Directed and produced by Daniel Schmidt—a meditation and self-inquiry teacher and founder of the Awaken the World initiative—the Samadhi series is a set of four documentary films that use clear visuals and direct inquiry to explore sadhana: spiritual practice before and after awakening, and the shift from striving and self-improvement toward liberation and integration.

• Samadhi Part 1: Maya, the Illusion of the Self

  Explores maya—the “great forgetting” where we mistake conditioned identity, thought, and story for what we are. Its aim is less to teach concepts and more to push you toward direct recognition of “true nature” (what remains when the self-story relaxes).

   

• Samadhi Part 2: It’s Not What You Think

  Part two, reframes samadhi as a “turning inward”: withdrawing attention from objects (external phenomena, sensations, conditioned thoughts) toward consciousness itself. It also emphasizes the “perennial” thread across traditions—pointing to one truth discoverable within the heart of each person rather than owned by any one system. 

• Samadhi Part 3: The Pathless Path

  Focuses on practice without making practice into another ego-project: it frames the path as a stripping away of illusion—“the path is you,” and obstacles are the places identification still hides. It also outlines two dimensions of practice: mindfulness and mental emptiness (stillness/absence of grasping). 

• Samadhi Part 4: Sadhana

  The final episode goes deeper into sadhana (practice) across three stages: before awakening (piercing the illusion of the spiritual seeker), the “I” thought (how identity is assembled), and after awakening (practice as integration/liberation rather than striving). It explicitly frames sadhana as leading to awakening—and beyond awakening, to liberation. 

What all four are aiming to achieve

Across the series, the goal is to shift you from thinking about spirituality to recognizing the ground of awareness directly by:

1. exposing the self-sense as a construction (maya),

2. redirecting attention from objects to consciousness itself,

3. clarifying practice as de-identification rather than self-improvement, and

4. maturing practice into liberation/integration (where the “seeker” pattern dissolves).

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