To understand samyama easier, let's make an analogy with a motion-picture film.
Let's suppose you can stop the film on a certain frame (a single exposure) that shows the main protagonist. Thus you can study as long as you want the motionless frame. This stage corresponds to dharana (concentration).
Then you let the movement of the movie start again. You are able now to follow the image you have studied during the stopping of the film, to see the links of that image with the action of the movie, to integrate that image into a continuous flow of action. This stage corresponds to dhyana (meditation).
Following the action of the movie, you participate emotionally, you identify yourself with what happens (you feel sad if it is a tragedy, you laugh if it is a comedy, etc.). This identification corresponds to the beginning of samadhi.
A new way of knowing
In samyama, the practitioner discovers that the stream of his thoughts is charged with a harmonious and beatific emotion. The yogin not only "sees" the object of his samyama, but also "feels" it with a strange intensity, as if he absorbed now that object and the object absorbed him. The yogin merges, at a subtle level, into the reality of that object, as if the object’s identity has blended with his own. This is samyama, which is the most complete method of intuitive knowledge ("intuitive" means "to enter, to place oneself inside").
Here are a few hints about the state of samyama:
� Naivety - leading to selfless identification with the object, through absorption.
� Aspiration to reach the Reality that is beyond the limitations of personal ego; you become the channel of manifestation of that Reality. Allow it to speak for itself, without interrupting. Become "transparent" to it.
� Samyama is leading to understanding by becoming, not by thinking.
� Dwelling upon only one topic or idea at a time (so, it is the very opposite of "thinking about") and the absorption of the practitioner into the idea upon which he dwells.
� The process of knowledge is released by the object, not by the subject. This is non-verbal, non-conceptual knowledge.
� In samyama the mind is like a mirror: it grasps nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives but does not keep, it adds nothing.
Don't "translate" into spoken language what you experience during samyama; this is a new kind of experience, gained outside the usual ways.
Samyama is a new way of being into the world, a new way of perceiving and relating to the
Reality through shifting to a higher state of consciousness. It is seeing the Reality the way it is, finding it in a thoughtless state of mind rather than inventing or imagining it with the aid of discursive thinking.
Find your pleasure in doing samyama every day, and forget about the results: think that there is no real purpose in meditation; this attitude will greatly accelerate your success.
Meditation in Relationship to everday Life
Sitting with the eyes closed is the most convenient way for beginners to control their wandering minds. However, when you get to know, even to a small extent, how to exercise this control while sitting quietly in meditation, you must continue to do so while walking, standing or performing any of the everyday life activities.
This is realized by splitting your attention in two, and using one part of it for your inner meditation and the other part for your daily activity. You will discover that, contrary to the appearances, your daily activity will become much more meaningful and highly efficient. The meditation that goes on inwardly and the subsequent state of tranquillity provides an energetic support and gives meaning to your outward activity.
If meditation bears no relationship to everyday life, what good is it? A meditation that ignores the society is meaningless and not good to anybody. Meditation in the midst of activity means bringing the whole world into your meditation. The true practice of meditation has nothing to do with whether one sits in a quiet place or not, closes his eyes or not, is in solitude or not.
Meditation in the midst of activity is immeasurably superior to the quietistic approach. This kind of meditation really produces significant inner transformation and enlightenment. Of course, meditating in the midst of distractions is initially much more difficult -- with fewer short-term rewards -- than sitting quietly alone. However, if you want to make the heightened awareness of meditation a part of your life, then you must meditate in daily life continuously, you must remain inwardly in meditation no matter what you do outwardly.
Frequently you may feel that you are getting nowhere with the practice of meditation in the midst of activity, whereas the quietistic approach brings unexpected and quick results. Yet rest assured that those who use the quietistic approach only can never hope to enter meditation in the midst of activity, which is the true meaning of meditation.
