Has anybody from the forum experienced Samadhi?

[meditateallday]

If you watch long enough your mind and all thoughts disappear, you will experience Samadhi. As soon as you are absolutely empty - energy from nowhere joins you. I will never forget my first experience of Samadhi. It was very beautiful - this is the closest word to describe it. In fact it is very difficult to express in words this deepest happening.
Please share your experience. Really interesting to know you, folks with the same experience.
I am sure Samadhi is the same for everybody! This is where we all meet:-)

Kind regards,
Andrei

[Mpgkona]

From my experience Samadhi means concentration, and more specifically, right concentration. What exactly do you mean by "experiencing Samadhi?"

[meditateallday]

Meditation lets you go beyond mind. When you do it, thinking process stops. When it stops and you are empty, new comes to you. From my experience. The new I could describe it as silent love. This is real Samadhi.
What you say is scientific definition. I think logical approach cannot help in meditation. Logic has be destroyed.

[Matthew]

meditateallday,

It sounds like you may have experienced one/some of the Jhannic stages of bliss but this is not Samadhi.

Samadhi is concentration - and as a gateway to Jhannic states it is one-pointed concentration: object of meditation and awareness become one.

However there is still mind. Mind is the organ of perception which perceives these states. It is not the end of the road - actually it can be a trap if you spend all your time here and don't go beyond.

Kindly,

Matthew

[meditateallday]

meditateallday,

It sounds like you may have experienced one/some of the Jhannic stages of bliss but this is not Samadhi.

Samadhi is concentration - and as a gateway to Jhannic states it is one-pointed concentration: object of meditation and awareness become one.

However there is still mind. Mind is the organ of perception which perceives these states. It is not the end of the road - actually it can be a trap if you spend all your time here and don't go beyond.

Kindly,

Matthew

Hi!
It is definitely was not the mind! Mind came later when I started thinking what an amazing experience it was. The way I reached this state has nothing to do with concentration. I've just dropped myself totally, I was not there as an ego. I started to be aware of what happened only when outer energy came in me.
Theory, definitions can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. Experience remains the same.
I think concentration is a barrier on the way to meditation state. Only total relaxation leads to meditation. Concentration is an effort, but bliss come only if you are completely effortless.

BTW Have you ever met an enlightened person, talked, saw how they behave?

[Matthew]

When you start thinking that is ego, not mind. It seems there is a language problem here and we would be wise to clarify it rather than getting stuck over it.

If there was no mind then can you explain what was perceiving the bliss?

Relaxed concentration or focus is very important - you may have read the sticky topic on relaxation at the top of this board, if so you will know I place great emphasis on relaxation as the key. To "just drop" your self totally is a form of relaxed concentration. It's not as hard to do as people imagine.

To answer your question, I've met people much closer to enlightenment than I am, talked and seen how they behaved.

[meditateallday]

Pure consciousness (real me) was perceiving the bliss.
When the mind was coming back, my experience was recorded as memory. Bliss has gone, but memory remains with me.
That's why I am able to share my experience.

[siddharthgode]

Hmmm experience as memory only. Beyond mind. Thinking stops....

I think you had a good acid trip 
Atleast that's what your post reminds me of...

[Matthew]

Meditation lets you go beyond mind. When you do it, thinking process stops. When it stops and you are empty, new comes to you.

So there is still a you ....?

From my experience. The new I could describe it as silent love. This is real Samadhi.
What you say is scientific definition. I think logical approach cannot help in meditation. Logic has be destroyed.

Logic is used by the Buddha: his teachings are full of it, it can't be destroyed. Going beyond words, quieting the mind to absolute peace is an important, essential point of progress but it's not the whole box of cookies.

[J0rrit]

You definitely reached at leat the first Jhanic stage, there is not much more to it. Where you aware of your body and the other senses (smell, sounds etc?)?

greets

[meditateallday]

Meditation lets you go beyond mind. When you do it, thinking process stops. When it stops and you are empty, new comes to you.

1.So there is still a you ....?

From my experience. The new I could describe it as silent love. This is real Samadhi.
What you say is scientific definition. I think logical approach cannot help in meditation. Logic has be destroyed.

2.Logic is used by the Buddha: his teachings are full of it, it can't be destroyed. Going beyond words, quieting the mind to absolute peace is an important, essential point of progress but it's not the whole box of cookies.

