All language subtitles for Samadhi.Maya.the.Illusion.of.the.Self.2017

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CHANTING]

[NARRATOR] Samadhi is an
ancient Sanskrit word for which

there's no
modern equivalent.

There's a fundamental
challenge with making

a film about Samadhi.

Samadhi points to
something that can't be

conveyed on the level of mind.

This film is simply
the outer manifestation

of my own inner journey.

The intention is not to
teach you about Samadhi

or provide information
for your mind,

but to inspire you to directly
discover your true nature.

Samadhi is relevant
now more than ever.

We are at a time in history
where we have not only

forgotten Samadhi, but we've
forgotten what we forgot.

This forgetting is Maya,
the illusion of the self.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

As humans, most of us live
immersed in our daily lives

with little thought of who
we are, why we are here,

or where we're going.

Most of us have never realized
the true self, the soul,

or what the Buddha
called anata, that which

is beyond name and form.

Beyond thinking.

As a result, we believe we
are these limited bodies.

We live in fear, either
conscious or unconscious,

that the limited self structure
that we are identified with

will die.

In today's world,
the vast majority

of people who are engaged
in religious or spiritual

practices, such as yoga,
prayer, meditation, chanting,

or any kind of ritual, or
practicing techniques which

are conditioned which means
they are just part

of the ego construct.

The seeking and the
activity isn't the problem.

Thinking you have found the
answer in some external form

is the problem.

Spirituality, in its
most common form,

is no different than the
pathological thinking

that is going on everywhere.

It is a further
agitation of the mind.

More human doing as
opposed to human being.

The ego construct wants more
money, more power, more love,

more of everything.

Those on the so-called
spiritual path

desire to be more spiritual,
more awake, more equanimous,

more peaceful, more enlightened.

The danger for you
watching this film

is that your mind will
want to acquire Samadhi.

Even more dangerous is
that your mind might

think it has acquired Samadhi.

Whenever there's a desire
to attain something,

you can be sure it's the
ego construct at work.

Samadhi is not about
attaining or adding

something more to yourself.

To realize Samadhi is to
learn to die before you die.

Life and death are like yin and
yang, an inseparable continuum

endlessly unfolding with
no beginning and no end.

When we push away death,
we also push away life.

When you experience the truth
directly of who you are,

there is no longer any
fear of life or death.

We are told who we are by
our society and our culture.

And at the same time, we
are slaves to the deeper

unconscious biological
craving and aversion

that governs our choices.

The ego construct is nothing
more than the impulse

to repeat.

It's simply the path
that energy once took,

and the tendency for the
energy to take that path again,

whether it is positive or
negative for the organism.

There are endless levels
of memory or mind,

spirals within spirals.

When your consciousness
identifies with this mind

or ego construct, it ties you
to social conditioning,

which you could call the matrix.

There are aspects of the ego
that we can be conscious of,

but it's the unconscious,
the archaic wiring,

the primal existential
fears that are actually

driving the whole machine.

Endless patterns of grasping
towards pleasure and avoidance

of pain are sublimated into
pathological behaviors.

Our work,
our relationships,

our beliefs,
our very thoughts,

and our whole way of living.

Like cattle, most humans live
and die in passive subjugation,

feeding their lives
to the matrix.

We live lives locked
into narrow patterns.

Lives often filled
with great suffering.

And it never occurs to us that
we can actually become free.

It is possible to let
go of the life that has

been inherited from the past.

To live the one that is
waiting to come forth

through the inner world.

We were all born into this world
with biological conditioned

structures, but
without self-awareness.

Often when you look into
a young child's eyes,

there's no trace of self,
only luminous emptiness.

The person one grows into is a
mask worn over consciousness.

Shakespeare said,
"all the world's a stage

and all the men and women,
merely players."

In an awakened individual,
consciousness

shines through the personality,
through the mask.

When you are awake,
you don't become

identified with your character.

You don't believe that you are
the masks that you are wearing.

But nor do you give
up playing a role.

When we are identified with
our character, our persona,

this is Maya, the
illusion of the self.

Samadhi is awakening from
the dream of your character

in the play of life.

