What is enlightenment?

Photo by Omkar Jadhav on Unsplash

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Knowing others is wisdom.  Knowing yourself is enlightenment. 
- Lao Tzu

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This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series.  
​Want to start at the beginning?
Yoga Sutra 3.3
तदेवार्थमात्रनिर्भासं स्वरूपशून्यमिव समाधिः
tadevārthamātranirbhāsaṃ svarūpaśūnyamiva samādhiḥ

Enlightenment (or Samadhi) is when through meditation the essence of the object shines forth in its own essence, without form.

​Now Patanjali reaches the final and eighth limb of Raja Yoga, which is Samadhi or the state of enlightenment.  As difficult as meditation is to describe in words, enlightenment is even harder.  Patanjali tries to explain it here so practitioners will have an idea of what it is like to experience enlightenment and understand when they have reached that goal.

All the commentaries I am using describe Samadhi as experiencing the essence of the object of meditation.  Saying in Samadhi, the meditator “becomes absorbed in Spirit.” (Stiles, 31)  “You become that [object]” (Bhakt, 131), “you become what you think” (Satchidananda, 218) and “the practitioner and the object of focus dissolve into the Self.” (Shoshoni, 32)  This “uninterrupted flow of attention dissolves the split between the object seen and the seer who sees it.” (Iyengar, 181)
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So Samadhi produces a union - or yoga - between the subject (meditator) and object (of meditation) so that the meditator recognizes their unity with not only the essence of the object of meditation but also with the essence of all things (or the Universal Spirit/Self).

Patanjali has already addressed the fact that there are various, deepening levels of Samadhi the practitioner can attain.  In Sutra 1.17, he explains that through the three step process of concentration, meditation and enlightenment, we deepen our understanding of our object of meditation from the “analytical thinking” of dharana (concentration) through the “insight” developed through dhyana (meditation) and into the states “bliss” and then, “pure being” of Samadhi.  (Stiles, 68)  “These four are called sabija [with seed] samadhi… The sprouting tendency is still there.” (Satchidananda, 218)
Iyengar explains this in terms of the expert.  When the great musicians, inventors and painters “transcend” themselves through their music, discoveries and brush, “they glimpse samadhi.”

The difference is that the artist or musician reaches this state by effort and cannot sustain it…Consequently it is difficult for an artist to infuse his vision of the sublime, which is associated with the performance and realization of a particular art form, into his ordinary daily existence.  For the yogi, however, whose ‘art’ is formless and whose goal has no physical expression like a painting, a book or a symphony, the fragrance of samadhi penetrates every aspect of his ‘normal’ behavior, activities and state of being.  (Iyengar, 181)

There is another, deeper type of Samadhi called nirbija or without seed.  “Once all the thoughts, all the desires, become selfless…[then] you become germless” (Satchidananda, 218-9) and the mental seeds (or impressions) will not germinate no matter what happens.
I think of this in terms of neurobiology.  When we think something, a groove is created in our brain.  Keep thinking the same thing and this groove deepens.  The more we think in a certain way, the more conditioned we become to think (and behave) in that way.  
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We might consciously direct our thoughts away from selfish thoughts that satisfy only our ego’s desires and into neural channels that promote selflessness and the wellbeing of the whole of which we are a part.  Then, the neural connections to selfish thoughts are pruned away and the connections to selfless thoughts are nourished and deepened.  Eventually, selflessness becomes our way of life and selfish thoughts will not sprout even when tempted with our ego’s greatest desires.

For this reason, another of Lao Tzu’s quotes has always resonated with me.

Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

In other words, what we think, we become.  Of course we have limitations created by our physical reality, past experiences and (in the philosophy of Vedanta) the accumulation of karma over many lifetimes.  But we have the power to direct our mind toward selflessness, which will lead to greater peace and fulfillment within ourselves and the environment around us.

That is why yoga is more than yoga poses to me and a great many practitioners.  We may begin our path at the level of the body but yoga’s final goal is nothing less than our union with the universal.
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​Have you ever experienced a state of absorption so powerful that you lost your sense of time, place or even your own separateness?  How did that feel?  Were you able to retain that feeling long term?  If not, what would it take to get back there?