After Self Realization
After the deep samādhi of Self Realization, our perspective couldn’t really be called vast; we simply see things the way they are. And it’s as simple as that. We see things the way they are, and that is the way they are, from the inside out. You look at a tree. You see the energies of the tree all working within the tree. Then, after that, you see the leaves and the bark, and yet you see it all at the same time, all working together. That is Self Realization.
Those are the five steps on the path of enlightenment, five steps that you have to work with. The first one could be the most difficult—attention. It is making a strong, brave soldier that’s going on a great mission out of awareness. By calling awareness to attention, awareness immediately has to detach itself from that which it was previously aware of. For when awareness is attached to that which it is aware of, it thinks it is that thing. It doesn’t think it is that thing, but seemingly so. When we detach awareness from that which it is aware of, we can move freely through the mind, first in a limited area of the mind, then in a more and more vast area of the mind.
Then we learn to concentrate, which awakens the power of observation. If you have attention and concentration, the other stages come automatically. But for Self Realization, you have to really want it more than your life; for that deep samādhi, that’s what it is: more than your life. The realization of the Self, beyond the rarefied areas of pure consciousness, is more than your life. You have to want it more than your life.
Memorize these five steps: attention, concentration, meditation, contemplation, samādhi. Now, there are various stages of samādhi—savikalpa samādhi, nirvikalpa samādhi—but when I use the word samādhi, I refer to Self Realization, the Totality, the Ultimate, which I just described. It is worth seeking for. It is worth striving for. It is worth making a mission of existence on this planet for.
We are not on this planet to become educated, to get things, to make money, to dress up the physical body, to acquire property, to feed ourselves. We are on this planet for the realization of the Self, for that one thing, to go within ourselves. That is why we have come to this planet, and we will keep coming back through the process of reincarnation, time and time and time again, until that awareness grows up into a great big ball, where it is strong enough to move through the rarefied areas of the mind—if we are comparing awareness to a ball, from a ping-pong ball, to a volleyball, to a beach ball—and finally we are just there.