Salvikalpa Samadhi (or Savikalpa Samadhi) is when thoughts can still come, but there is no identification with them. They arise and disappear while you remain as the witness. You could also call this state of Samadhi an advanced state of “Witness Consciousness.”
When you are in this state, you have no personal identity, you rest as awareness itself.
How it begins:
Once you are established in being a witness to your thoughts, the thoughts change. Your thoughts started off as personal thoughts, what you have to do, what you want to do, what you are worried about, what happened in your past etc. You also think linear. One thought leads to another and to another.
But as you enter witness consciousness, the thoughts become random, they are no longer personal. They arise and disappear independently of each other. You can see pictures or have dreams/visions of things you have never seen before, that cannot even be explained in words. You can experience yourself as a completely different person in a completely different place, yet still you remain a witness to it, there is not identification with it. Almost as though you can hover above the vision without every becoming it. When you dream at night, you become a part of the dream, you are in it, but in this state of Samadhi, you are simply watching it like watching a movie.
The greatest part of Salvikalpa Samadhi is that your attachment to your identity and thoughts are broken for the period of time you remain in Samadhi. It is as thought the huge weight of who you believe yourself to be is taken away. You have no name, no physical boundaries, no weight, no problems. All worries, desires, judgments and attachments are gone. This brings incredible peace and bliss. Like being in a deep state of blissful sleep yet fully conscious. If you can remain a witness to these visions/dreams, you disappear deeper and deeper into consciousness itself. Thoughts can appear slower, less often and there can be long gaps of utter silence. Consciousness like the sun, burning brighter and brighter. In this state, the bliss that floods every cell of your being is incredible. It is as though every cell of your energetic body (the physical is no longer dominant) is singing, humming, vibrating in bliss. You experience incredible healing as all of the energy gushes through your energetic form. It is the doorway to Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
Salvikalpa Samdhi is not just about witnessing the thoughts but that is how it begins. As said above, Salvikalpa Samadhi is defined when your individual attachment and identification is broken. So that there is no individual “you.” There is no ego. There is just consciousness experiencing whatever arises out of itself. Completely unaffected by whatever arises and disappears.
How you attain Savikalpa Samdhi is simple: Become a witness to your thoughts. Be so vigilant in your focus that when every thought arises, be a complete witness to that thought, do not touch it, do not get involved with it, keep your focus on being the witness. This is not a mental experience and cannot be done with the mind. These words can only point. You have to practice it. It is an advanced state of meditation. It is effort while remaining effortless.
Awareness is your very nature. It is not an action that you do, awareness simply is. But because you are so addicted to identifying with thoughts, there must be the intense focus to not get involved with the thoughts.
In beginning meditation, there are so many thoughts and you are so used to being identified with the thoughts that you will not even understand what being a witness is. So at first, a technique is needed, like watching your breath or asking “who am I?”
The other part of meditation is to allow whatever sensation is here to be as it is. This is how you begin in meditation, by accepting whatever is here, by allowing yourself to experience whatever is here in the moment. If you really look in this moment, you will see you are constantly resisting being present. Being present for more than a few seconds is intense, can often feel painful at times. So a large part of meditation is experiencing yourself as you are in this moment, allowing yourself to feel whatever is here in the moment as sensation, without getting involved with it, without defining it, judging it or analysing it. Once you can accept and allow yourself to experience whatever is there, then you can move into witness consciousness. If you try to be a witness before being able to accept your experience in the moment, it probably will be forced and only reinforce the ego. So if you are new to meditation, begin with a technique and practice allowing yourself to experience what is here. This will be very peaceful in itself. You will begin to experience yourself as being, as presence itself. It is not “I am a person” but simply “I am”
Once established in being as presence in the moment, then you move into witness consciousness. As you become a witness to your thoughts, by grace, Salvikalpa Samadhi simply happens. You can go to the point of witnessing, and then it is consciousness itself that takes over and for the period of time in Samadhi, the ego is gone.
Kip Mazuy is the creator of Bliss Music and The Calling, an audio CD that washes you in enlightened presence, enabling you to experience states of meditation it could otherwise take you decades to attain on your own.
For free samples visit the Enlightened Spirituality Website