The picture above has nothing to do with what follows but rather depicts me in a dream taking an evening walk on a beach somewhere other than on the West coast just for a change.
In a previous post I touched upon the inadequacy of language when it is called upon to describe or relate a mystical or transcendent experience. The term ‘transcendent’ is in itself a clue that we face an uphill task when using conventional language in attempting to describe the unconventional. Language can also fail us when we try to describe ordinary earthbound experiences. Jorges Borge has rightly said that ”all language is an alphabet of symbols whose use presupposes an experience which is shared by both parties”. While it is possible to describe in physiological and biological terms what happens when one experiences an orgasm or extreme pain, the essence of the experience itself remains notoriously elusive in terms of an accurate or satisfactory description. How much more difficult then is it to relate an experience that falls outside of the norm and can only be understood by someone who has shared the same.
Theologians have said over the years that any talk of God is essentially meaningless because He, She, or It is so utterly ‘other’ that the concept cannot be articulated with any real cogency. Qualities attributed to such a Divine Being such as that of being eternal also run the risk of being linguistically shipwrecked. In order to give his 6th form pupils some idea of the concept of eternity, a Jesuit teacher in a celebrated college employed the following image:
“Imagine that the Earth is made of bronze and that a swallow brushes it with its wings every thousand years. When the Earth has been demolished in this way, only then will eternity begin”.
This is a noble attempt, but eternity is not only an infinite period of time, it is in fact no period of time at all, as it has no beginning and no end and therefore cannot be included in any measured context. Eternity, like its cousin infinity, is everything and nothing at the same time, and yet we use these words often and with great confidence. We may soon be approaching a time where language will have to be augmented with a new lexicon of experience in order to convey that which has eluded us for so long.
In the Vedic tradition of India, pure sound gives birth to the entire universe. All around us, a symphony of subtle energetic vibration is continually unfolding, creating everything we hear see and touch. Not surprisingly, the practice of mantra meditation is considered of paramount importance in these cultures when it comes to the question of health.
Recent research in the efficacy of mantras and sound therapy on our body has revealed what yogic seers already knew and experienced many thousands of years ago – mantra practice with dedication and intention can contribute significantly to our ongoing health and well-being. The hormones and neurotransmitters throughout the human organism communicate with each other through distinctive vibrational sympathies. When we are physically and mentally healthy, there is a harmony within our cells which resonate well with each other. When this harmony of empathetic music among our cells falls out of tune, we succumb to disease.
Nothing attunes the body, mind and breath like the pulsation of sound. The phonetics of the Sanskrit language have an effect on both the physical and subtle body. There are 50 ‘petals’ or ‘spokes’ on the first 6 chakras which interestingly correspond exactly to the 50 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet. The health and vitality of the chakras, the energy processing centres for the flow of prana which is the life force of our bodies, have a direct effect upon physical health. The chanting of Sanskrit mantras therefore, has a direct effect on the condition of our chakras, which in turn affects the health of our physical bodies. There is also a more physical aspect to the chanting of mantras. The phonetics of Sanskrit cause the tongue to strike the palate at multiple reflex points stimulating energy in numerous meridians that awaken dormant parts of the brain (most of which are unused in average man). This enhances the circulation and flow of energy throughout the body. The ancient Rishis or seers classified around 72,000 nadis (bundles of tubular vessels) as part of the psychic nervous system that are the counterparts to the physical nervous system. When a mantra is chanted, sound energy is generated and the vibrations of that energy are diffused and distributed along the physical nervous system by these nadis through the six major chakras situated along the length of the spinal column and a seventh at the crown of the head. The sound of the chanted mantras then reprogram the vibrations of the cells that are ailing. They restore the pattern of sounds at the heart of each and every cell, aiding the body towards harmonius health.
