Illuminating Samadhi Pada – contemplations on concentration

 

From what I can glean of the Samadhi Pada, the first part of the 51 thread of the multi faceted 195 Patanjali yoga sutras, is that we have an opportunity to remember ourselves. 

When unencumbered by facts or illusions, delusions or memories of the past, we may then know our soul and rest in our ultimate truth.

The sutras provide a framework for recognising the fluctuations of the mind, what to do about them and the work that needs to be done in order to know peace. While practicing the art of Yoga and working through the sutras we plant the seed that hopefully, eventually,  can calm the many movements of consciousness in order to know this truth. 

You see, the self is a tree of many types of bliss, where we may understand consciousness in order to remember our essence. What is this essence or true nature of the self? Is there such a thing as the self when we go beyond personality and patterns? Dive deeper into the mystery to know your truth. In the meantime we practice with passion and perseverance and notice when we need to weed the garden in order for our trees to grow. Sometimes steady and strong, but sometimes wavering in doubt or the illusion of loneliness. Yet, we keep gardening, keep working, come rain or shine, like we have done forever.

 

 

We live and practice not for gain or want, but for a curiosity or creativity and explorations in the education of mystery. We see ourselves reflected in the whole, not separated by borders of fixed judgments or ideas, but bound together in freedom below the surface of the soil. (Did you know trees secretly talk to each other, share resources and form a symbiotic association with the below ground fungal network right under our feet?)

Through the contemplation and meditation of this mystery of all that is, was and will ever be, we recognise that concepts of god are ultimately limiting, and our true nature goes beyond the boundaries of the forest and into the vastness of all. This is the nameless mystery. We keep the focus of the seed of our intention and see the obstacles as they arise through the practice of many possible methods. (There are many ways to weed a garden after all).

To know yourself the ultimate goal.

 

 

Illuminated by steady reflections and inspired by contemplations, we are awakened in a new state of being. Shining in this light of wisdom the conditions for prosperity and abundance abound and our garden is vibrant and alive, vital and fecund. Then upon ultimately realising that the wisdom was already there, is already and we are not seperate to the knowing, we hold mystery inside us, around us, above and below us. The mystery is us.

In radiance we remember and know ourselves luminous, newborn. No need for labels, no desire for intentions or concerns for the weeds in the garden, we just keep weeding as required, like our ancestors have done, for the love of soil is our earliest of passions. The fruit is ready to eat and will return back to the soil to begin again.

We are all good compost you see?

I am not an I or a that. Neither greater or lesser. There is nothing and everything so special about me. I am not an it, a my or a me, a we or an us. 

Gardens of many seeds.