You Are Not Book.indb - Stephen H. Wolinsky Ph. D.

The Veil of the Concept of the eight-Fold Path / 205
However, the questions and understanding that must go
with this are the following: 1) Who is meditating? (What “I”
is imagining it is performing the action?); and 2) For what
reason is the meditator-”I” performing the action; i.e., what
does the meditator-”I” imagine it will get, become, have, or
be able to do better?
In both instances, there is some form of “I” that is meditating,
and it is doing this to get something, both of which
are counter to Nirvana or “No-I.”
In this way, concentration meditation can be “understood”
as a possible “beginning step”; however, ultimately,
along with the I am-”awarer” substructure, they must be
understood for what they are—a meditator-”I”; hence, it, too,
must be dissolved (this will be more central in Section III).
Samadhi is the “last” step in any eight-limb or eight-fold
(step) path or yoga. Samadhi, as it is commonly used, has
several earlier levels to it. For our purposes, in this section we
will talk of only the first three previously mentioned Step 6
(concentration), Step 7 (meditation), Step 8 (Samadhi with
seeds)—Step 6 and Step 7 contain seeds of the consciousness
of I am. The last Step 8 contains the subtle seeds within the
void or gap (a meditator-”I”), which acts and remains subtly,
even during the in-between state or void.
“A cloud or void is also a cover on pure consciousness.
It is only the blurred impression produced in consciousness
when i t passes through successive “planes.”
This phase is like the critical state between two states
of matter, liquid and gaseous, when it can neither be
called liquid or gaseous.” (Yoga Sutras, p. 40)
The “bliss of Samadhi,” really cannot be described.
However, that void still carries with it the impressions (seeds),
which, in a subtle form, sprout upon arising out of Samadhi
and hence brings us back to “our” psychological “experience”
as “I.”