The subject of consciousness has fascinated philosophers and lay-thinkers alike for millennia. Our conscious sense of self-awareness – that pervasive sense of ‘I’-ness that characterizes human experience and that defines sentience, presents us with a cosmic puzzle that does not yield its secrets easily. Although the primarily Eastern concept of Mind-Body connection has been accepted in certain areas of Western medicine, modern neuro science still has no answers when addressing the phenomenon of consciousness. This could be because neuro-science has preconceptions regarding the origin of consciousness. In an October 2007 issue of Scientific American, neuro scientists Christof Koch and Susan Greenfield write, “Neuro scientists do not yet understand enough about the brain’s inner workings to spell out exactly how consciousness arises from the chemical and electrical activity of neurons.” The assumption in this statement, namely that consciousness is nothing more than a product of chemical and electrical activity in the brain reveals a certain materialistic reductionism at work. According to this view, all perceptions pertaining to life and reality, whether real or imagined, can be reduced to bio-chemical activity in the brain.
There are other worldviews that posit a conscious universe in which all matter contained within it possesses, to varying degrees, the quality of consciousness and innate intelligence. Some have suggested that this could account for the mysterious behaviour of sub-atomic particles that seem to flash in and out of existence until they are actually observed, at which point their state becomes stable and they ‘collapse’ into a specific form. Author Richard Smoley writes, “it is as if their sense of themselves is so frail and ambiguous that it takes an external perceiver to bring them into being.”
A key to understanding consciousness as awareness of our own essential nature is through the observation of our own thoughts. If we observe our own thoughts as if on an interior movie screen we reach a point at which we realize that our consciousness is not merely the sum total of our thoughts. When we get past the point of attachment to these thoughts, whether we reject or accept them, or whether we regard them as ‘mine’ or ‘not mine’, a certain space begins to open up where we observe the thoughts coming and going as they please. At this point we begin to understand that we are watching our thoughts without being a part of them and we start to intuit that we are in fact the silent nameless observer – eternal – timeless and totally conscious. This is a liberating experience because we realize that our essential Self is no longer defined by our thoughts or by our bodies. To understand that our consciousness is separate from what it experiences gives a profound insight into the true nature of being. According to Samkhya, a school of thought in Vedic philosophy, man’s deepest selfhood is not his intelligence or his empirical ego structure. Man’s deepest selfhood is the fact of consciousness.
The ultimate objective of all forms of meditation is to experience a state of consciousness variously described by different traditions as ‘mukti’, ’satori’, ’self-realization’, or the more familiar ‘enlightenment’. This is usually a momentary experience of extreme lucidity where the nature of reality, the universe, and one’s place within it becomes clear. The effect of such an experience is always life changing in that one’s perspective of life is never the same – the curtains have been pulled back to reveal, however briefly, the true nature of affairs. Because such experiences are transcendent, attempts at articulating them using conventional language become inadequate. Pyschologist Abraham Maslow has described these occurrences as “self validating” and therefore no justification or description should really be necessary. However, over the years, a few brave souls have tried to express the inexpressible. I offer the following for your consideration.
“It was a morning in early summer. A silver haze shimmered and trembled over the lime trees. The air was laden with their fragrance. The temperature was like a caress. I remember – I need not recall – that I climbed up a tree and felt suddenly immersed in ‘itness’. I did not call it that name. I had no need for words It and I were one.
Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) Sketch for a Self Portrait.
“Starting from the point at which a spark was first struck, a point…was built into me, burst into flames; how this happened all during my life, and as a result of my whole life, until it formed a great luminous mass, lit from within, that surrounded me”.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) The Heart of the Matter
“And spontaneously there occurred a sort of eruption, disrupting the individual poise and the unconscious tranquility of the Infinite Soul with a recoil or tremendous shock which impregnated the unconsciousness of its apparent separateness from the indivisible state”.
Meher Baba (1894-1969) God Speaks – The Theme of Creation and its Purpose
“All at once without any warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame coloured cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere close by in the great city; the next, I knew that the fire was within myself. Directly afterwards there came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to decribe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, but I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence. I became conscious in myself of eternal life. It was not a conviction that I would have eternal life, but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life then; I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world, of all worlds, is what we call love, and that happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain. The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone; but the memory of it and the sense of reality of what it taught has remained during the quarter of a century which has since elapsed”.
