NIRVIKALPA SAMADHI

ALSO KNOWN AS: Asamprajnata-Samadhi

SAMADHI: (Sanskrit) “Enstasy without form or seed.” The
realization of the Self, Parasiva, a state of oneness beyond all change
or diversity; beyond time, form and space.

NIRVIKALPA:- Nir means “without.” Vi means “to change, make different.” Kalpa means “order, arrangement; a period of time.”

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is generally considered to incorporate the following four Jhanas within its scope:

8) Eighth Jhana: jhana beyond perception and nonperception (nevasannanasanna) Saijojo.
7) Seventh Jhana: jhana of pure emptiness (akinci, lit.
“nothingness”) Ken-Chu-Shi.
6) Sixth Jhana: jhana of pure expansive consciousness (vinnana).
5) Fifth Jhana: jhana of boundless space (anantakasa).

Enstasy: A difficult term that embraces both ecstasy and
profound attainment of wisdom, the state of enstasy is, in fact, that
state of Nirvana when one recognizes The Void, the absolute reality that
everything is nothing.

Kalpa: (as a period of time) A Maha Yuga is 4.32 million
years, ten times as long as Kali Yuga. Twenty seven Maha Yugas is one
Pralaya. Seven Pralayas is one Manvantara. Finally, six Manvantaras is a
Kalpa. That is, one Kalpa is 27×7x6 = 1,134 Maha Yugas. This works out
to 1134 x 4.3 million = 4.876 billion years.

Kalachakra: the Wheel of Time:

1. The Outer Wheel – the cosmic time cycle. While each Kala comprises
a year, an unit of Chakra is the time taken by the sun to move across
twelve constellations and for the Kala to repeat 21,600 times.

2. The Inner Wheel – the life force. Channels and energy
circulation within the individual person. While each Kala comprises a
day, a unit of Chakra is the time taken by the various internal energies
to pass the ‘Twelve Wheels’ and for one to breathe 21600 times.

3. The Other Wheel – shatters the Ten Fetters
of life and death, enables the practitioner to transcend the cycle of
Rebirth, and gain spiritual purity and emancipation, thus achieving the
“Kalachakra Buddhahood”. The Other Wheel is based on the mutual
interaction, circulation and spiritual union between the Outer Wheel and
the Inner Wheel.

Once upon a time, Indra, the king of heaven and of whom Indra’s Jeweled Net is attributed, wanted to stop an event. Indra summoned Mother Kali,
representing Time, who acted as Obstruction to stop the event.
Obstruction then began to stop many other events. Only Ganesha was
beyond Time, so Ganesha controlled Time and became Lord-of-Obstruction.
Now, at the start of ANY undertaking, the help of Ganesha is needed to
control Obstructions.

It is said the legendary land of Spiritual Enlightenment, the
mystical kingdom of Shambhala, hidden deep in the mountains of Tibet,
guards the most sacred and secret spiritual teachings of the world,
including the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time), the pinnacle of Buddhist
wisdom.

As to the above opening sentence, “Nirvikalpa Samadhi is
generally considered to incorporate the following four Jhanas within its
scope,” then going on to list Jhana’s number 5 through 8, it should be
so brought to the attention of the reader that the Buddha in his quest
for Awakening was NOT able to fully find the answers he
sought in the Eight Jhana States to his satifaction. They are, thus
then, not the end all be all of Full Attainment. To wit the following
as found in The Jhanas in Theravadan Buddhist Meditation:

“Before he became the Buddha, at the beginning of his
spiritual quest, Siddhartha Gautama studied with two teachers. The
first teacher taught him the first Seven Jhanas; the other
teacher taught him the Eighth Jhana. Both teachers told him they
had taught him all there was to learn. But Siddhartha still
didn’t know why there was suffering, so he left each of these
teachers and wound up doing six years of austerity practises.
These too did not provide the answer to his question and he
abandoned these for what has come to be known as the Middle Way.
The suttas indicate that on the night of his Enlightenment, he
sat down under the and began his meditation by
practising the Jhanas (for example, see the Mahasaccaka Sutta -
Majjhima Nikaya #36). When his mind was “concentrated, purified,
bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy,
steady and attained to imperturbability” he direct it to the
“true knowledges” that gave rise to his incredible breakthrough in
consciousness known in the sutras as Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. So we see that the Jhanas are not only at the
heart of his teaching, but also were at the heart of his own
practise.” (source)

The
first teacher taught him the first Seven Jhanas; the other
teacher taught him the Eighth Jhana. Both teachers told him they
had taught him all there was to learn. But Siddhartha still
didn’t know why there was suffering, so he left each of these
teachers and wound up doing six years of austerity practises.

