The average individual spends many, many lifetimes meditating and seeking and chewing bubblegum and doing things like that to attain the experience of samadhi.
Ramakrishna didn't suddenly become enlightened. We had years of him meditating, seeking, crying to Mother Kali, going in and out of samadhi; but after many years of this process, he was enlightened. He was no longer a finite individual.
If you run into a Buddha, then that energy field, the "rad" level is so high, it's incalculable. Their effect on an individual is for many, many, many, many, many, many lifetimes.
They reach the point where they feel, "I can go into samadhi now. I can do everything on my own," and that's exactly where they stay, in the lower samadhis. There are many, many people on this earth who can go into salvakalpa samadhi.
The messages that DNA molecules contain are all but eternal when seen against the time scale of individual lifetimes. The lifetimes of DNA messages give or take a few mutations are measured in units ranging from millions of years to hundreds of millions of years; or, in other words, ranging from 10,000 individual lifetimes to a trillion individual lifetimes. Each individual organism should be seen as a temporary vehicle, in which DNA messages spend a tiny fraction of their geological lifetimes.
I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes.
The interesting thing that happens for many people when they first start meditating is that they'll be doing it for a few months, and they will begin to change, but the experience is so subtle that they're not even aware of it.
I first went into samadhi when I was 19. I was meditating in the mountains and had been meditating on a daily basis for several years. Suddenly there was no time or space or life or death or myself or the Universe. I was absorbed in light.
What drives me now is the fact that I feel like I still have so many tricks that I want to learn and so many things that I can still do. And so many cool things outside of sports that I have been doing.
The images that we see of Africa are so... that are so engrained in our minds are of this place that is terrible - like hell on earth. And that doesn't acknowledge the positive things - the many, many, many positive things - that people are doing.
I observe many people who say they are meditating, but I sure don't see them meditating. They sit and touch a lot of people, places and things psychically, but they sure don't meditate.
I think many people knows what I am thinking. The whole world knows I am not seeking independence, therefore is many Tibetan disappointed, and also some of our supporters - many Indians, many Europeans, many Americans are also disappointed because I am not seeking independence.
Donald Trump probably spends more time getting more things done than many people have any experience with, but yet he's the one undisciplined, he's the one that's haphazard, he's the one who's erratic, he's the one who's unpredictable.
Honestly, the average American spends about 52 minutes a day in commute traffic. And as much as I love driving my car and many people like driving their car, commuting has never been fun for me.
One who practices jnana yoga has practiced the other yogas for many, many lifetimes.
Now, stopping thought is only the beginning. As Brahmananda, who was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, once remarked: The inner life begins with samadhi. This is an awesome thought, I realize, for the average person who meditates, that it could begin with samadhi.
One day after many, many lifetimes, we get wise. We decide that the fun in life is to give.