Tripura Rahasya (The Mystery beyond the Trinity) was one of the favourite texts of Ramana Maharshi. That’s peer review of the first water. If I were to put it in a category it would be Advaita with a Tantric face. It aspires to shock one into insight using a close metaphysical analysis that leads into paradox. Did you know that samadhi, the aspired to state of transcendental awareness is commonplace but that we are scarcely aware of it. Those are not the very pure blissful consciousness of merging with the absolute but what the book calls ‘fleeting samadhi’.
85-86. But fleeting samadhi goes undetected because people are not so conversant with it. O Brahmin! Fleeting samadhi is indeed being experienced by all, even in their busy moments; but it passes unnoticed by them, for want of acquaintance with it. Every instant free from thoughts and musings in the wakeful state is the condition of samadhi.
87. Samadhi is simply absence of thoughts. Such a state prevails in sleep and at odd moments of wakefulness.
88. Yet, it is not called samadhi proper, because all the proclivities of the mind are still there latent, ready to manifest the next instant. (from Chap.XVI)
King Janaka explains to Ashtavakra that these fleeting samadhis are useless but that they do demonstrate the capacity of the mind to become empty of mental modifications and have thus a philosophical value.
4-11. Listen, O Brahmin! The following are instances of that state: When a man remains unaware of ‘in and out’ for a short interval and is not overpowered by the ignorance of sleep; the infinitesimal time when one is beside oneself with joy; when embraced by one’s beloved in all purity; when a thing is gained which was intensely longed for but given up in despair; when a lonely traveller moving with the utmost confidence is suddenly confronted with the utmost danger; when one hears of the sudden death of one’s only son, who was in the best of health, in the prime of life, and at the apex of his glory.
12-14. There are also intervals of samadhi, namely the interim period between the waking, dream and sleep states; at the time of sighting a distant object, the mind holding the body at one end projects itself into space until it holds the object at the other end, just as a caterpillar prolongs itself at the time of leaving one hold to catch another hold. Carefully watch the state of mind in the interval.
.......Anyway, when once interruptions in the stream of Intelligence are admitted, it follows that these intervals between the various modifications of the intellect into objects, would represent its unmodified, original state. O son of Kahoela, know that if one can become aware of these broken samadhis, no other samadhi need attract one.
The casual i.e. fleeting samadhi can demonstrate the nature of the mind and dwelling on this experience for what it reveals can help to create conviction that a prolonged samadhi is possible for the one-pointed seeker.
39-47. Similarly, experience of casual samadhi in the absence of theoretical knowledge does not serve the purpose either. Just as a man, ignorant of the qualities of an emerald, cannot recognise it by the mere sight of it in the treasury, nor can another recognise it if he has not seen it before, although he is full of theoretical knowledge on the subject, in the same way theory must be supplemented with practice in order that a man might become an expert. Ignorance cannot be eradicated by mere theory or by the casual samadhi of an ignorant man.
‘The thoughts of youth are long long thoughts’. They occur in time. One train of thought ends and the next begins. Enlarge the gap between them. Live there.
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