Stages of Samadhi

[adina]

We started some questioning/discussion about the stages of samadhi in the thread on the Second Stage Spiritual thread. I thought it might be best to continue that discussion in a separate thread.

Most of what I know about these stages comes from the teachings of Yogananda as presented in the Bhagavad Gita.  It was Wolf who first brought up the seven stages in the first Pluto school (I think that’s where it was). He, of course, knows nearly all of them now from personal experience. But here’s what I’ve gleaned and hope it helps.

Samadhi is simply realization or oneness with God, and there there are two main stages of Samadhi: savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa Samadhi. According to what Wolf taught, typically one has experienced the first stage of Samadhi by the end of the First Stage Spiritual, and the next three stages by the end of 2nd stage spiritual, with the last three stages of Samadhi occurring within the 3rd stage spiritual

Savikalpa Samadhi includes these first four stages of Samadhi, and nirvikalpa Samadhi includes the last three. As one’s consciousness begins to expand, from the beginning of seeing the spiritual eye thru the first four stages of Samadhi, the center of gravity OF that consciousness is in the process of moving from ego to soul. It is the movement FROM savikalpa Samadhi TO nirvikalpa Samadhi that marks the evolution from 2nd stage spiritual to 3rd stage spiritual. When one reaches that 5th stage of Samadhi, marking the entry into 3rd stage spiritual, the center of gravity of ones consciousness is finally anchored in the soul, rather than the ego.

When we meditate and withdraw our life force, our consciousness from the senses, we enter into one of the stages of savikalpa Samadhi where the soul is released from ego consciousness  and one becomes aware of Spirit beyond creation. During savikalpa Samadhi, the soul expands into spirit, but it doesn’t lose its identity.  One is in a kind of trance, an expanded awareness in which the consciousness is focused within, rather than being identified with the outside world. One cannot stay in savikalpa Samadhi and go about their daily activities. This in itself, can be problematic, as one comes out of even the “small” ecstasy of the 1st Samadhi back to this time/space reality, it produces a kind of depression for the “loss” of the experience of where it’s just been, but also a longing to return.

If we look at the first stage of savikalpa Samadhi as a trip into deep space, but it’s deep space withIN, so to speak,  and the absolute peace and bliss of pure BEing, then maybe a simple way to put the progression is an expansion OF that initial awareness, we can begin to experience – to really feel – the energy of each of the chakras as we go, the colors, the sounds, etc. associated with each.

In nirvikalpa Samadhi, the soul realizes that it’s one with spirit, and can remain immersed in God while going about its daily activities. Again, the beginning stage of nirvikalpa is the point at which the center of gravity of the consciousness is anchored in the Soul, rather than the ego.

There is more information/description of what happens during each of the seven stages of Samadhi in Yogananda’s translation and interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita. These can be found in Ch. 6, v. 23 (p. 626-628).

I hope this helps at least a little. And I hope others jump in.

[stephen]

Thank you Adina for taking the time to post this.

May You be well, and May All Beings find True Peace,
Blessings,
Stephen

[shaktidevii]

hope its okay to revive this thread because i have been considering posting in regards to the asteroid, samadhi, 12472, and samadhi's north and south nodes in evolutionary astrology, if there is scope for it.
samadhi is the 8th limb of traditional raja yoga, full absorption into non dual cosmic mind, becoming one, merging with source, perpetual cosmic witnessship and awareness.

samadhi, along a spectrum and trajectory of progression, might correlate to those spiritual oneness even drug induced experiences that may catalyze or accelerate souls movement back to source. samadhi experiences happen in the higher koshas that are not subject to space time reality, duality, "laws of karma, or samskaric momentum of mind" and when states are held for a long time, sam'skaric patternings (desire: craving momentum or aversion momentum that either is directed away from or towards source) wound around different vrittis (propensities of mind, either moving inward or outward) of each chakra spontaneously begin to unravel and dissolve. reorganization, recoding, rewiring, of ones ego orientation and patterns is very common in this sustained states of nonduality. so is it worth it to locate this in the charts of clients to point to the ways that they can experiences this in order to facilitate divine reorganization of individual self.would there be potential scope for integrating this asteroid into the EA paradigm

also, the asteroid karma, 3811, and mnemnosyne, 57, as well as both their nodes.
and possibly the south node of asteroid DNA 55555 used with geodedic equivalents.


