(Technique — Sahaj Samadhi)

There is samadhi that requires you to close the eyes, be still, go deep.

And there is sahaj samadhi — the natural samadhi — that walks with you to the market, cooks the rice, answers your phone, holds your grandchild.

The great saints lived in sahaj samadhi. Ramana Maharshi sat in it while people asked him questions. Anandamayi Ma was in it while she burned the cooking. Nisargadatta Maharaj was in it while selling bidis in his small shop in Bombay.

How do you recognize it?

Sahaj samadhi is when the background of your experience is peaceful even when the foreground is busy. When the inner space remains quiet even when outer noise is loud. When you do what needs to be done — fully, attentively, skillfully — without the sticky residue of doership. Without the sense of “I did this” clinging to every action.

You don’t fall into sahaj samadhi by trying to fall into it. It arrives when you are no longer fighting reality. When acceptance is not resignation but a kind of joy — the joy of being fully in what is.

Here is a way to begin touching this state.

In the middle of your most ordinary activity — washing dishes, folding clothes, walking to another room — suddenly pause. For one full breath. Not to escape the activity but to notice who is doing it.

Notice that there is doing happening. Notice that there is an awareness of the doing. Are those two things the same?

The doing is the foreground. The awareness is the background.

Rest in the awareness while the doing continues.

That is the seed of sahaj samadhi. You are not going anywhere. You are just recognizing where you already are.

With practice, that recognition becomes more frequent. The gap between moments of recognition gets smaller. Until one day, almost without noticing, the recognition is continuous. You are awake while you live. That is all.