Nirbija Samadhi
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Nirbija Samadhi (Patanjali Yoga Sutra) Aphorism 1.51 1.51 When even these latent impressions from truth filled knowledge recede along with the other impressions, then there is objectless concentration. (tasya api nirodhe sarva nirodhat nirbijah samadhih) • tasya = of that • api = too • nirodhe = receding, mastery, coordination, control, regulation, setting aside of • sarva = of all • nirodhat = through nirodhah (nirodhah = control, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, understanding, stilling, quieting, setting aside of) • nirbijah = without a seed, seedless (nir = without; bijah = seed) • samadhih = deep absorption of meditation, entasy Even the effects of samadhi recede: On the path of Self-realization, you systematically find attention moving past all of the levels of your being. This word recede (as a translation of nirodah, 1.2) describes what the experience is like: • When you succeed in meditation to go inward, leaving aside the external environment, it is as if the world recedes from you, though it is your attention that has come inward. • When you move past your body, going inward, it seems as if body awareness recedes.
description
The definition of Nirbija Samadhi as per the ultimate in Yoga, Sri Patanjali Yoga Sutras.
Transcript of Nirbija Samadhi
Nirbija Samadhi
(Patanjali Yoga Sutra)
Aphorism 1.51
1.51 When even these latent impressions from truth filled knowledge recede along with the other impressions, then there is objectless concentration.
(tasya api nirodhe sarva nirodhat nirbijah samadhih)
tasya = of that
api = too
nirodhe = receding, mastery, coordination, control, regulation, setting aside of
sarva = of all
nirodhat = through nirodhah (nirodhah = control, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, understanding, stilling, quieting, setting aside of)
nirbijah = without a seed, seedless (nir = without; bijah = seed)
samadhih = deep absorption of meditation, entasy
Even the effects of samadhi recede: On the path of Self-realization, you systematically find attention moving past all of the levels of your being. This word recede (as a translation of nirodah, 1.2) describes what the experience is like:
When you succeed in meditation to go inward, leaving aside the external environment, it is as if the world recedes from you, though it is your attention that has come inward.
When you move past your body, going inward, it seems as if body awareness recedes.
The same thing happens with breath, with which you give a great deal of emphasis until ready to go past that; then it seems that the breath recedes.
When you encounter the chattering, noisy, distracting conscious mind, it eventually seems that this too recedes.
When you encounter the many layers and levels of the unconscious, they too gradually seem to recede.
They only appear to recede: All along, none of these are actually receding, but that is the way it is experienced. Thus, before moving into the higher experience of objectless, or formless samadhi, even those blissful residues from the lower states of samadhi seem to recede, as attention moves still further inward, leaving them behind as well.
Objectless samadhi comes: While even these latent impressions from truth filled knowledge (1.50) recede along with the other impressions, then there is objectless concentration (1.18), which was described as the state following the four stage of meditation on an object (1.17).
Supreme non-attachment: Along the way, one systematically experiences the stages of vairagya (non-attachment), and how that process goes ever further inward (1.15), all the way to the supreme non-attachment (1.16).
