Sleep or Samadhi?

Eva Müller posted an article on our meditation experience. During Meditations: Am I Sleeping or entering Samadhi?

She raised key points about interpreting what’s happening in our subjective experience before samadhi is clear. It’s challenging to tell. Am I just falling asleep? Or?

As she observes, if we have fatigue, it’s natural for the body to fall into a deep sleep during meditation. Samadhi can even lead to sleep, so there can be both.

Eva also noted that, if the body is processing a major release, it may step out of the conscious mind to protect us. We go through a quiet space, and then come out the other side.

And then there’s actual samadhi. Samadhi is going beyond the mind and emotions into pure being. As the mind processes the senses, it means there is no content, nothing to experience. Just being.

Early on, our nervous system still has a lot of unresolved shadows and fog, so such a subtle experience is just noticed as a kind of blank space. The content goes away, and then we notice thoughts coming back. We may even notice a wave of bliss as we pass back up through the bliss body. 

As it gets clearer, we may notice a sense of spaciousness, of simple being. I am and that’s it. This can feel like a deep rest afterwards.

The Yoga Sutra speaks of stages of samadhi. With and without seed, and so forth. I’ve not found those distinctions useful as road markers, but they do describe the process and how we deepen.

As it gets deeper, especially on a longer retreat when we’re well rested, we may even notice periods of the breath stopping. We’re so settled that the need for breath pauses. And then a little purification or thought happens, and the breath starts again. 

In time, we’ll be able to stay in silent being, even when quiet thoughts come up. Being is becoming established. Our physiology can integrate 2 levels of experience.

Then we’re able to stay in the silence, notice the breath stopping, notice thoughts coming up and more, all while remaining in silent observing.

This sets the stage either for an ongoing witness, when the being becomes an observer of our life, or for Self Realization, when that being wakes up to itself, through us. Or we may just stumble into awakening with most of the process still a little vague. 🙂

Samadhi plays a key role in our process, however conscious it is. So an effortless meditation is a key tool for spiritual progress. 
Davidya