2,400 years after Plato
wrote the "Republic,"

humanity is still making
its way out of Plato's cave.

In fact, we may be more
transfixed by illusions

than ever.

Plato had Socrates
describe a group

of people who lived chained
in a cave all of their lives

facing a blank wall.

All they could see were
shadows projected on the wall

by the things passing
in front of a fire which

was behind them.

This puppet show
became their world.

According to Socrates,
the shadows

were as close as the
prisoners would ever

get to seeing reality.

Even after being told
about the outside world,

they continued to believe that
the shadows were all that is.

Even if they suspected
there was something more,

they were unwilling to
leave what was familiar.

Humanity today is
like the people

who have only seen the
shadows on the cave wall.

The shadows are analogous
to our thoughts.

The world of thinking is
the only world that we know,

but there is
another world that's

beyond thinking,
beyond the dualistic mind.

Are you willing
to leave the cave?

To leave all that you
have known to find out

the truth of who you are?

In order
to experience Samadhi,

it's necessary to turn attention
away from the shadows,

away from the thoughts,
towards the light.

When a person is only
used to darkness,

then they must gradually
become accustomed to the light.

Like acclimatizing
to any new paradigm,

it takes time and effort and a
willingness to explore the new,

as well as shed the old.

The mind can be likened to
a trap for consciousness,

a labyrinth or a prison.

It is not that you are in
prison, you are the prison.

The prison is an illusion.

If you are identified
with an illusory self,

then you are asleep.

Once you are aware
of the prison,

if you fight to get
out of the illusion,

then you're treating the
illusion as if it's real,

and you still remain asleep.

Except now, the dream
becomes a nightmare.

You'll be chasing and
running from shadows forever.

Samadhi is awakening from the
dream of the separate self

or the egoic construct.

Samadhi is awakening from
identification with the prison

that I call me.

You can never actually be
free because wherever you go,

your prison is there.

Awakening is not about getting
rid of the mind or the matrix.

On the contrary, when you're
not identified with it,

then you can experience the
play of life more fully.

Enjoying the show as it is
without craving or fear.

In the ancient teachings,
this was called

the divine game of Leela,
the game of playing in duality.

Human consciousness
is a continuum.

On one extreme humans
are identified

with the material self.

On the other extreme is
Samadhi, the cessation of self.

Every step we take on the
continuum towards Samadhi,

brings less suffering.

Less suffering does not
mean life is free from pain.

Samadhi is beyond the
duality of pain and pleasure.

What it means is
that there is less mind,

less self creating resistance
to whatever unfolds.

And not resistance is
what creates suffering.

Realizing Samadhi
even once allows

you to see what is at the
other end of the continuum.

To see that there is something
other than the material world

and self-interest.

When there is an
actual cessation

of the self structure
in Samadhi,

there is no egoic thought.

No self.

No duality.

Yet, there is still the
"I am," the Anatta or no self.

In that emptiness is the
dawn of prajna or wisdom.

The understanding
that the imminent self

is far beyond the
play of duality,

beyond the entire continuum.

The imminent self is timeless,
unchanging, always now.

Enlightenment is the merging
of the primordial spiral,

the ever changing
manifested world,

or lotus, in which time unfolds
with your timeless being.

Your inner wiring grows like
an ever unfolding flower

as you disidentify
with the self,

becoming a living bridge

between the world
of time and the timeless.

Merely realizing
the imminent self

is only the beginning
of one's path.

Most people will have
to experience and lose

Samadhi countless times
in meditation

before they are
able to integrate it

into other facets of life.

It's not unusual to
have profound insights

into the nature of your
being during meditation

or self-inquiry, only to find
yourself once again

falling back
into old patterns.

Forgetting the truth
of who you are.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

To realize that stillness
or emptiness in every facet

of life, every facet
of one's self,

is to become emptiness
dancing as all things.

Stillness is not something
separate from movement.

It is not opposite to movement.

In Samadhi, stillness
is recognized

to be identical with movement.

Form is identical to emptiness.

This is nonsensical to the
mind because mind is the coming

into being of duality.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Rene Descartes, the father
of Western philosophy,

is famous for the saying,
"I think, therefore I am."

