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Samadhi & Om


 
Though heavily influenced by Indo-Malay from Southeast Asia,maritime lands like the Philippines received Dharmic Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh,Jain and Yoga influence, imperial Iberia and Midwest US dumped themes andbehavioral influence that did not become self-conscious until we stumbled onthe presentations of comparative world religions that upended our built-inJudeo-Christian prejudices.
 
Samadhi came recentlyas the name of a restaurant in Bonham, Texas while with colleagues of the RealisticLiving Institute.  Having previouslyheard the Om/Aum pronounced in theState of Maharashtra in '77, I understood how a simple sound reminds one of thepossibility of living the totality of one's life in what is referred to as"transcendence, immanence and transparency" wrapped in one.  The sense denotes not separate parts of life butthe treatment of the same as a whole, a seamless integration more than the sumof parts, a doer and a deed as one.
 
This runs counter to the current notion that life is whathappens off-hours and on the weekends. Normal time in contemporary notion is making a living, a hustle inpursuit of the dollar.  This is a globalethos.  We earn a living first, then,live a life on the side or in our leisure time!
 
The traditional passive tone of the om, written in Sanskrit as "that which is sounded outloudly", is solemnly uttered like a elongated three-syllable reverberatinga-u-m, a motion meditation andprocess contemplation, more active than the static state of "enlightenment"that subjugates the assertive passion of being. It is non-dualistic, the experience and the experiencer merging to one,the mind becoming still, united with the object of attention. 
 
The number of speakers of South Asian tongues plus Sinos (read,Buddhist, Taoist and secular money chasers of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam)are numerous along the paths we took from Texas to Chicago, San Francisco to Alberta,attesting to a growing familiarity, if not adherence, to aspects of Dharmictradition.
 
But this is not about number of adherents.  It is about the life understanding that folksoutside of the tradition already recognize, especially those going through thepancake gates at Calgary Stampede this week. Often, we hear someone describe himself to be obsessed with something andthe observer becomes one with the observed, the oneness of a meditator and the meditated,a thinker and a thought, a worshipper and what is worshipped.  The mind loses its own consciousness andbecomes identical with the object of its awareness.  
 
Among mystics, this is the dissolution of a personality intothe "being of God" that makes sense if we take the word G-O-D asreferring to the totality of existence itself. It means living as a contemplative mystic in the din of a crowd, awalking dead among the breathing.
 
If this is still too abstract, let's take it to the level ofseeing.  When a mirror shatters, there isno longer any reflected image.  There isonly existence of that which was once reflected.  Or, if the sun is reflected in the water pooland the sun evaporates, the reflection of the sun is no longer there.  There is only the pool and the sun's existence.  
 
Our difficulty of understanding the Om stems from the cognitive demand that we, as the observer, standseparately from an object observed. Samadhi claims the immediacy of consciousness more than the clarity ofthought.  We are not talking about beinglost in a trance, like the out-of-body promotion of many spirit exercises.  Rather, it is about being absorbed totally infull awareness - body, heart, mind, and soul - to the facticity of ourexistence.
 
Om in Hindi,Nepali, Gujarati and Marathi scripts is a familiar symbol.  If one wanders to the CK Hindu community, theomkara would be heard and the signthat looks like a figure 3 with a tail and a dot above a hovering saucer-shapeddash, is chalked or printed during holidays; the sound and sight are symbols ofa state of being desired and attempted with all kinds of disciplines. 
 
The intent and result with the Samadhi and the Om, and mostreligious experiences, is to be the one, unique, unrepeatable self that one is,a whole experienced as a self in the immediate and unmediated sense.
 
Why are we belaboring this point?  There is a search of the "stillness ofone's soul" abroad among alternative lifestyles moving away from thecommercial ethos of money grabbing and acquisitive society that deterioratesinto escapism, denying the immediate and substantive nature of our existence.  There are many how-to books and advice onattaining this integration of body-heart-mind-soul polychotomy.  
 
A faithful seeker asked a guru if the discipline ze wasbeing taught would bring enlightenment? The beaming guru responded that enlightenment happens or it does nothappen.  But it cannot be induced.  The "meditative" and"contemplative" practices can make one prone to the accident ofenlightenment.
 
We aim to be accident-prone. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Om.
 


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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