Richard Bucke (1837-1902) Cosmic Consciousness
“One night not long after my twenty-ninth birthday, I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. I had woken up with such a feeling many times before, but this time it was more intense than it had ever been. The silence of the night, the vague outlines of the furniture in the dark room,, the distant noise of a passing train – everything felt so alien, so hostile, and so utterly meaningless that it created in me a deep loathing of the world. The most loathsome thing of all, however, was my own existence. What was the point in continuing to live with this burdon of misery? Why carry on with this continuous struggle? I could feel that a deep longing for annihilation, for nonexistence, was now becoming much stronger than the instinctive desire to continue to live. “I cannot live with myself any longer.” This is the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. “Am I one or two? If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the ‘I’ and the ‘self’ that I cannot live with.” “Maybe,” I thought, “only one of them is real.” I was so stunned by this strange realization that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words “resist nothing,” as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void.. It felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that. I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such a sound before. My eyes were still closed and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like. I opened my eyes. The first light of dawn was filtering through the curtains. Without any thought, I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize. That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself. Tears came into my eyes. I got up and walked around the room. I recognized the room, and yet I knew that I had never truly seen it before. Everything was fresh and pristine, as if it had just come into existence. I picked up things, a pencil, an empty bottle, marveling at the beauty and aliveness of it all. That day I walked around the city in utter amazement at the miracle of life on earth, as if I had just been born into this world”.
The ecological disaster precipitated by BP’s recent oil rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico has been cause for grave concern among environmentalists and ecological watchdogs alike. President Obama recently said, “we are confronting the largest environmental disaster in our history”. As oil continues to spill through a broken pipeline that is still only partially capped, one wonders what the final toll will be on the already fragile ecosystem of the Gulf and on the oceans of the world as a whole.
While ‘Big Oil’ continues to operate with little regard for the environment and with the support of right-wing lobbyists, there are growing concerns that we are approaching the point where the earth’s capacity for self-balance and self-healing will be severely comprimised.
OIL FROM THE SPILL WASHING ASHORE IN ALABAMA
As meaningful legislation is nowhere in sight, and as protests seem to do little more than raise global awareness of the enormity of the problem, what can we do to right this situation? It is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless in the face of an ecological crisis of this magnitude. There is however, cause for optimism. Although we may not be aware of it, we are custodians of a power that can be consciously directed with intention for the good of this planet.
There are many faith-based traditions around the world that are pouring prayer, intention, and energy into this present situation. The tradition that I am most familiar with is ancient, formidable, and effective – Sanskrit mantra. In the spirit of healing intention, I offer this mantra to you for the healing of our earth. While it may certainly be chanted by an individual, it is even more effective when chanted in a group.
This Vedic mantra is an eloquent healing prayer that identifies the entire planet with our own body.
I recently discovered a walking meditation where you don’t have to worry about making your way back from wherever you were headed to. Although I had been aware of the paved labyrinth next to Christchurch Cathedral here in Victoria for a number of years it was only recently that I incorporated it into part of my mantra meditation practice.
Labyrinths have been around for over 4000 years and can be found in every major tradition in the world. They have been an integral part of Native American, Greek, Celtic,and Mayan cultures. The Hopi saw the labyrinth as a representation of Mother Earth. Like stonehenge and the pyramids, they are special geometric forms that define sacred space. Today labyrinths are used for meditation, prayer, and reflection.
Many people make the mistake of confusing labyrinths with mazes. A maze has trick turns and dead ends and its purpose is to confound. A labyrinth has one path leading to the centre and back out again. There are no dead ends. When you walk into a labyrinth, you meander back and forth turning 180 degrees each time you enter a different circuit. As you shift direction you also shift awareness from right brain to left brain. This is one of the reasons that the labyrinth can induce receptive states of consciousness not normally associated with an ordinary relaxing walk.
