If, however, you would really like to know what might be said on the soldierly side of the question, I shall endeavour to oblige.
It is necessary if a question is to be intelligibly put that the querent should be on the same plane as the quesited.
Answer is impossible if you ask: Are round squares triangular? or Is butter virtuous? or How many ounces go to the shilling? for the "questions" are not really questions at all.
So if you ask me Is Samadhi real? I reply: First, I pray you, establish a connection between the terms. What do you mean by Samadhi?
There is a physiological (or pathological; never mind now!) state which I call Samadhi; and that state is as real — in relation to man — as sleep, or intoxication, or death.
Philosophically, we may doubt the existence of all of these; but we have no grounds for discriminating between them — the Academic Scepticism is a wholesale firm, I hope! — and practically, I challenge you to draw valid distinctions.
All these are states of the consciousness of man; and if you seek to destroy one, all fall together.
