Satsang with Giten on Buddha:
Buddha’s
Middle
Way
From satsang with Giten, March 3, 2016, in Stockholm
8. Right Samadhi
The eighth and the last step of Buddha’s Middle Way is Right Samadhi.
Samadhi is when you are totally absorbed into the center of existence, when you are totally absorbed into the heart of existence.
Our seventh chakra is flowering.
The preceding seven steps of Buddha’s Middle Way is a preparation for Right Samadhi.
The preceding seven steps of Buddha’s Middle Way leads to Right Samadhi.
But there is also the possibility of wrong Samadhi if you fall into unconsciousness.
Samadhi should bring you to total awareness, to perfect awareness.
You should not become unconscious, but one can become unconscious if you go inside so deeply that you forget the outside.
Ordinarily we live outside of ourselves, so completely that we have forgotten the inside.
But it is also possible to become aware of the inside and forget the outside.
Buddha says that this is wrong Samadhi.
Buddha says: Right Samadhi is when you are totally aware of both the inner and the outer.
In Right Samadhi, the inner light is burning so bright that it fills both the inside and the outside with light.
In Right Samadhi, both the inside and the outside disappears, there is only light.
Right Samadhi is not the inner or the outer, Right Samadhi is to be one with life.
In the book “Presence – Working from Within: The Psychology of Being”, I talk about being one with the whole:
The personality, the Inner Being and Wholeness
– The Three Layers of the Human Consciousness
What are the three layers of the human consciousness? How do the three layers of the human consciousness relate to therapeutic work? The human consciousness consists of three layers: 1. The personality, the psychological “I” 2. The inner being, the authentic self and 3. Wholeness – being one with the Whole.
The personality is the created sense of “I”. The inner being is our authentic self, our true individuality. The relation between the personality and the inner being is like the relation between the waves on the surface of the ocean and the silent, dark bottom of the ocean. The personality is the surface and the periphery of our total consciousness like the waves of the ocean, and the inner being is the depth of our consciousness like the silence at the bottom of the ocean.
The personality is a separation from life; the personality is a “no”-attitude to life through our separate ideas, psychological attitudes and concepts. Our inner being is a “yes”-attitude to life; our inner being is the door to oneness with Existence.
In our psychological and spiritual development process towards spiritual maturity, we first develop the personality. Then we develop the inner being, which is the door to develop wholeness, being one with the Whole.
The personality, the psychological “I”
What is the personality, the psychological “I”? The word “personality” originally comes from the Latin word “persona”, which means role or mask. The personality is the role that we play or the mask that we wear. The personality is the sense of “I” that we identify ourselves.
The personality can be defined as the created sense of “I”. The personality consist of all our accumulated experiences from the past. The personality consists of ideas, emotions, attitudes and concepts that we have been taught from others. The personality is built through learning and imitation by being born in a certain family, in a certain society, in a certain culture and in a certain time.
The personality consists of four layers:
1. Thoughts
2. Emotions
3. The psychological head attitude
4. The physical body
The girder of the personality is the psychological head attitude. The psychological head attitude is the basic decision that we have taken early in life about how we relate to ourselves and to life. It is the of kernel of thoughts, feelings and attitudes, which exists as a basic attitude within us and determines how we relate to ourselves, how we relate to other people and how we relate to life as a whole. If we put this head attitude in a short sentence, it could, for example, be: “I do not trust that I am already OK and that life takes care of me”, “I am not worthy of being loved and accepted as I am”, “I can never get what I really need in life” or “Life is a struggle to survive”. This head attitude is like wearing a pair of colored glasses and unconsciously allowing them to color how we interpret and perceive reality.
The personality is a separation and a defense against life. The personality is based on the idea that we are a separate person, who is distinctly separated from other people and from life itself. The personality is like a small separate island in a large ocean.
The personality is a “no”-attitude towards life through our separate ideas, attitudes, judgments, dreams, ambitions and concepts. The personality shows us how we resist life, and how we defend ourselves against the wholeness of life through our separate ideas and expectations. From a psychological development standpoint, it is necessary to first develop a strong personality, a strong ego, before we can begin to develop our inner being.
The inner being, the authentic self
What is the inner being? The inner being is our essence and authentic self. The inner being is the Existential self; the inner being is our original face. It is to rediscover the self that existed before birth and which will continue to exist after death. The inner being is an inner “yes”-attitude in relation to Existence.
To rediscover our inner being means to discover that which is already perfect within ourselves. It is to discover the source of love deep within ourselves, which is our true nature.
To rediscover the inner being is to find the authentic self beyond the confines of the personality. The inner being is the unidentified witness and watcher of the layers of personality. Thoughts, emotions and the physical body is not aware about themselves, it is the inner being that is aware about the thoughts, the emotions and the sensations of the physical body. The inner being is the inner silent place, where we are not identified with the thoughts and its problems, with the emotions and their passion or with the sensations of the physical body.
