Inward and Outward-Turned Consciousness

Inward and Outward-Turned Consciousness

Samadhi is of two kinds: one turned outward, one turned inward.

The outward-turned consciousness is always first. You are in the

stage of Samadhi belonging to the outward-turned waking

consciousness, when you can pass beyond the objects to the

principles which those objects manifest, when through the form

you catch a glimpse of the life. Darwin was in this stage when he

glimpsed the truth of evolution. That is the outward-turned

Samadhi of the physical body.

This is technically the Samprajnata Samadhi, the "Samadhi with

consciousness," but to be better regarded, I think, as with

consciousness outward-turned, i.e. conscious of objects. When the

object disappears, that is, when consciousness draws itself away

from the sheath by which those objects are seen, then comes the

Asamprajnata Samadhi; called the "Samadhi without consciousness".

I prefer to call it the inward-turned consciousness, as it is by

turning away from the outer that this stage is reached.

These two stages of Samadhi follow each other on every plane; the

intense concentration on objects in the first stage, and the

piercing thereby through the outer form to the underlying

principle, are followed by the turning away of the consciousness

from the sheath which has served its purpose, and its withdrawal

into itself, i.e., into a sheath not yet recognised as a sheath.

It is then for a while conscious only of itself and not of the

outer world. Then comes the "cloud," the dawning sense again of

an outer, a dim sensing of "something" other than itself; that

again is followed by the functioning of the nigher sheath and the

Recognition of the objects of the next higher plane,

corresponding to that sheath. Hence the complete cycle is:

Samprajnata Samadhi, Asamprajnata Samadhi, Megha (cloud), and

then the Samprajnata Samadhi of the next plane, and so on.