Yoga Sutra 1.18: Virama pratyaya abhyasa purvah samskara sheshah anyah, Noncognitive (asamprajnata) samadhi occurs with the cessation of all conscious thought; only the subconscious impressions remain.
In the previous sutra we discussed four types of cognitive samadhi. In this sutra Patanjali moves to the next type of Samadhi-beyond cognitive samadhi but not the highest type. Asamprajnata (A=without sam=union prajna=knowledge) samadhi is deep meditative absorption without any intuitive knowledge, even the sense of I-am-ness is transcended. Some teachers call this the void. Since this isn't the final type of samadhi there are still samskaras (subconscious impressions) remaining. As long as there are samskaras remaining there is work to be done. The concept of samskaras is an interesting one. With every action or thought there is potential to create new samskaras. They are etched like grooves in a record on top of the soul. They are referred to as seeds with the ability to sprout new vrittis or thought patterns when triggered by specific experiences. With repeated and prolonged asamprajnata samadhi these samskaras can be burnt up and rendered unsproutable (just as a toasted seed is unable to germinate). Some samskaras are much easier to neutralize than others. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi describes them, "some samskaras are as if etched in sand, just a swift stroke of practice and they are smoothed out, others are as if etched in wood, with a few more strokes they are smoothed out and others are as if etched in stone, they may take lifetimes to remove." This might help to explain why some lessons keep repeating over and over. The work is toward seedless samadhi (nirbija-1.51) at which time Kaivalya or supreme independence is achieved.
Most commentaries of the YS describe asamprajnata samadhi as a stage where liberation is immanent. Hopefully by reading and discussing the Y.S. you are getting inspiration to deepen your yoga practice. The Y.S. are written for the adept but can reach students of all levels of expertise. Keep practicing for all is coming!
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What sort of Samadhi would an attention to improvised music be? I don't mean the western improvisational tradition of working in a certain scale, and with certain meta structures, but 'sound follow sound', of creating a constant harmony centered around the moment that just passed and the now. I know this has to create some kind of focused meditative state and after discovering it with music (and a loop pedal), I tried different types of drones and different types of levels of listening/playing integration. If you have any insight I'd appreciate it
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