Savikalpa Samadhi

What is savikalpa samadhi?

Nirvikalpa samadhi marks the true dissolution of the self into a zero-point of referential perception. There is no Observer observing the stillness and light of other samadhis, nor an Experiencer experiencing the bliss and peace of those either.

To be clear, Salvikalpa samadhi isn’t just about having a really high meditation.

In most advanced states of meditation, a person meditates on God or truth, light, joy, nirvana, the Buddha, the Christ, whatever it may be. And as they meditate, they have experiences, and there’s still a sense of being the enjoyer of the experience: “I am meditating, I am enjoying eternity, I am experiencing the ecstasy of existence. It’s all-pervasive and there’s an awful lot of it. There’s a reservoir that is filled with wonderful, clear, pure water, and I’m sitting here drinking it. Some days I drink more, some days I drink less.”

Advanced meditation is like drinking this pure water. It has an elevating effect on one’s life and one’s being, and provides strength and clarity.

Going beyond ideas of meditation

In salvikalpa samadhi, you are no longer drinking the water. You have jumped into the water and, at least in that moment, dissolved in it, and now you have the sense that there is an awareness that permeates all of eternity, and that you are that timeless perfection.

For a time, you lose your individual awareness as a person. You no longer have a name, an address, you’re no longer fixated on this world at all. You’ve lost sense of the earth, time, space, past personal histories, and future possibilities of your “self”.

All of that goes away for a fleeting moment. And then of course, the sense of individuated self inevitably comes back. But it comes back with a little loser of a grip on you than it had before.

Continue exploring your consciousness

It’s important to not get complacent, after having reached these bright, ecstatic states of meditation. Savikalpa samadhi is a beautiful space of consciousness to visit and re-visit, however there is still a ways to go in the spectrum of possible enlightened states of consciousness.

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Savikalpa samadhi is a very advanced spiritual state. If you are capable of going into savikalpa samadhi in this life, if you attain that, then I would say that you were enlightened. Partially enlightened. Nirvikalpa samadhi is beyond that.

—Dr. Frederick Lenz, Rama

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Zen Master Rama & Samadhi

Frederick P. Lenz was a master of many disciplines. Known as Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz, or “Zen Master Rama”—he meditated with the effort, focus and attention of a top olympic athlete.

Through years of daily meditation practice throughout his twenties Rama experienced savikalpa samadhi countless times. Around the age of 30 Rama’s mastery of meditation brought him to the state beyond states when he experienced nirvakalpa samadhi and became “fully enlightened”.

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Yogic origins of Savikalpa

Savikalpa was identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, a collection of Sanskrit sutras on the theory and practice of yoga. They were compiled in India by the sage Patanjali sometime between 500 BCE and 400 CE.

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