The word Samadhi may not mean a great deal to some of you who are unacquainted with the Eastern teaching, yet, to the Easterner Samadhi is the greatest word and signifies the greatest attainment. It is literally at-one-ment with God, and the seeker for it is striving for the gaining of this at-one-ment in whatever kind they conceive it to be. Samadhi is a condition of consciousness which is found in the soul of each individual, it is only in the inner being of the individual that one may see the divine spirit or God. Man does not find God in the material alone, man finds God as a spirit in the spiritual realm, man must seek in his own spiritual self to find God.
In the East the great teachers of wisdom have for many ages tried to discover how man may control his lower or animalistic nature and bring forth the higher nature of his being. They have found that there are certain necessary things to be accomplished, those necessary things include the control of the mind and of the body, because it is only through the control of the qualities and forces that we use to manifest in the material that we are able to enter the higher or more divine world.
In the search for Samadhi we find that the principle is to go within and release powers that we can use to take hold of the necessary forces and energy to control life around us. We must also learn how to shut off any of those things in the outer world which seem to have the power to force us into paths we do not like or wish to follow. It is only when we learn to control the external that we can learn to control the internal.
The first step is the control of our outer self, for that reason one is taught that one must become master of the material so it is subject to the will. Only when it answers to the command given it is one able to command and withdraw from it. Without such control of the mind one finds themselves clinging to the outer world, we are told to seek the inner world.
Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all things shall be added unto you.” We do not realize that seeking the kingdom of heaven means the perfecting of ourselves on all planes of being, we can only seek the kingdom when we have purified ourselves so we are worthy to enter into the kingdom. We must purify ourselves of all negation and inharmony, we cannot take those things into God’s kingdom. Every individual must learn to manifest the spiritual in their outer life if they hope to attain the kingdom of heaven.
Most of us will be bound by sickness and other negative things of life, (most of us think man is here to suffer) but no person needs to suffer any longer than they desire. They say, “I have tried to get well, I have tried to hold the thought of health yet the sickness still persists.”
There is more to the removal of negation in our body and surroundings than the willing of it, if it would go away by the mere willing it would be very easy to control any condition in our life – we would just have to say, “Go away,” and it would. The willing alone will not do it, we have to reach into our inner-self and change the pattern or matrix else the negative conditions continue to exist because there has been no change in the pattern or matrix. Most of us do not realize that before there can be any change in the visible world there must be a change in the pattern or matrix in the invisible world. We have to make a new matrix and destroy the old.
We do not change things in the spiritual world by willing in the material world, we have to do as Jesus said, “Pray not as the heathen do thinking to be heard of their much saying but when ye pray retire into thy inner chamber and what ye ask in secret of the God in your heart will be given thee in the open.”
What is this inner chamber where dwells the God of your heart? It is the invisible inner self, the self that has the power to change all things in the material world. We can only ask God for things in the spiritual world and we can then manifest them in the material world, as long as we seek with the material will, that will applies in the material, when we seek with the spiritual will we can change the pattern or matrix into a harmonious one.
You may wonder what all this has to do with my talk on Samadhi. The ancients said that the material world is the footstool of God and where we must establish harmony before we can enter into the harmony of God. The path to Samadhi is the path of conquest of self and man does not conquer self unless he knows himself, physically, mentally, astrally and spiritually. Man cannot know himself in part only, he must know himself in all planes of being – only in so doing can he put forth the power to master life and the conditions of life. We enter Samadhi by mastery over life and the conditions of life.
The great teachers of the East, when speaking of Samadhi say this: “The first step is the conquering of the lower self not merely the submersion of the lower self.” Many confuse mastery with submersion – it is not enough to push the negative in the background and then put a veneer of harmony over it. Behind the veneer we have a wall of rotten material and no matter what the outside is the worms are eating inside and after a while the structure will fall down.
The great teachers say we must build a firm foundation and after that everything that goes into it must be perfection. We cannot build secret closets in which to hide the things we are ashamed of, all that must be brought into the open and spiritually changed, alchemically changed, until the gross matter becomes the most pure gold.
