Samadhi changes everything. It is how we see directly and accurately, finding happiness and peace. It is how we accept into our own minds the clarity that resolves all delusion. It is how we accept into our own bodies the joy that heals all trauma. It is how we realize the truth rather than just believing in it.
This is very hard for modern people to believe. We have forgotten samadhi. We are lost in our heads, and think that the spiritual path means that we figure out what is right and then try to make ourselves be that way. But that will never lead to deep truth or real joy.
It’s like cooking a meal. If you want to cook a meal, you should go to the kitchen and use the stove. Don’t go to the bathroom and use the toilet. Or it’s like if you have to relieve yourself after a meal. You should go use the toilet rather than going to the kitchen and using the stove.
In the same way, if you want to awaken, enter samadhi. Don’t just think about it.
Activities
- Reflect on this post with Angela: I once asked a Thai Buddhist monk, Ajahn Maha Dton Dhirapanno (who was a top medical doctor in Thailand before he was ordained), about practicing meditation in daily life versus going into retreat in the forest monastery and practicing there for a great length of time. He gave a fascinating and extremely useful metaphor for meditation and the depth of practice: Washing a floor demands a certain level of rigor. Washing your fruits before eating demands a higher level of rigor. And if you’re a surgeon, washing your surgical equipment demands the highest, literally sterile, level of rigor. Likewise, for meditation. What level of samādhi do you need? If your goal is for stress relief, perhaps a few minutes of meditation a day suffice. If your goal is for enlightenment and to realize the deathless, then perhaps it warrants more effort. What level of meditation and samādhi would you like to cultivate? How important is samādhi to you? Why?
