Samadhi: Beyond Thought and Form

The Four Bodies of Existence

Spiritual energy does not work on only one level. It permeates and transforms every aspect of our existence. Understanding this helps us recognize why people can have very different experiences during the same energy practice.

In the physical body, there may be vibrations, trembling, or other bodily sensations. In the emotional body, suppressed feelings may rise as tears, laughter, or anger. The mental body may enter a deep reset, as though it has switched off and begun again. The spiritual body opens into states beyond duality.

The energy is always present. You do not have to do anything to bring it in; you simply open to receive what you need. Some people enter intense physical states, while others go through quiet, invisible transformations. Every path is valid.

The Mental Reset

One of the most surprising experiences that can happen during energy practice is the mental reset. It is like a complete restart of the mind’s processing system, similar to a computer being switched off so that its operating system can receive a deep and radical update.

This state may last for a few seconds or for more than an hour. The person can seem completely absent. Their eyes remain closed and their breathing continues, but ordinary consciousness simply stops. It may look frightening to someone watching from outside. For the person experiencing it, it is often described as one of the most loving and peaceful states they have ever known.

Trusting the process is essential. The body continues breathing and the heart continues beating. Within this experience, nothing is going wrong. Something is reorganizing in the deepest layers of existence.

Over the years, some participants remained in this state for more than an hour. At first, there was concern. In time, another understanding came: these can be among the richest states of transformation. The mind has surrendered to the infinite, and the infinite is doing its work.

Samadhi: The Screen in Perfect Balance

Why use a Sanskrit word for something so fundamental to human experience? Portuguese, like English, does not have a word precise enough. Western cultures did not develop a detailed vocabulary for altered states of consciousness because, historically, these states were not part of everyday cultural life.

The word Samadhi can be understood through two essential roots. Sama means balance, like the mathematical sign of equality, with two parallel lines representing perfect balance. Adhi evokes a screen, a projection, or a vision. Together, they form the image of a blank screen in perfect balance: the mind without thoughts, without the perception of time, and without the constant movement of duality.

Samadhi is often translated as enlightenment, but it is more specific than that. It is a state of awakened consciousness without thought, time, or form. It is a blank screen that, paradoxically, contains everything.

Just as ancient Greek and Persian have many words for love, each expressing a different nuance, Sanskrit developed a detailed map of states of consciousness. Samadhi is not a single level. It is a staircase of eight stages, each subtler and more expansive than the one before it.