No other phrase more
clearly encapsulates

the fall of civilization and
the full scale identification

with the shadows
on the cave wall.

Descartes' error, like the
error of almost all humans,

was the equating of fundamental
being with thinking.

At the beginning of his
most famous treaties,

Descartes wrote that
almost everything

can be called into doubt.

He can doubt his senses
and even his thoughts.

Likewise, in the
"Kalama Sutta," the Buddha

said that in order to
ascertain the truth,

one must doubt all traditions,
scriptures, teachings,

and all the content of
one's mind and senses.

Both of these men started
with great skepticism,

but the difference was
that Descartes stopped

inquiring at the
level of thinking

while the Buddha went deeper.

He penetrated beyond the
deepest levels of the mind.

Maybe if Descartes had gone
beyond his thinking mind,

he would have realized
his true nature

and Western consciousness
would be very different today.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Instead, Descartes
described the possibility

of an evil demon that
could be keeping us

under a veil of illusion.

Descartes did not recognize
this evil demon for what it was.

As in the movie
"The Matrix," we could all

be hooked up to some
elaborate program feeding us

an illusory dream world.

In the movie, humans lived
out their lives in the matrix.

While on another level,
they were merely

batteries feeding
their life force

to the machines which used their
energy for their own agenda.

People always want to blame
something outside themselves

for the state of the world
or for their own unhappiness,

whether it's a person, a
particular group or country,

religion, or some kind of
controlling Illuminati,

like Descartes' evil demon
or the sentient machines

in "The Matrix."

Ironically, the demon Descartes
envisioned was the very thing

that he defined himself by.

When you realize Samadhi,
it becomes clear

that there is a controller.

There is a machine,
an evil demon leaching

your life day after day.

The machine is you.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Your self structure is made
up of many little conditioned

sub-programs,
or little bosses.

One little boss
that craves food.

Another craves money.

Another status, position, power.

Sex, intimacy.

Another wants consciousness
or attention from others.

The desires are
literally endless

and can never be satisfied.

We spend a lot of our time and
energy decorating our prisons.

Succumbing to pressures
to improve our masks.

And feeding these little bosses
making them more powerful.

Like drug addicts,
the more we try

to satisfy the little bosses,
the more we end up craving.

The path to freedom is not
self-improvement or somehow

satisfying the self's agenda,
but it's a dropping

of the self's agenda altogether.

Some people fear that
awakening their true nature

will mean that they
lose their individuality

and enjoyment of life.

Actually, the opposite is true.

The unique individuation
of the soul

can only be expressed when the
conditioned self is overcome.

Because we remain asleep
in the matrix, most of us

never find out what the soul
actually wants to express.

The path to Samadhi
involves meditation

which is both observing
the conditioned self,

that which changes, and
realizing your true nature,

that which does not change.

When you come to
your still point,

the source of your
being, then you'll

await further instructions
without any insistence on how

your outer world has to change.

Not my will, but
higher will be done.

If the mind only tries to change
the outer world to conform

with some idea of what you
think the path should be,

it's like trying to change
the image in a mirror

by manipulating the reflection.

To make the image
in a mirror smile,

you obviously can't
manipulate the reflection.

You have to realize the you
that is the authentic source

of the reflection.

Once you realize
the authentic self,

it doesn't mean that
anything on the outside

necessarily needs to change.

What changes is the conscious,
intelligent inner energy,

or prana, which is freed
from conditioned patterns

and becomes available to
be directed by the soul.

You can only become aware
of the soul's purpose

when you are able to
watch the conditioned self

and its endless pursuits...
and let them go.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In Greek mythology, it was
said that the gods condemned

Sisyphus to repeat a meaningless
task for all eternity.

His task was to endlessly
push a boulder up a mountain

only to have it roll down again.

The French existentialist and
Nobel Prize winning author,

Albert Camus, solved the
situation of Sisyphus

as a metaphor for humanity.

He asked the
question, how can we

find meaning in this
absurd existence?

As humans, we are
toiling endlessly.

Building for a tomorrow
that never arrives.

And then, we die.