1.Yes, as pure consciousness (not ego). You existed, exist, will exist. If there is no you, means there is no life!


2.Well, OK. Logic has to be used to explain how to act, but when you meditate logic is a barrier.
Even Buddha used to say :" Beware of teachings".
I think going beyond words, quieting the mind to absolute peace is more than enough.
Just to clarify: I do not want to make anybody follow my way. If somebody thinks, something else is better for him, it is absolutely OK for me:-)

[Obol]

1.Yes, as pure consciousness (not ego). You existed, exist, will exist. If there is no you, means there is no life!

I'm afraid this is not what the Buddha taught. Have a look at this: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mendis/wheel268.html


edit: I realize that may have sounded harsh and condescending - what I mean is that the characteristic of not-self, anatta,  is a central part of Buddhism, and is a major part of what distinguishes it from other eastern methods like Advaita Vedanta. 

Concentration does unify the mind and produce stability, clarity and bliss - perhaps this is what you feel to be a true essence?

[Matthew]

1.Yes, as pure consciousness (not ego). You existed, exist, will exist. If there is no you, means there is no life!

And this pure consciousness is not mind?

2.Well, OK. Logic has to be used to explain how to act, but when you meditate logic is a barrier.

Logic, or any type of active thinking is a barrier in some stages of meditation, in others it is an essential tool.

Even Buddha used to say :" Beware of teachings".

Not exactly ... Buddha said, "Do not believe anything, no matter where you read it or whoever said it, even if I said it, unless it agrees with your own common sense and reason".

I think going beyond words, quieting the mind to absolute peace is more than enough.

Your ego thinks this, and therein lies the problem here: you still have one but seem to think not. Actually the teachings are clear that this peace is a part of a path to freedom but, as I stated above, not the whole box of cookies:

But, Ananda, Thatagatha (The Buddha) has completely understood this state, namely how to attain and stay in the inward emptiness, by leaving all signs unnoticed.

(Majjhima Nikaya III iii)

Just to clarify: I do not want to make anybody follow my way. If somebody thinks, something else is better for him, it is absolutely OK for me:-)

You're kidding yourself. Mediate on it and you'll agree with me.

Your "pure consciousness" was clearly not pure: you (ego) soon started examining, categorising and clinging to this experience and interrupted it. As I suggested before and as J0rrit suggests you hit one of the Jhannic states and as the quote from the middle length discourses, and your own words, indicates, you have not yet "completely understood this state, namely how to attain and stay in the inward emptiness, by leaving all signs unnoticed".

[Quardamon]

Hello Andrei,

Regarding your original post:
It sounds like you had a beautiful experience, a holy experience. I use the word "holy" here in a very practical sense: out of the ordinary, felt as very meaningful and possibly life changing. I avoid the word "samadhi" because I understood it has different meanings in different schools.

In your original post you say:
"If you watch long enough   . . .   " and "you will experience    . . .    "

It sounds like you want to teach how to meditate. Am I right in that?
If so, the fact that you had a holy experience speaks for you as a teacher.
I suppose that there are a lot of people who teach meditation, or yoga, or mindfulness, and who never had an experience like yours. I do not know - I do not have an exchange with meditation teachers.   

But, sorry, it takes a lot more to be a teacher.
Let us go back to this text:
"If you watch long enough   . . .   " and "you will experience    . . .    "
How do you know this will work for an other person? And, would indeed the experience be so impressive for an other person?

You seem to think that teaching is to make copies of your own person / experience. It is not.
Teaching starts with seeing where some else is, and what they need. And it is their right to tell what they need.
(I know - I taught at a holiday sailing school long ago.)

I am sure Samadhi is the same for everybody! This is where we all meet:-)

That is a conviction, and in my opinion it is part of the character of such a holy experience. It is felt as the place "where we all will meet". And it is felt as universal. The power of such an experience can give the individual a sense of entitlement - like: "I know what is good for you!".

That conviction, that sometimes follows after a holy experience, can make someone lonely. And that sense of entitlement, if it is there, can make someone very lonely. (I saw this with my father.)

So    . . .    You said that you hope to hear from people with the same experience.
The funny thing is: You did. To the best of my knowledge, you did here from people with comparable experience.

Maybe you should simply consider how that can be possible.

[Matthew]

Andrei,

Just to be clear the realisation you have had is not without worth, indeed it is a significant stage of emptiness or "shunyata", just not the final one.

Matthew