Obstacles In the Practice of Dhyana and Samadhi

Speaker: Jayaram V
Produced by Hinduwebsite.com
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In contemplative practices, you encounter four main obstacles. The first one is your wakeful consciousness or surface consciousness itself. As I said before, it is the most turbulent and unstable part of your consciousness. It is made up of the world, mirrors the world, conditioned by the world and subject to the impure states of ignorance, desires, attachments and delusion.
When you are centered in it, you will be restless, disturbed, mentally unstable, and subject to emotions, modifications, afflictions and suffering. It is where you encounter maximum resistance and turbulence and stressful situations. Imagine you are going on an adventure, and the first hurdle you have to cross without a boat or support is a mile-wide rapidly flowing, turbulent river. A yogi faces a similar situation when he begins his practice of meditation and faces the turbulence of his surface consciousness.
When he crosses this initial hurdle and succeeds in entering the deeper and tranquil states of his mind, he faces another serious problem, this time from his dream and deep sleep states, svapna and susupta. If he has not yet gained full control over his desires and mind and body, he will gradually and unconsciously lose control in the middle of his meditation or concentration and fall into a sort of reverie or dream like stream of consciousness.
It usually begins when his mind is distracted by some thought, memory, idea, image or imagination. As his mind is set in motion by the stream of thoughts or imagination (vikalpa), mostly likely he ends up falling into deep sleep state (susupta). Either of them or one of them happens predictively and repetitively as long as the yogi does not resolve his tamasic nature or cultivate the predominance of sattva and achieves full control over himself, removing all traces of impurities.
When a yogi crosses these initial hurdles, he finally enters the most tranquil state of his consciousness where all thoughts, feelings, perceptions and sensations disappear, and he enter the pure state of subjective reality which is variously characterized as nothingness, self-absorption, mental absorption or utter silence. However, at this stage also, initially, he may still experience vague sensations or otherness or objectivity.
When he perseveres, he finally becomes dissolved in the purest state of self-absorption or oneness or transcendence. In Yoga, we identify it as the seedless state of samadhi (nirbija samadhi). In Buddhism, it is equated with the final stage of Jhana, where the mind becomes pure, utterly focused and shines with flawless discernment and mindfulness of space, consciousness, emptiness and the state which is neither perception nor non-perception.
However, even at this stage a yogi is not safe from obstacles and distractions, especially if he still has traces of impurities such as egoism, delusion, tamas and rajas, desires and latent impressions. Because of them or because of lapses or negligence on his part, he may fail to sustain his samadhi for long and keeps falling down into the dream state or deep sleep state where he will be tested by the deluding Maya Shaktis for signs of relapse.
Thus, you can see however advanced they may be, yogis are not free or safe until they fully resolve all their impurities and imperfections. Brief and momentary experience of Samadhi or transcendental states of oneness does not guarantee that one has become liberated from bondage or attained pure consciousness. It is why in Tantra and Shakta traditions yogis and Siddhas are advised to remain on guard all the time and not take pride in their progress or perfection or siddhis, or take liberties with their character or conduct.
Even a momentary lapse or loss of control can put them back where they began or wake up the demons of their surface consciousness which will unleash chaos. In Trika Shaivism, which is also known as Kashmiri Shaivism, the initiates are constantly reminded of this. They are asked to remember that neither Siddhahood nor siddhis are guaranteed for them until they attain or fully realize the chaitanya atma or the self-illumined and self-existent pure consciousness of Shiva himself as their very nature.