Meditation is the way to develop our inner being. Developing the inner being through meditation can be described like the step-by-step process of emptying a room from furniture until finally the room is completely empty, and only a pure silence and emptiness remains.
In the inner being, we begin for the first time to experience the original life source beyond the personality; we begin to experience the unity within ourselves. The inner being is the silent place within ourselves, which is beyond conflict and duality. In the inner being, we can rest in ourselves. We can rest in a presence, a silence, without trying, without fighting, without intention and without ambition. We are not going anywhere, there is nothing to prove, and there is nothing to achieve.
In this inner presence, there is no sense of “I”, only a presence, a light, a joy, a love and a truth in the moment. The personality gives us the idea that we are somebody special, but in reality we are really nobody at all. And to be nobody at all is paradoxically enough the greatest joy there is.
To be nobody at all, a presence, a silence, a nothingness, is to be one with ourselves. And to be one with ourselves is to be in joy.
The inner being is the door to belongingness with Existence. Through opening this inner door, we can allow life to pass unhindered through us without interrupt the flow of life through our own ideas, attitudes, expectations and concepts. The inner being is an inner space, a silence and emptiness, without desire to achieve anything, without wish to be somebody special and without wish to reach anywhere. It is an inner space, where we can allow people, situations and life to be as it is. It is an inner space, where we can allow people to come and go, without clinging when they come and without holding on when they go again.
The inner being is a deep “yes” to life; the inner being is a deep acceptance of life. It is a deep acceptance of the reality of life as it is. The inner being is a depth within ourselves, which is as deep as Existence itself.
Rediscovering the inner being is to discover the and undefined and boundless within ourselves. Through opening this inner door within ourselves, we come home. We are home wherever we are. Rediscovering the inner being is to discover the limitless and boundless source of creativity within ourselves.
Wholeness – Being One with the Whole
What is wholeness? The word “religion” originally means “to return to the source”. It means to rediscover our inner being, our inner life source. The deepest pain in our heart is to be separated from life. We are separated from the Whole, from Existence. The deepest thirst in our heart is to return to our inner being, to our inner life source, where we are one with life.
“The most beautiful experience that we can reach is the mystical”, says Albert Einstein in the book “Living Philosophies.” The goal of meditation -if you can talk about a goal in connection with meditation – is enlightenment. In the depth of our inner being, we are really already enlightened. We are already an inseparable part of Existence, but we have forgotten our true inner nature. We have forgotten our inner Buddha. Meditation is the way to discover our inner being, our authentic self, our inner Buddha. Enlightenment is the fruit of meditation.
Enlightenment is to realize the highest development of the human consciousness. It is to climb the Mount Everest of human consciousness.
The philosopher Emanuel Kant was one asked what enlightenment is and his short answer was: “to grow up.”
During the time I was writing this book, I got a glimpse of wholeness on Easter Day April 16, 2006. I was having a coffee by myself in a café when suddenly a silence descended on me, and my separation from life disappeared like darkness from a room when you lit the light. Suddenly my whole perception of reality changed, and in a few second I learnt more than during 20 years in the university.
I was suddenly one with life, one with the Whole. It filled my heart with an ecstatic joy to be one with people, one with the Whole, without reaching out of myself. I felt accepted and loved by Existence as I am. In this wholeness, there was nowhere to go and nothing to achieve. I was suddenly part of God. I was coming home. It was a joy to be in a silent communion with people on a deeper level beyond words, rather with the usual nonsense that people waste theirs lives on.
The reason that people start wars is because they still believe in their separation from life. But when you experience this wholeness with all living beings, you understand that hurting somebody else just means that you hurt yourself, because we are all one on the spiritual level.
The word “religion” originally means “to return to the source”, and this experience is also a freedom through finding my own unique relationship to the Existential source, to the Whole, without depending on any church, organization, priest, faith or scripture – including the scientific rationalistic and materialistic religion.
What the Japanese Zen-tradition calls “satori” is a short glimpse of what enlightenment means. It is like when the lens of a camera opens for a fragment of a second and allows the light in. It is short glimpse of what is possible; it is a glimpse of the light, of the Whole, which always exists as a possibility in each moment in life.
Each human being is unique; each human being contains a divine spark, a divine light, an aspect of God. We are much more than we think we are.
The mystery and beauty of life is that it is impossible to understand, but we can live it. We can never really understand life, but we can become one with it. we can become one with the dance of life; we can become one with the ultimate mystery of Existence.
