Part VI — The height and depth of meditation

Question: Is there a difference between height and depth in meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: When we remain in the Universal Consciousness, when we remain inside the spiritual heart, we notice that the height and the depth are one. At that time there is no difference between height and depth. But when we come out of the Universal Consciousness, then we fail to see everything as one and inseparable. At that time our conscious awareness of two things looms large. It is like our head and our feet. Before we have established oneness with our head and our feet, we will say, "This is my head and these are my feet." But once we have established oneness in our entire being, we shall claim all our limbs as our very own. Then they become one reality.

Like that, before we realise the highest, we use the terms height and depth. When we dive deep into the Pacific Ocean, like a diver, we are aiming at the depth. Then, when we are climbing the Himalayas, we are aiming at the height. But height and depth are all in the mental consciousness. Once we go beyond the barrier of the mind, there is only one reality. There the reality is spontaneous and universal. We don't call a drop by that name once it enters into the ocean. We call it the ocean itself. While the drop maintains its individuality, only then do we call it a drop and the rest of the water we call the ocean.

As long as we retain our individuality and personality, we will feel that height and depth are two separate things. When we are climbing up we will feel that we have reached a certain height, and when we are diving deep we will feel that we have reached a certain depth. But there comes a time when we go far, far beyond this meaningless comparison. At that time, only reality is singing and dancing within us and we become the reality itself. It has no height, no depth, no length. It is all one and, at the same time, it is transcending its own limits. We see limits according to our own standard, but Eternity, Infinity and Immortality are absolute realities. They don't have any limits. At the same time, they are more real than our eyes or our nose. I always say that God Himself is transcending His own Vision and Reality. For us it is unbelievable, unfathomable; but it is absolutely true.

We can notice this transcendence in our own individual life. We go to kindergarten; then we go to high school and college. We may get our Master's degree and Ph.D., but even then there is no end. If we say that we have learned everything, it will be a deplorable mistake. There is so much to learn, so much to learn. When we say that we have more to learn, we are more than prepared to transcend our knowledge and wisdom — what we have and what we are. This feeling or this consciousness we get only when we go beyond the domain of the mind. There we see philosophy and realisation as one. At that time there is no sense of separativity between height and depth. There is only one reality — omnipotent, transcendent and immortal.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The mind and the heart in meditation, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mhm