VBT – Meditation 25.2
Samadhi
In samadhi you enter yourself fully conscious, fully alert. And once you are at the center fully alert, you will never be the same again. Now you will know who you are. Now you will know that your possessions, your actions are just on the periphery; they are just the ripples, not your nature.
The mechanism of this technique of stopping is to throw you suddenly into inactivity. The point must come suddenly, because if you try to be inactive you will turn it into activity. So do not try, and suddenly be inactive. That is the meaning of “Stop!” You are running and I say, “Stop!” Do not try, just stop! If you try, you will miss the point. For example, you are sitting here. If I say stop, then stop immediately then and there; not a single moment is to be missed. If you try and adjust, and you settle down and then say, “Okay, now I will stop,” you have missed the point. SUDDENLY is the base, so do not make any effort to stop – just stop!
You can try it anywhere. You are taking your bath – suddenly order yourself to “Stop!” and stop.
Even if it is only for a single moment, you will feel a different phenomenon happening within you.
You are thrown to the center and suddenly everything stops – not only the body. When the body stops totally, your mind also stops. When you say, “Stop!” do not breathe then. Let everything stop…no breathing, no body movement. For a single moment remain in this stop, and you will feel you have penetrated suddenly, at rocket speed, to the center. And even a glimpse is miraculous, revolutionary.
It changes you, and by and by you can have more clear glimpses of the center. That is why inactivity is not to be practiced. Use it suddenly, when you are unaware.
So a master can be helpful. This is a group method. Gurdjieff used it as a group method because if you say “Stop!” you can deceive yourself easily. First you make yourself comfortable and then you say “Stop!” Or even if consciously you have not made any preparation for it, unconsciously you may be prepared. Then you may say, “Now I can stop.” If it is done by the mind, if there is a planning behind it, it is useless; then the technique will not be of any help. So in a group it is good. A master is working with you, and he says, “Stop!” He will find moments when you are in a very inconvenient posture, and then a flash happens, a sudden lightning.
Activity can be practiced; inactivity cannot be practiced – and if you practice it, it becomes just another activity. You can be inactive only suddenly. Sometimes it happens that you are driving a car, and suddenly you feel there is going to be an accident, that another car has reached near yours and in just a moment there will be a crash. Suddenly your mind stops, breathing stops, everything stops.
So many times in such accidents one is thrown to the center. But you may miss the point even in an accident.
Tags: Samadhi