If we truly realize
this truth, then we

will either go mad
if we are identified

with our egoic personas.

Or we will awaken
and become free.

We can never succeed
in the outer struggle

because it's just a
reflection of our inner world.

The cosmic joke, the
absurdity of the situation

becomes clear when there's
a complete and utter failure

of the egoic self to awaken
through its futile pursuits.

In Zen, there is a saying,
"before enlightenment,

chop wood, carry water.

After enlightenment,
chop wood, carry water."

Before enlightenment, one must
roll the ball up the hill.

After enlightenment, one must
also roll the ball up the hill.

What has changed?

The inner resistance to what is.

The struggle has been dropped
or rather, the one who struggles

has been realized
to be illusory.

The individual will,
or individual mind,

and divine will, or
higher mind, are aligned.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Samadhi is ultimately a
dropping of all inner resistance

to all changing phenomena
without exception.

The one who is able to
realize inner peace,

irrespective of circumstance,
has attained true Samadhi.

You drop resistance
not because you

condone one thing or another,
but so that your inner freedom

is not contingent on the outer.

It's important to note that
when we accept reality as it is,

it doesn't necessarily
mean that we

stop taking action
in the world or we

become meditating passivists.

Actually, the
opposite can be true.

When we're free to act
without being driven

by unconscious
motives, then it is

possible to act in
alignment with the Tao,

with the full force of our
inner energy behind us.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Many will argue that in
order to change the world

and bring about peace,
we need to fight harder

against our perceived enemies.

Fighting for peace is
like shouting for silence.

It just creates more
of what you don't want.

These days, there's a
war against everything.

A war against terror.

A war against disease.

A war against hunger.

Every war is actually
a war against ourselves.

The fight is part of
a collective delusion.

We say that we want peace,

but we continue to elect leaders
who engage in war.

We lie to ourselves saying that
we are for human rights,

but continue to buy
products made in sweatshops.

We say we want clean air,
but we continue to pollute.

We want science to
cure us of cancer

but won't change our
self-destructive habitual

behaviors that make us
more likely to be sick.

We delude ourselves that we
are promoting a better life.

We don't want to see our
hidden parts that are

condoning suffering and death.

The belief that we can win a war
against cancer, hunger, terror,

or any enemy that was created by
our own thinking and behavior,

actually lets us continue
to delude ourselves.

That we don't have to change the
way we operate on this planet.

The inner world is where
the revolution must first

take place.

Only when we can directly feel
the spiral of life within,

will the outer world come
into alignment with the Tao.

Until then, anything we do will
add to the chaos already created

by the mind.

War and peace arise together
in an endless dance.

They are one continuum.

One half cannot exist
without the other.

Just as light cannot
exist without dark.

And up cannot
exist without down.

The world seems to want
light without darkness.

Fullness without emptiness.

Happiness without sadness.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The more the mind gets
involved, the more fragmented

the world becomes.

Every solution that
comes from the egoic mind

is driven by the idea
that there is a problem,

and the solution becomes
an even greater problem

than what it was
trying to solve.

What you resist, persists.

Human ingenuity creates
new antibiotics

only to find nature
getting more cunning

as bacteria get stronger.

Despite our best efforts
in the ongoing fight,

the prevalence of cancer
is actually increasing.

The number of hungry people
in the world steadily grows.

The number of terrorist attacks
worldwide continues to rise.

What's wrong with our approach?

Like the sorcerer's apprentice
from Goethe's poem,

we have taken hold
of a great power,

but we do not have the
wisdom to wield it.

The problem is that we do
not understand the tool

that we are using.

We do not understand
the human mind

and its proper role and purpose.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The crisis is born of the
limited conditioned way

in which we think, the way
we feel, and experience life.

Our rationalism has
robbed us of our ability

to recognize and
experience the wisdom

of many ancient cultures.

Our egoic thinking has
robbed us of the ability

to feel the depth and
profound sacredness of life.

The numinosity of life.

And to realize entirely
different levels

of consciousness, which are
now almost lost to humanity.

In the ancient
Egyptian tradition,

Nedirs were archetypal
forms whose characteristics

could be embodied by
those who purified

their physical and spiritual
bodies in such a way

that they were fit to house
higher consciousnesses.

