Spiritual teachers have given the instruction to reach Samadhi: “be still and know”. Be still and know the true Self beyond name and form, or be still and know that you are God. What exactly do they mean?
¿Cómo puedes estar quieto en un globo girando a 1.000 mph sobre su eje, a 67.000 mph alrededor del Sol, a 500.000 mph alrededor de la galaxia y a millones de millas por hora más a través del universo? Tu corazón late, las células se mueven dentro, la comida se digiere, el cerebro produce ondas cerebrales y tu sangre bombea. ¿Cómo podemos estar quietos? ¿Qué es lo que se vuelve quieto? Obviamente, ningún cuerpo físico puede estar absolutamente quieto existiendo dentro del espacio-tiempo, porque el espacio-tiempo mismo es movimiento.
So when we say “be still and know” we must be talking about something else, something beyond time and space, something beyond the physical. What is meant by stillness is something that we have no word for in modern language. “Stillness” is the closest word, but it is inadequate to describe something that is not of this dualistic world. What is actually realized is a sort of primordial consciousness which is beyond stillness and movement, beyond time. It is eternal, the ground of your being that does not come and go, like the unmoving center of a wheel or stillness at the center of a hurricane. When prajna or wisdom of our true nature is realized, it becomes obvious that stillness and movement are a duality created by the mind. Fullness and emptiness are a duality created by the mind. Silence and noise are a duality created by the mind. Everything is already inherent within stillness, or the movement of the world is identical to stillness. The so-called outer world is transcended by realizing stillness, which, when realized includes that which it transcends. The duality of stillness and movement collapses. It is the mystery of your being- an opening of all dimensions into the dimensionless. You come to this center that is everywhere and nowhere by ceasing to respond unconsciously to phenomena that is arising.
“Cuando ya no hay separación entre esto y aquello, se llama el punto quieto del Tao. En el punto quieto en el centro de la espiral, uno puede ver lo infinito en todas las cosas” ~ Chuang-tzu
No busques la quietud, sino deja de reaccionar inconscientemente a la ilusión externa, y gradualmente tu fango se asentará, como dicen en el Zen. La ilusión no es que el mundo exterior no exista en un sentido ontológico (real e irreal son otra dualidad creada por la mente dualista), sino que la ilusión es que existe un “yo” separado que soy yo. Una vez que te das cuenta de la conciencia que no va y viene, eres libre de interpretar tu personaje sin identificación, reconociendo que solo el personaje vive y muere, y que la vida y la muerte no tocan tu verdadera naturaleza.
Siempre que la mente egoica limitada se mueve, es debido a la insatisfacción (dukkha); querer que las cosas sean de otra manera a como son. Cuando hacemos conscientes las tendencias del anhelo y la aversión, una vez que son conscientes, nuestra identificación con ellas caerá automáticamente y el patrón perderá energía.
You can’t force your mind to have no thoughts, because the wanting to have no thoughts is itself a thought. It is like desiring to have no desires. Don’t try to force stillness using the mind. It will be like putting a monkey in a straight jacket; the moment the monkey is let loose again it will go crazy. If you are just suppressing your thoughts, it is called being Dharma-ridden; it is holding the monkey mind so it can’t move. Meditation is not suppressing thinking, but recognizing what is beyond thinking.
No intentes reprimir tus pensamientos. Permite que vengan y se vayan sin que te enganchen.
In brain science the default mode network is the area of the brain that is functioning when the brain is in a resting state. It is the background chatter or daydreaming mind of the typical human being. In the yogic traditions, this is called vikshepa; distraction or mental wandering. Vikshepa must cease for Samadhi to arise. Recent studies in brain research using the FMRI have shown that in advanced meditators the default mode network is quieter. We cannot say that all advanced meditators no longer experience a constant thinking narrative in the head, but they generally experience much less of it.
Los términos “nirvana” o “nirodha” (budismo), “nirvikalpa” o “asamprajnata” samadhi (los sistemas védicos o yóguicos), “moksha” (hinduismo, jainismo y sijismo), “hesicasmo” (cristianismo monástico o místico), fana (sufismo) y kensho (zen) se refieren todos a un cese de las fluctuaciones autónomas de la mente limitada que dan lugar a la identificación. Patanjali dijo que Samadhi es “Chitta Vritti Nirodha”: el cese del enredo de la conciencia con el remolino fluctuante de la mente. El cese no significa que se sufra muerte cerebral ni nada por el estilo; la mente simplemente deja de producir pensamientos que interrumpan tu presencia (los vrittis o kleshas ya no se producen). En la vida cotidiana, la mente sigue funcionando, y tu memoria, tu razón, tu intelecto superior y la estructura del ego continúan funcionando. La mente está a la espera de ser utilizada como un siervo fiel. Al igual que los ojos ven, los oídos oyen y todas las funciones del sistema nervioso continúan con normalidad, la mente sigue funcionando, pero no identificamos nuestro sentido del yo con ella. El yo limitado no es más que preferencias inconscientes por algo distinto de lo que está surgiendo en el momento presente. Si la mente no está limitada por la identificación con el ego, entonces es inseparable de la gran realidad, la mente única sin la cual no existe nada más.
The primordial stillness is realized when the identification with the robotic self structure ceases and awareness as the ground of existence wakes up to itself. When identification ceases then eventually robotic activity ceases as the old patterns lose energy. Like a fan that has been unplugged it takes time to wind down, and we must continue to be vigilant that we do not turn it back on by engaging in the old patterns until new energy pathways are completed. When energy is freed from the old patterns new energetic structures are grown (the tree of life or inner lotus), and eventually effort is not needed. Energy will naturally flow in the path of least resistance, like water naturally following the contour of a carved river bed. When energy flows from the root to the crown then one becomes a living bridge between the world of change and the unchanging ground of all being. This is what the spiritual masters have called sahaja samadhi, or a living samadhi integrated into and not separate from all human activity. It is possible to simultaneously “be still and know” and to “be in motion and know”, recognizing that it is only the limited mind that creates the duality between stillness and movement. This stateless state or open state is what Krishnamurti called “choiceless awareness”. Find out how to be present without thinking, without choosing, without preference, and without discrimination. I can’t tell you how, because if I give you any technique you will be paying attention to the technique rather than to what is actually arising in this moment. It is simply being attentive to, and equanimous with what is.