spends more and more
time in Samadhi, in the now,

in the timeless,
one takes more and more direction

from the heart, the soul or Atman

and less from the conditioned structure.

This is how one becomes
free of the lower mind,

free of pathological thinking.

The inner wiring changes.

Energy no longer flows unconsciously

in the old conditioned structures,

which is another way of saying
one is no longer identified

with the self-structure,
with the outer world of form.

To realize Samadhi
requires an effort so great

that it becomes a total
surrender of one's self

and a surrender so encompassing

that it is a complete effort of one's being,
all of one's energy.

It is a balance of effort and surrender,
yin and yang,

a sort of effortless effort.

The Indian mystic and yogi
Paramahamsa Ramakrishna said

You seek it with your whole being.

During one's ego transcending practice,

it takes great courage,
vigilance, and perseverance

to keep the embryo alive,

to not fall back
into the patterns of the world.

It takes a willingness
to go against the current,

against the inexorable crush of the matrix

and the grinding wheels of samsara*.
* The cycle of death and rebirth
the material world.

Every breath, every thought, every action

must be for realizing the source.

Samadhi is not realized
by effort nor is it effortless.

Let go of effort and non-effort.

It's a duality that
only exists in the mind.

The actual realization of Samadhi

is so simple, so undifferentiated

that it is always misconstrued
through language,

which is inherently dualistic.

There is only one
primordial consciousness

that awakens as the world,

but it has been obscured
by many layers of mind.

Like the sun hidden behind the clouds,
as each layer of mind is dropped,

one's essence is revealed.

As each layer of mind is dropped,

people call it a different Samadhi.

They give names to
different experiences

or different types of phenomena.

But Samadhi is so simple
that when you are told what it is

and how to realize it,
your mind will always miss it.

Actually, Samadhi is not
simple or difficult.

It is only the mind that makes it so.

When there is no mind,
there is no problem,

because the mind is what
needs to stop before it is realized.

It is not a happening at all.

The most concise teaching of Samadhi

is perhaps found in this phrase:

Be still and know.

How can we use words and
images to convey stillness?

How can we convey
silence by making noise?

Rather than talking about Samadhi
as an intellectual concept,

this film is a radical call
to inaction, a call to meditation,

inner silence, and inner prayer.

[throat chant]

A call to stop.

[music stops]

Stop everything that is driven
by the pathological egoic mind.

Be still and know.

No one can tell you what
will emerge from the stillness.

It is a call to act from
the spiritual heart.

[music resumes]

It's like remembering
something ancient.

The soul wakes up and remembers itself.

It has been a sleeping passenger,

but now the emptiness awakens and
realizes itself as all things.

You can't imagine what Samadhi is
with the limited egoic mind,

just as you can't describe to
a blind person what color is.

Your mind can't know.

It can't manufacture it.

To realize Samadhi is to
see in a different way,

not to see separate things,
but to recognize the seer.

Saint Francis of Assisi said,
"What you are looking for

is what is looking."

Once you have seen the moon,
you can recognize it in every reflection.

The true self has always been there.

It is in everything.

But you have not realized its presence.

When you learn to recognize
and abide (be) as the true self

beyond the mind and senses, it is possible
to experience awe at the most mundane.

We become awe.

Do not try to be free of desires,

because wanting to be
free of desires is a desire.

You can't try to be still,
because your very effort is movement.

Realize the stillness that
is always already present.

Be the stillness and know.

When all preferences are dropped,

the source will be revealed.

But do not cling even to the source.

The Great Reality, Tao,
is not one, not two.

Ramana Maharshi said,
"The self is only one.

If it is limited, it is the ego.

If unlimited,
it is infinite and the Great Reality."

If you believe what is being said,
you've missed it.

If you disbelieve, you've also missed it.

Belief and disbelief
operate on the level of mind.

They require a knowing.

But if you enter into
your own investigation,

examining all of
the aspects of your own being,

finding out who is
doing the investigating,

if you're willing to live by the principle

"not my will but higher will be done".

If you're willing to travel
beyond all knowing,

then you may realize what
I've attempted to point towards.

Only then will you taste for
yourself the profound mystery

and beauty of simply existing.

There is another possibility for life.

There is something sacred, unfathomable

that can be discovered in
the still depths of your being,

beyond concepts, beyond dogmas, beyond
conditioned activity and all preferences.

It is not acquired by techniques,
rituals or practices.

There is no "how" to get it.

There's no system.

There's no way to The Way.

As they say in Zen, it is discovering
your original face before you were born.

It is not about adding more to yourself.

It is becoming a light unto oneself,

a light that dispels
the illusion of the self.

Life will always remain unfulfilled

and the heart will
always remain restless

until it comes to rest in that
mystery beyond name and form.

Music: Om Shreem Lakshmi
by Daniel Schmidt and Vicki Hansen

[singing in Sanskrit]