The original Nedir, or
the divine principle

of this wisdom, was known
as Thoth for Tahuti.

Often depicted as a scribe with
the head of a bird, or ibis,

and represented the origin
of all knowledge and wisdom.

Thoth could be described
as the cosmic principle

of thinking or thought.

Thoth gave us language,
concepts, writing, mathematics,

and all the arts and
manifestations of the mind.

Only those who had gone
through special training

were allowed to access
Thoth's sacred knowledge.

The Book of Thoth is
not a physical book,

but is the wisdom of the
Akashic or etheric realm.

Legend tells that Thoth's
knowledge was deeply

hidden in a secret place
within every human being,

and was protected
by a golden serpent.

The archetypal or perennial
myth of the serpent or dragon

guarding a treasure is one
that permeates many cultures.

And has been called by names
such as Kundalini Shakti, Chi,

Holy Spirit, and inner energy.

The golden serpent is
the egoic construct which

is bound in the inner energies.

And until it's
mastered and overcome,

the soul will never be able
to attain the true wisdom.

It was said that the
Book of Thoth brought nothing

but suffering to any
individual who read it.

Even though they would find the
secrets of the gods themselves

and all that is hidden
within the stars.

What must be understood
is that the book

brought suffering to any
individual who read it

and the ego that
tried to control it.

In the Egyptian tradition,
awakened consciousness

was represented by Osiris.

Without this awakened
consciousness,

any knowledge or understanding
attained by the limited self

would be dangerous,
disconnected from higher wisdom.

The Eye of Horus had to be open.

The esoteric meaning
that we find here

is similar to the more
familiar story of the fall

in the Garden of Eden.

The Book of Thoth parallels
the tree of knowledge,

of good and evil,
whose fruits Adam and Eve

were tempted to eat.

Humanity, of course, has already
eaten the forbidden fruit.

Already opened
the Book of Thoth.

And has been cast
out of the garden.

The serpent is a metaphor
for the primordial spiral

that extends from the
microcosm to the macrocosm.

Today, the serpent
is living as you.

It is the egoic mind expressed
as the manifested world.

We have never before had
access to so much knowledge.

We've gone deep into
the material world,

even finding the
so-called God Particle.

But we've never been
more limited, more ignorant

of who we are and how to live.

And we do not understand
the mechanism

by which we create suffering.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Our thinking has created
the world as it is now.

Whenever we label
something as good or bad

or create a preference in our
mind, it's due to the coming

into being of the egoic
structures or self interests.

The solution is not to fight
for peace or conquer nature,

but to simply
recognize the truth

that the very existence
of the ego structure

creates duality, a split
between self and other.

Mine and yours.

Man and nature.

Inner and outer.

The ego is violence.

It requires a barrier,
a boundary from the other

in order to be.

Without the ego, there is
no war against anything.

There is no hubris.

There is no overreaching
nature to create profit.

These external
crises in our world

reflect a serious inner crisis.

We don't know who we are.

We are completely identified
with our egoic identities,

consumed by fears, and are
cut off from our true nature.

Races, religions, countries,
political affiliations,

and any group that we
belong to all reinforce

our egoic identities.

Almost every group that
exists on the planet today

wants to claim its perspective
as true and correct,

as we do on an individual level.

By claiming the
truth as its own,

the group perpetuates its
own existence in the same way

that an ego or self structure
defines itself against other.

Now more than ever,
different realities

and polarized belief systems
are coexisting on Earth.

It is possible for
different people

to experience completely
different thoughts

and emotional reactions to the
very same external phenomena.

In the same way, samsara and
nirvana, or heaven and hell,

are two different dimensions
occupying the very same world.

An event that may appear
apocalyptic to one person,

could be seen as a
blessing to another.

[CARS HONKING]

So what is becoming
obvious is that

your external
circumstances don't

have to affect your inner
world in any particular way.

To realize Samadhi is to
become a self-propelled wheel.

To become autonomous,
a universe unto one's self.

Your experience of life
is not contingent

on changing phenomena.

An analogy can be
made with metatron's cube.