I remember an insight that taught me much. One day I felt that I had everything that I really wanted in life. I had a creative and meaningful work as a therapist and course leader, which allowed me to grow. I had a relationship with a beautiful woman, who I loved and who love me. I had friends that I trusted, and I had money to do what I wanted. But in spite of all this, I still felt that something was missing in my life. I was still not satisfied. The longing and thirst in my heart and being, still searched for something more. This made me realize that the deepest pain in my heart and being was that I was still separated from life, from the Whole, and that no outer things could ease this pain.
The inner being is the indefinable within ourselves, the ultimate mystery. It is so indefinable that we can experience it, but we ca not explain it. We can become one with it, but we can not understand it. It is the ultimate mystery of life.
We originally come from this existential source, and we also return to this source when we die. Death is the unconscious way to return to this original source, and enlightenment is the conscious way to return to this source. Death means to still believe in our separation from life, and enlightenment means to realize our inherent oneness with Existence.
The whole issue of enlightenment is still too large and overwhelming for me, but I feel that the deepest thirst in my heart and being is to become enlightened, to become one with Existence. I really want to understand deeply the mystery of life. I feel that the precious moments when my heart and being vibrates in oneness and harmony with life shows that I am on the right track. The open secret, the existential joke, is that enlightenment is really to search for that which you already are.
Enlightenment is really as simple as drinking a glass of water. But exactly because it is so simple, it becomes easy to miss. Enlightenment is so close to ourselves that it is easy to miss. It is about realizing that the door to enlightenment has never been closed. It is our own effort and restlessness that keeps the door closed.
In love relationships with another person, we can experience short moments of harmony and wholeness. But these moment are followed by separation, since relationships are a continuous balance between love and freedom, between meeting and parting again, between independence and being together and between separation and wholeness. Enlightenment means to discover this wholeness, this intimate relationship, within ourselves without being dependent on anybody else.
Enlightenment does not imply to be somebody special, or to be especially spiritual. It is nothing special about being enlightened. To be enlightened does not either mean to be higher than somebody else, just as a large tree is not higher or better than a little bush, or a rose is not better than a tulip. Enlightenment only means that we have discovered our authentic inner being, our inherent harmony with life, while somebody else will experience this on his own when the time is ripe. To be enlightened is to be totally ordinary, so ordinary that we are nobody at all, we are a nothingness. To be enlightened is to be a medium for Existence; to be enlightened is to be a spiritual healer. It is to be a channel for Existence through which the Whole can dance and sing. It is then that we become a flute on the lips of Existence through which the Existential music can flow. We become a song to ourselves; we become a healing Buddha.
Existence tries in every moment to give us exactly what we need with more love, compassion and ingenuity that we can ever imagine. When we trust life, we can relax and allow life to guide us to meet the people that we need to meet, and to make the experiences that we need to take the next step in our spiritual growth.
We think that we are separate from life, but in reality we are already one with life. We are an inseparable part of life. We belong to life.
If you want to try how independent you really are from Existence, then try to hold your breathe and imagine how long you would survive without oxygen. Life is a continuous development and balance between dependence and independence, between love and freedom, between our male and female qualities and between separation and wholeness.
We need the air, we need the earth, we need the houses, we need the roads and we need the pavements. We are not separate from life; we are a part of the Whole.
Existence totally supports us in our thirst and longing to return to the original source. Existence tries to help us to become enlightened, to realize that we are already one with life.
Spiritual healing means to heal the split between our idea of a separate sense of “I”, and everything that we already are. Spiritual healing means to heal our separation from life.
One evening when I meditated out in nature, my separation from life suddenly ceased. Suddenly I was one with life. It was an insight into the mystical unity of life, which filled my heart with a joy without reason. I was one with the Divine dance, one with the Divine play. It was a deeply healing experience, a feeling of being OK as I am, and that Existence loved me. A feeling of belonging to Existence.
When we realize that we are one with life, the whole world become our home. We are at home everywhere.
Enlightenment is like throwing everything up in the air – all our ideas, dreams and expectations, all our separate goals and ambitions, all our earlier spiritual experiences, all our ideas of who we are – and to see what comes down again.
We all seek enlightenment – independent of whether we are aware about this fact or not. We all seek love, joy, silence, truth, freedom and belongingness with life. Some people seek enlightenment in unconscious ways through work, power, success, relationships, sex or by becoming famous.
Enlightenment is not only a question of individual enlightenment, it is a question of global enlightenment. It is a question of creating a buddhafield, a paradise on earth.
Enlightenment is not only a question of individual enlightenment, it is also a question of collective enlightenment. Collective enlightenment means a global expansion of consciousness. It means to begin to think in terms of “we”, rather than “I”. To think in terms of “I” means to act from the personality, from the psychological “I”. The personality is a separation from life. To think in terms of “I” is to act from a “no”-quality. To think in terms of “we” is to be in contact with the inner being, with the authentic self, with the inner capacity to surrender to life. To think in terms of “we” is to be in contact with the inner “yes”-quality. It is to cooperate with that which is larger than ourselves. Collective enlightenment could also be called spiritual globalization – which is different from the economical globalization, which is only good for the few and bad for the many. When we realize that all living beings seek enlightenment, that all living beings seek love, joy, truth and freedom, we can develop a compassion for all living beings.