The search for Samadhi is the search man has been engaged in since the fall of man, the search to attain at-one-ment with God and his lost Paradise. Yet man seeking to attain thinks he can deceive God and himself. He thinks if he goes to church on Sunday, does a few charitable things he will go to heaven. One fact man faces is that you cannot pay your way into heaven, you have to make yourself a fit vessel to sit before the holy altar and the throne of God.
I mean literally that the outer self can only be conquered when one conquers the mental processes, when we drive from our thoughts any inharmony whatsoever, when we reject every moment of the day and night every negative thought, when they cease to be a part of us – that is the first step to gaining Samadhi.
The second step is contemplation of the Divine. How can we contemplate the Divine when man’s mind is a limited thing, limited in the concepts of the three dimensional world around him, things that are part of our experience or we have learned from the experiences of others? How can an unlimited and boundless God be contemplated by one who is limited and bound? He cannot, but one can strive to break that limitation and bondage by enlarging their boundaries and enter into an expanded state which is beyond the limitation of the things in our material world.
There are a great many students on the path or off the path (there are more off than on the path I am sorry to say) who think that if a thing is beyond them, if it is hard they should push it to one side and say, “That is not for me, I am not ready for it.” The only way we will ever break our bondage, the only way the Adepts ever attained, the only way we will ever break our boundaries and the chains that bind us is to press against them with all our material might. We can stand at the foot of a mountain and say that is too high for us to climb and the longer we stand there the less strength we have for the climb, the quicker we start to climb the more strength we will gain. The one who is truly seeking goes as far as they can and they will find that as they labor with what they have they gain more strength until finally they can reach the top, but if the person does not put forth the effort to break the bonds they can never attain.
There has never been an adept that has not pushed against the barriers before they broke them down and as they continued to extend the barriers they drew more strength from the soul, the spiritual nature of man, more spirituality entered their being and they gained the power to enter into a more illimitable being. When one breaks down the barriers they may enter Samadhi which is not contemplation or thinking of the Divine, it is literally losing oneself in the Divine.
I have seen adepts, those who are sometimes called masters, sitting in the state of Samadhi, in their physical bodies while the spirit had transcended the material. They might be sitting with their eyes closed or with them wide open, without a movement of the body or the movement of a muscle, with their breathing slowed down, and their heart beating so faintly you could hardly tell there was a pulse. All their strength had gone from the body and when they were not externalizing themselves the body did not need the strength and they would sit three, four or five days in a state of absolute at-one-ment with God. When they returned their face would be lighted up until you could literally see the reflection of the spiritual light shining through them, that they had brought back into the world. It was not the spiritual light, that they could not bring back, but it was the reflection of the light which was so strong that it would shine through the veil of the flesh and light those around them.
In the state of Samadhi the soul passes beyond the earthly plane and the astral plane and enters into that state which is one with the Divine and in that state an awareness is maintained so that the soul is illumined by the light of God and becomes perfect and frees itself from bondage to the wheel of life. The soul that has attained this at-one-ment with God does not have to go out any more, it passes beyond the limitations of the wheel of life, it has become a part of the Christ Consciousness, but like the Christ Consciousness it comes to earth in the form of an Avatar, it comes to shine as a light in the darkness to attract man so that finally man may find the eternal way of life, to become one with God – the only place man can truly know God.
In Cosmic Harmony,
Doreal
Dr. M. Doreal
Dr. M. Doreal is a spiritual teacher of a multitude of seekers of light, having founded the metaphysical church and institute. Doreal is the author of all of the organization’s writings and teachings and was granted permission for the esoteric wisdom to be remitted in the public forum by the Great White Lodge and the
Elder Brothers of mankind, who shape and form the spiritual evolution for mankind. Doreal writes of the secrets of the symbolism of all mystery societies and gives a precisely and beautifully written step by step progression all seekers have searched for in their quest for oneness with God and attainment of the cosmic consciousness. After traveling the world for knowledge of the light and truth, Doreal began publishing his findings in the lessons we now have today. Doreal studied the ancient teachings of the Emerald Tablets, the wisdom of the Kabbalah, and the light Jesus brought to mankind. He has translated many ancient texts into English and other languages for the masses to read in order for all of us to reach atonement within ourselves and the cosmic universe. All his publications are available through the Brotherhood of the White Temple publication office.