Metatron is mentioned in various
ancient Christian, Islamic,

and Jewish texts, and
is archetypally related

to the Egyptian
Nedir, Thoth,

as well as Hermes Trismegistus
of Greece.

Metatron is intimately connected
with the tetragrammaton.

The tetragrammaton is the
fundamental geometric pattern,

the template or
primordial emanation

of physical reality,
which has been called

the word of God or the logos.

Here, we see a two-dimensional
representation of the figure,

but if you look a certain
way, you see a 3-D cube.

When you see the cube, nothing
has changed in the figure,

but your mind has added a
new dimension to your seeing.

Dimensionality, or
one's perspective,

is simply a matter of becoming
habituated to a new way

of perceiving the world.

Upon realizing Samadhi, we
become free of perspective.

We're free to create new
perspectives because there's

no self invested in or attached
to a particular viewpoint.

The greatest minds
in human history

have often pointed
to levels of thought

beyond the limited
self structure.

Einstein said the true
measure of a human being

is determined primarily by the
measure and sense in which he

has attained liberation
from the self.

So it's not that thinking and
existence of the self is bad.

Thinking is a wonderful
tool when the mind is

in service to the heart.

In Vedanta, it is said that
the mind makes a good servant,

but a poor master.

The ego perpetually
filters reality

through language and labels,

and is constantly judging,

preferring one
thing over another.

When the mind and
senses are your master,

they will create endless
suffering, endless craving

and aversion, locking us
into the matrix of thinking.

If you want
to realize Samadhi,

do not judge your thoughts
as good or bad,

but find out who you are
prior to thought,

prior to the senses.

When all labels are dropped,

then it is possible to see
things as they are.

The moment a child
is told what a bird is,

if they believe
what they're told,

then they never
see a bird again.

They only see their thoughts.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Most people think that they
are free, conscious, and awake,

but if you believe you are
already awake, then why would

you do the difficult
work to attain what

you believe you already have?

Before it becomes
possible to awaken,

it is necessary to accept
that you are asleep

living in the matrix.

Examine your life honestly
without lying to yourself.

Are you able to stop
your robotic, repetitive

life patterns
if you want to?

Can you stop seeking
pleasure and avoiding pain?

Are you addicted to certain
foods, activities, or pastimes?

Are you constantly
judging, blaming,

criticizing yourself and others?

Does your mind incessantly
seek out stimulus?

Or are you completely fulfilled
just being in silence?

Do you react to how
people think about you?

Are you seeking approval
and positive reinforcement?

Do you somehow sabotage
situations in your life?

Most people will experience
their lives the same way

today as they will tomorrow
and a year from now

and 10 years from now.

When you begin to observe
your robot-like nature,

you become more awake.

You begin to recognize
the depths of the problem.

You are completely and utterly
a sleep, lost in a dream.

Like the inhabitants of Plato's
cave, most who hear this truth

will not be willing or capable
of changing their lives

because they are attached
to their familiar patterns.

We go to great lengths
justifying our patterns.

Burying our heads in the sand
rather than facing the truth.

We want our saviors,
but we are not

willing to get up on
the cross ourselves.

What are you willing
to pay to be free?

Realize that if you
change your inner world,

you must be prepared to
change the outer life.

Your old structure
and your old identity

must become the dead soil out
of which new growth comes.

The first step to
awakening is to realize

that we are identified with
the matrix of the human mind,

or the mask.

Something within us
must hear this truth

and be roused from its slumber.

There is a part of you,
something timeless,

that has always known the truth.

The matrix of the mind
distracts us, entertains us,

keeps us endlessly
doing, consuming,

grasping in a cycle of
craving and aversion

with constantly changing forms.

Keeping us from the flowering
of our consciousness,

our evolutionary birthright
which is Samadhi.

Pathological thinking is
what passes for normal life.

Your divine essence
has become enslaved,

identified with the
limited self structure.

The great wisdom, the
truth of who you are,

is buried deep
within your being.

J. Krishnamurti said it is
no measure of one's health

to be well adjusted to a
profoundly sick society.

Identification with the
egoic mind is the sickness

and Samadhi is the cure.

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