Question from Yoga Sutra 15
HOW THE SEED IS BURNED IN FINAL SAMADHI?
You always cling to words! – And I know that is natural. When you hear the words “samadhi”, “seedless samadhi”, “the seed has burned; now there is no more seed,” you hear words, and then questions arise in your mind. But if you understand, then these questions will become irrelevant. “The seed is burned”, does not mean that actually something like that happens. What happens is simple, simply this: that when nirvichara samadhi is attained, thoughts cease. Suddenly there is no seed to be burned. It has never been there; you were in a hallucination.
This is a metaphor, and religion talks in metaphors because there is no other way to talk about things which belong to the unknown. It is a metaphor. When it is said the seed is burned, the only meaning is: now there is no desire to be born, no desire to die, no desire not to die; simply there is no desire. Desire is the seed, and how desire can exist when thoughts have ceased? Desire can exist only through thinking, in the form of thought. When thoughts are not there you are desireless. When you are desireless, birth and death disappear. With your desire the seed is burned. Not that there is a fire in which you burn the seed… Don’t be foolish. Many have become victims of metaphors. These are poetic ways of saying certain things, through the metaphor.
And just understand the essential. The essential is that desire leads you into time, into this world. You would like to be this and that, you would like to attain this and that; future is created. Time is created by desire. Time is nothing but a shadow of the desire. There is no time in existence. Existence is eternal; it has never known any time. Time is created by your desire, because desire needs space to move. Otherwise, if there is no future where the desire will move? You will always be against a wall, so you create the future. Your mind creates a dimension of time, and then the horses of desire can gallop fast. Because of desire you create a future, not only in this life but in other lives also, because you know desires are so many… And desires are such they cannot be fulfilled: this life won’t be enough – more lives are needed. If only this is life, then too short is the time, too many things to do, and such a short time – nothing can be done. Then you create future lives.
It is your desire that becomes the seed, and through the desire you move and move, from one dream to another. From one life to another when you move it is nothing but moving from one dream to another. When you become thoughtless, when you drop all thinking and simply remain in the present moment, suddenly time has disappeared.
The present moment is not part of time at all. You divide time in three tenses: past, present, future. That is wrong. Past and future are time, but the present is not part of time, the present is part of existence. Past is in the mind: if your memory is vast, where will the past be? Future is in the mind: if your imagination is dropped, where will be the future? But the present will be there. It does not depend on you and your mind. The present is existential. Only this moment is true; all other moments either belong to the past or to the future. The past has gone, is no more, and the future has not come yet. Both are non-existential. Only the present is real, only one moment of present. When the desires cease and thinking ceases, suddenly you are thrown to the present moment, and from the present moment opens the door to eternity. The seed is burned. With the dropping of the desire the seed disappears of its own accord – it was created by the desire.
SOMETIMES WE FEEL AWARE AND SOMETIMES NOT. AWARENESS SEEMS TO PULSATE. DOES THIS PULSATING SLOWLY DISAPPEAR OR DOES IT GO SUDDENLY?
In life everything is a rhythm. You are happy and then follow unhappiness. Night and day, summer and winter; life is a rhythm between two opposites. When you try to become aware the same rhythm will be there: sometimes you are aware and sometimes not.
So don’t create a problem, because you are such experts in creating problems that out of the blue you can create a problem. And once you have created a problem then you want to solve it. And then there are people who will supply you with answers. A wrong problem is always answered by a wrong answer. And then it can go on ad infinitum; then a wrong answer again creates questions. From the very beginning one has to be aware not to create a wrong problem. Otherwise the whole of life goes on and on in the wrong direction. Always try to understand not to create a problem. Everything pulsates into a rhythm, and when I say everything, I mean everything. Love, and there is hate; awareness, and there is unawareness. Don’t create any problem: enjoy both.
While aware enjoy awareness, and while unaware enjoy unawareness – nothing is wrong, because unawareness is like a rest. Otherwise, awareness will become a tension. If you are awake twenty-four hours, how many days do you think you can be alive? Without food a man can live for three months; without sleep, within three weeks he will go mad, and he will try to commit suicide. In the day you are alert; in the night you relax, and that relaxation helps you in the day again to be more alert, fresh. Energies have passed through a rest period; they are more alive in the morning again.
The same will happen in meditation: few moments you are perfectly aware, at the peak; few moments you are in the valley, resting – awareness has disappeared, you have forgotten. But what is wrong in it? It is simple. Through unawareness will arise again awareness, fresh, young, and this will go on. And if you can enjoy both you become the third, and that is the point to be understood. If you can enjoy both it means you are neither – neither awareness nor unawareness, you are the one who enjoys both. Something of the beyond enters. In fact, this is the real witness. Happiness you enjoy – what is wrong when happiness has gone and you have become sad? What is wrong in sadness? Enjoy it. And once you become capable of enjoying sadness, then you are neither.
And this I tell you: that if you enjoy, sadness has its own beauties. Happiness is a little shallow; sadness is very deep, it has a depth into it. A man who has never been sad will be shallow, just on the surface. Sadness is like a dark night – very deep. Darkness has a silence into it, sadness also. Happiness bubbles, there is a sound in it. It is like a river in the mountains; sound is created. But in the mountains, the river can never be very deep; it is always shallow. When the river comes to the plain it becomes deep, but the sound stops. It moves as if not moving. Sadness has a depth.
Why create trouble? While happy, be happy, enjoy it. Don’t get identified with it. When I say be happy, I mean enjoy it. Let it be a climate which will move and change. The morning changes into the noon, the noon changes into the evening, and then comes night. Let happiness be a climate around you. Enjoy it, and then comes sadness… enjoy that too. I teach you enjoyment, whatsoever the case. Sit silently and enjoy sadness, and suddenly sadness is no more sadness; it has become a silent peaceful moment, beautiful in itself, nothing wrong in it.
And then comes the ultimate alchemy, the point where suddenly you realize you are neither – neither happiness nor sadness. You are the watcher – you watch peaks, you watch valleys; you are neither.
Once this point is attained, you can go on celebrating everything. You celebrate life and you celebrate death. You celebrate happiness, you celebrate unhappiness. You celebrate everything. Then you are not identified with any polarity. Both the polarities have become available to you together, and you can move from one to the other easily. You have become liquid-like, you flow. Then you can use both, and both can become a help into your growth.
Remember this: don’t create problems. Try to understand the situation, try to understand the polarity of life. In summer it is hot, in winter it is cold – so where is the problem? In winter enjoy cold, in summer enjoy heat. In summer enjoy the sun; in the night enjoy the stars and the darkness, in the day the sun and the light. You make enjoyment, your continuity, whatsoever happens. In spite of it you go on enjoying it. You try it, and suddenly everything is transfigured and transformed.
Tags: Life Is A Rhythm Patanjali