On the night of his Enlightenment, he
sat down under the Bodhi Tree and began his meditation by
practising the Jhanas. When his mind was “concentrated, purified,
bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy,
steady and attained to imperturbability” he direct it to the
“true knowledges” that gave rise to his incredible breakthrough in
consciousness known in the sutras as Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. The
austerity practises as found in Zen monasteries that follow the
original tenents of the ancient traditions is designed to replicate the
environment faced by Siddhartha that led up to his breakthrough. See:

It should be noted that in his monograph, The Question of the Importance of Samadhi In Modern and Classical Advaita Vedanta (1993), discussing Asamprajnata Samadhi being the same as Nirvikalpaka Samadhi, Michael Comans, PhD, writes:

“I do not know why later Vedantins used the word
Nirvikalpa to characterize what is essentially the yogic
Asamprajnata Samadhi. Perhaps they wished to distinguish
their practice from that of classical Yoga. The word
Nirvikalpaka was first introduced into the astika
(”orthodox”) tradition by Kumarila Bhatta, who used it in
his explanation of perception, under the influence of the
Buddhist philosopher Dignaga. See D. N. Shastri, The
Philosophy of Nyaya-Vaisesika and Its Conflict with the
Buddhist Dignaga School (Delhi: Bharatiya Vidya
Prakashan, 1976), p. 438.” (source)

SAHAJA SAMADHI

The explanation of the distinction between Sahaha Samadhi and
Nirvikalpa Samadhi is a difficult one. The following on Sahaja Samadhi
is extrapolated from the works of Ed Fisher:

The Baghavan Sri Ramana Maharshi distinguishes Sahaja Samadhi from Nirvikalpa Samadhi by saying:

In Sahaja Samadhi the mind is “dead”, “resolved into the self, like a river discharged into the ocean and its identity lost.”

Ramana also says: “the trance has no good unless vasanas
(latent ideas and forms of the mind) are destroyed.” But Ramana holds a
strong bias to the early Upanishad and Vedanta that essentially dismiss
the Advaita experience of non-duality as anti-thetical to their
doctrine which may account for his disparaging the “trance” and
“ecstasy” of Nirvikalpa Samadhi and placing it in a lower status than
HIS version of a Sahaja Samadhi with duality and content.

In an effort to explain Ramana’s distinction between Nirvikalpa
and Sahaja it may be he assumes it is not the quality of the
“experience” (which may range from a Near Death Experience to Nirvikalpa Samadhi) that determines rank in the Samadhi hierarchy — but to what degree vasanas
are permanently destroyed, or (as in his own case) already highly
evolved — upon re-entering phenomenal life. This appears to determine
the level of Enlightenment one manifests after the Advaitic experience-
which can range from remaining in a state of relative ignorance to
becoming a jivanmukta like Ramana.

Ramana’s vasanas were already highly evolved at the time of his experience, so upon re-emergence from whatever experience he attained his vasanas
further evolved via intense intellectual perception of religious texts
to the degree he could function as a jivanmukta. Thus for Ramana it is
more the quality of Enlightenment one retains after the transcendent
experience as to what name and rank he awards the level of the original
experience — and thus in my view (i.e., Fisher) arbitrarily applies
the term ‘Sahaja Samadhi’.

In short — I assume Sahaja does not enter into defining the
quality of the ultimate state of a samadhic experience where Nirvikalpa
is supreme- but distinguishes any level of advaitic experience which
results in the experiencer becoming imbued with highly evolved vasana enabling his/her permanent Enlightenment as a jivanmukta.(see)

NOTE: In a question and answer interview in the book Be As You Are
by David Godman, Sri Ramana is asked to clear up the difference between
Samprajnata-Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Ramana responds with:

“Holding on to the supreme state is Samadhi. When it is with effort due
to mental disturbances, it is Samprajnata. When these disturbances are
absent, it is Nirvikalpa. Remaining permanently in the primal state
without effort is Sahaja.”

Ramana seems to elevate Sahaja Samadhi to a higher rank than
Nirvikalpa Samadhi wherein Fisher smoothes out the distinction. Fisher,
of whose works the above section on Sahaja Samadhi is cited from, and
whom I worked closely with editing and citing his works, is a champion
of Nirvikalpa Samadhi, primarily because he himself, at age 42,
experienced a self-realization consciousness raising event he calls a spontaneous transcendent episode
that he relates almost exclusively as being Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Fisher
fully outlines his Awakening experience in a booklet, now found in it’s
completeness online at:

To his everlasting credit, and why I find Fisher’s experience credible, is what he presents in a footnote on his transcendent journey:

“Wholeness is an invented term expressing the ultimate reality (or non
reality) partially revealed through transcendent experience. The feeling
is that this account describes one infinitesimal step towards awareness
of an ultimate state similar but not identical to the Buddhist concept
of Suchness.”

The fact that Fisher says his experience is most likely just one infinitesimal step towards awareness of an ultimate state similar but not identical to the Buddhist concept of Suchness
is most telling. Especially so in that the section on Nirvikalpa
Samadhi it is stated that Nirvikalpa Samadhi, of which Fisher champions,
incorporates the highest Jhana states but nothing about going beyond
them. If you recall, the Buddha had to go beyond the Jhana states in order to achieve the consummantion of incomparable enlightenment, Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

James Swartz, known as Ram, in an interview titled Commentary on
the Teachings of Ramana Maharshi and conducted by John Howells in
January 2003, at Tiruvannamalai, South India, offers the following
regarding Nirvikalpa Samadhi:

“If you argue that you are aiming at nirvikalpa samadhi where there is
no mind, fine, but the problem with nirvikalpa samadhi is that a fly
landing on your nose can bring you out of it, not that there is anyone
there to come ‘out’. And when the ‘you’ who wasn’t there does ‘come
back,’ as I just mentioned, you are just as stupid as you were before…
because you were not there in the samadhi to understand that you are the
samadhi. If you are the samadhi you will have it all the time because
you have you all the time…so there will be no anxiety about making it
permanent.”
(source)

Compare Fisher’s experience with that of the Wanderling’s as found in Dark Luminosity.

For possible additional clarification, especially as it applies
to the Ramana side of things and Nirvikalpa Samadhi, as well as other
spiritual guides, please see: