Dear Friends,
Continuing the examination of samadhi, Gil brings in a couple of related words that bring out other dimensions in this practice and faculty. Rather than it being a laser-like focus, there’s a sense of “placing something together, bringing together, unifying, gathering together.”
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11146
We can settle into our experience – gathering all the fragmented parts in our lives together.
All these different things are going on almost at once, kind of swimming around, bouncing around — the mind is fragmented, divided, agitated, spinning around. The process of samādhi is settling and gathering together, so that all the disparate parts of ourselves are no longer fragmented, but are gathered together and work together.
Our attention, our intention — our physicality (the physical sensations of our body), our emotionality (our emotional experience), our cognitive experience (the thoughts we might be having) — are all are gathered together for the same purpose in meditation.
When I think of this as it applies using breathing as an anchor for the attention. When I “focus” on the breathing, I notice a tightness or narrowness – only this counts, that other stuff doesn’t. If I instead think of it in terms of gathering all the experience together for the same purpose, then there can be the body breathing, and the emotion breathing, and the mind breathing. That feels more spacious, accepting, permeable.
Gil describes it as “to be in harmony.” He says, “There’s nothing that is considered wrong or something to be gotten rid of. It’s just something else to be held”. It’s a gentle and kind approach to gather all the parts together.
If you have a chance to listen to the recording of Gill’s talk (or read the transcript), I enjoyed the story of the pre-school teachers of Gil’s one son: how they could gather the kids without forcing them to be quiet, but to “harmonize” and gather them in a peaceful way. (Starts at 6:46 to 8:30). That’s the type of energy we want to apply to our concentration practice – harmonizing and peaceful.
Meditation:
Nathan Glyde leads a 45 minute guided meditation with the title “Samādhi Surfing.” The description, “steadying into the present experience of body-heart-mind unification. Riding the wave of the present moment in intimate connection with breath & body sensations or sounds near and far.” In the recording, there are background sounds of children playing, traffic, even a siren – so there is an invitation to let go of the expectation of silence, and allow “this too.”
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/62663/
Wishing you peace and settledness,
Andrea