EA is very new to me so these questions come from outright naivete.




 

using Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi, the hugging saint, as an example with the asteroid samadhi,
http://www.astrotheme.fr/astrologie/Ammachi

there is a wide skipped step between nodal axis (sn - aquarius leo 3rd 9th) and saturn, saturn is on the edge of a last decadent libra stellium with neptune, mercury and the asteroid samadhi in the 12th. the stellium, saturn-neptune-mercury-samadhi, in the 12th is square uranus cancer 9th.

i just finished reading her biography and it was reported both by Amma and her family and others that lived in her village that she would spontaneously fall into deep states of samadhi, that it was difficult for her to establish boundaries in the physical body so as not to become completely absorbed and identified in the ocean of cosmic consciousness, source.

in Paramahansa Yogananda's chart, DNA is conjunct the SN in scorpio 3rd, mnemonsyne aquarius (extracerebral memory? akashic records?) 6th is in opposition to moon leo 12th and squares IC and widely squares pluto neptune conjunction 10th. Yogananda, in his autiobiography reported being able to recall the entire journey of his soul and remember every incarnation up until his previous Mahatma incarnation with SadGuru, Sri Yukteswar.  

fun to ponder, Yogananda's Pluto pp is conjunct astroid interkosmos sagittarius in the fourth.  



thanks for looking, any thoughts?

[Linda]

Thanks for this information Shaktidevii.

I've started using Asteroid Samadhi 12472.........

and am finding it very insightful in individual, synastry and composite charts.

Btw, do you have resources for the meanings of more Asteroids that you can share?

[adina]

One reference I've found very helpful is Jacob Schwartz's Asteroid Name Encyclopedia, copyright 1995. Many more asteroids have been discovered and named since the book was first published, but it sure is a good place to start.

Blessings,
Adina

[Linda]

Thanks so much Adina.

[shaktidevii]

Adina, thank you so much for this post, finding this has been so important. Thank you Thank you. had you already looked at the asteroid samadhi in your analysis of natal charts. if so i'm curious of what you might have found or have come to understand over time. if not, would this be something you would be open to exploring. i've been trying to make elementary correlation's and connections in the charts of 2nd and 3rd stage spiritual souls with recent contextual history. i hope it was okay to revive it.

Linda, fantastic! is there anything you would like to share. Would it be okay with the message board (knowing i am both new and a bit inconsistent here with participation, posts and responses) and family here if we continue to post about this asteroid, if you are interested of course.

I have complied a word document of asteroids and their interpretations based on many different astrologers research of them. there is one book that had over 100 asteroids and their influence in the natal chart.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=the+encyclopedia+of+astrology&hl=en&prmd=imvns&resnum=5&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1520&bih=753&ix=seb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=2343574043597564607&sa=X&ei=Y51iT7-2K4jGtgef27WACA&ved=0CFoQ8wIwAA


if anyone is interested, you can pm me and i'll send you the file. would be glad to share it. :-)

[Rad]

shaktidevii

"Would it be okay with the message board (knowing i am both new and a bit inconsistent here with participation, posts and responses) and family here if we continue to post about this asteroid, if you are interested of course."

********

Yes ...............

God Bless, Rad

[medicinewoman]

Hi, this is shaktidevii

Thank you Rad, To all who sent me a message, thank you so much for the warm connection. I really appreciated hearing from everyone. Unfortunately the day after i posted and received the pm's, my computer crashed. my computer has crashed and the cell phone went missing for 3 days and no longer holds a battery charge! mercury retrograde is always an interesting time of the year for me

So i apologize for the delayed response. my log in info was saved in cookies to this forum so i created a new profile because i can't remember the password. im in the process of trying to retrieve the data on the hard drive and invest in a new computer. at the moment the new computer is not looking very promising, but perhaps i will be able to get those files later in the week and send them in emails! so sorry about all this!

much love to all :-)

looking forward to enrolling in the school and purchasing the first dvd bundle next month.