The Meaning Of Samadhi
You don’t remember yourself. You may remember millions of things but you go on continuously forgetting yourself, that you are. Gurdjieff had a technique; he got it from Patanjali. In fact all techniques come from Patanjali. He is the past master of techniques. Smriti is remembrance – self-remembering, whatsoever you do. You are walking: remember deep down, “I am walking, I am.” Don’t be lost in walking. Walking is there – the movement, the activity – and the inner center is there, just aware, watching, witnessing. You need not repeat in the mind, “I am walking.” If you repeat, that is not remembrance. You have to be nonverbally aware, “I am walking, I am eating, I am talking, I am listening.” Whatsoever you do, the “I” inside should not be forgotten; it should remain.
It is not self-consciousness, it is consciousness of the self. Self-consciousness is ego; consciousness of the self is asmita, purity, just being aware that ‘I am,’
Ordinarily, your consciousness is arrowed towards an object. You look at me: your whole consciousness is moving towards me like an arrow. But you are arrowed towards me. And self-remembering means you must have a double-arrowed arrow, one side of it showing to me, another side showing to you. A double-arrowed arrow is smriti, self-remembrance.
Very difficult – because it is easy to remember the object and forget yourself. The opposite is also easy – to remember yourself and forget the object. Both are easy; that’s why those who are in the market, in the world, and those who are in the monastery, out of the world, are the same. Both are single-arrowed. In the market they are looking at things, objects. In the monastery they are looking at themselves.
Smriti is neither in the market nor in the monastery. Smriti is a phenomenon of self-remembering, when subject and object both are together in consciousness. That is the most difficult thing in the world. Even if you can attain for a single moment, a split moment, you will have the glimpse of satori immediately. Immediately you have moved out of the body.somewhere else.
Try it. But, remember, if you don’t have trust it will become a tension. These are the problems involved. It will become such a tension you can go mad because it is a very tense state. That’s why it is difficult to remember both: the object and the subject, the outer and the inner. To remember both is very, very arduous. If there is trust, that trust will bring the tension down because trust is love. It will soothe you; it will be a soothing force around you. Otherwise the tension can become so much you will not be able to sleep. You will not be able to be at peace any moment because it will be a constant problem, and you will just be continuously in anxiety.
Excerpted From Yoga: The Science of the Soul CH: 1