The seventh level of consciousness is placed on top of the head. It is called Unity or Crown chakra, and relates to opening to universal consciousness, to achieve the ultimate wisdom.
The seventh level of consciousness is about learning to know God. It relates to truth, unconditional love, enlightenment, and to the experience of being one with the Whole. It is a freedom and joy beyond words. The experience of the seventh level of consciousness is beyond words, and is hard to describe in words. It is a paradoxical experience of being everything and nothing at the same time. It is to discover that we have never really been separated from life. It is to be in a deep unity and harmony with life. Our small separate individual river has finally reached and joined the ocean of consciousness.
When we begin to open the seventh chakra, the thousand petaled lotus flower is opening. We have learnt the lesson of life. We have grown up. We have become spiritually mature. Our inner tree is bearing fruit. This unity with the Whole does not mean that our unique individuality is extinguished. On the contrary, it means that the richer our life experience is, and the more qualities we have developed, the richer becomes the quality of our enlightenment.
The last steps towards enlightenment must a seeker of truth take himself, without relying on any outer crutch or authority.
I drank a silent cup of coffee in a café and when I left the café, one of these rare and precious moments happened without any outer cause. Suddenly my whole perception of reality changed from separation to wholeness. I experienced an intimate belongingness with all the people that I meet. Jag was one with all the people, and experienced that all people come from the same invisible source. People has their own unique individuality, but they come from the same original source. It is diversity in unity. It was a sublime joy to walk around and experience that I was one with all the people that I meet.
Divine love is to realize that we are one with life. Real love is to realize that we are one with the other person, that we are one with the stones, one with the trees, one with the earth and one with the blue sky. It is to realize that the whole of life is God.
Enlightenment is a total “yes” to ourselves. It is a total love and acceptance of ourselves as we are.
Enlightenment is to live, love and be from the inner being, from the inner life source.
Enlightenment is to find our authentic inner being, our own unique quality and fragrance.
Enlightenment is the phenomenon of “disappearing” into the Whole, to become so one with the larger flow of Existence that it begins to sing and dance through us.
When we live in contact with our inner being, we find ourselves in an alive, intimate and expanding relationship with Existence.
Enlightenment is not a static phenomenon, it is to say “yes” to the truth of the moment. It is to embrace the living reality of the moment. Enlightenment is a dance with life, a dance with eternity.
The insight of enlightenment is the same in everyone, but they way to express the experience of enlightenment is totally unique depending on the fragrance, quality and life experience of the person.
Enlightenment is not an end, but a new beginning, which has no end. It only means that we realize that we are one with life – and that life is a dance of joy.
The dimension of being is a love affair with love. It is to return to the original life source.
Enlightenment is to be in an intimate contact with the ocean of healing like when the drop surrender to the ocean.
The Perfect Birthday Gift: The Existential Gift
– From death to the deathless, from separation to Wholeness
On May 15, 2009, it was my 50th birthday. This event emphasizes the relation between time and timelessness, between death and the deathless. During the Easter, 2009, I received the perfect unexpected birthday gift in advance, which was a gift from Existence.
I was 15 years old when I for the first time got the ice cold insight that I was never going to die. It was an insight that there was something in me that belonged to the deathless and the eternal. When I was 15 years old, this insight totally shattered my whole perception of myself and of life. It also created a thirst and longing in my heart and being to understand the mystery of life.
On Easter evening, 2009, I unexpectedly received the same penetrating insight that I am never going to die. It was the silent insight that my inner being belongs to the deathless and the eternal, which erased all my fears of death. This insight also taught me that death is not just an end, but a new beginning. Instead of death being a source of fear, death becomes a loving new beginning. The insight that my body belongs to time, and my inner being belongs to the timeless and the eternal, created a transformation of my whole being.
Later the same day this insight also expanded into a silent explosion of my whole consciousness. Suddenly I got the insight that I am one with life. one with the Whole. Suddenly I found that which I have searching for a long time, for many lives. It was like coming home.
Later the same day I took a walk and drank a cup of coffee in a small café. When I drank my coffee, I got the feeling that my physical body was too limited to contain my expanded and limitless sense of “I”. My expanded sense of “I” was much larger than my limited and confined physical body.
I could taste the limitless and boundless waves of the ocean of consciousness in my own heart and being. This created an almost overwhelming joy and ecstasy in my heart, together with a feeling of being loved by the whole. I felt like screaming with joy and gratitude.
– Swami Dhyan Giten
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