Each person’s walk is a personal experience. What one receives can differ with each walk depending on what is expected. Where some use the walk for cleansing and centering the mind, others may enter the labyrinth with a question or concern. The time spent in the centre of the labyrinth can be used for reflecting, meditating, praying, or discovering your sacred inner space. What each person receives can be integrated on the way out from the centre. Your walk can be a healing and sometimes very profound experience, or it can be just a pleasant walk, albeit one that induces an unusual level of peace and relaxation. My experience of mantra meditation practice while walking the labyrinth has been profound and I recommend that you try walking around in circles with a purpose.
When a co-worker told me had just seen his favourite film of the year so far, and that this film was an animated feature length movie that had been created over a 5 year period by one woman on a Macbook using standard animation software, my interest was piqued. Add to this that the film is a retelling of the ancient Indian myth, The Ramayana, and that the creator Nina Paley is giving it away free as a gift to the world via the internet, well, it’s the next thing on my agenda. Roger Ebert was essentially ambushed by this movie via a free copy sent to him by mail. Four out of five stars later, and with a review on his Chicago Times journal that included phrases such as ”swept away” “enchanted” and “delightful” you would think that Nina Paley had received the equivalent of an author’s appearance on Oprah with the guaranteed fame and fortune that follows. Not so. As yet this film does not have a distributor due to the fact that the jazz songs that Sita sings throughout the movie (actually by 20s jazz singer Annette Henshaw) are still copyrighted and as such require about $200,000 to free them up. For the last year or so Nina Paley has been the darling of the super-independent film festivals around the world and was featured at the Roger Ebert Film Festival in 2009. However, the chances that this oscar-worthy little gem of a film will ever see the major circuits any time soon remain slim.
The film has several levels. First of all it is the story of the Ramayana epic told primarily from Sita’s point of view interspersed with Sita vamping it up from time to time a la’ Billie Holiday. The story includes The exile of Sita and Rama (her husband) into the forest for 12 years, her kidnapping by the evil demon king Ravana, and her subsequent rescue by Rama assisted by an army of monkeys lead by the monkey prince Hanuman. The rest of the story concerns Rama’s doubts about whether or not Sita had remained pure during her imprisonment (she had!). The parallel story is that of the creator Nina Paley and is autobiographical, relating the true events of her abandonment by her husband after he accepts an extended contract in India. It was after this happened that she picked up the Ramayana and discovered that she had much in common with Sita.
Another charming and highly amusing aspect of this film is the inclusion of a ‘Greek chorus’ of Hindu commentators portrayed as shadow puppets who discuss (sometimes irreverently) the finer points concerning the story. Much of their ad lib comes across like a SNL skit. I watched this movie last night on my laptop and came away utterly enchanted and ready to recommend it to everyone I meet. It’s a gift from Nina Paley to the world and a welcome breath of fresh air to those who may have recently overdosed on Pixar. Watch it. You will not be disappointed.
The beautiful and radiant Lakshmi is the goddess of abundance and prosperity. Many consider her to be an anthropomorphized representation of one of the many creative potentialities latent in all of us. The consistent and faithful chanting of the Mahalakshmi mantra is said to bring abundance in whatever form it is desired. Her mantra is given below with a sample of chanting.
Out of all the thousands of mantras found in the Vedic writings of India, the Gayatri Mantra has been called the essence of all mantras. It is practiced by both Buddhists and Hindus alike. The Gayatri mantra is a meditation on spiritual light as it contains sounds that encapsulate the vibrations of the upper seven luminous lokas which are spheres of consciousness or planes of existence. All spiritual power and potencies are contained, hidden within it. This mantra when practiced consistently and faithfully can unlock elements of these levels of consciousness. This mantra has a long form and a short form. The short form is the one most commonly practiced around the world and also the one that lends itself to musical adaptation quite beautifully.
I talk about this mantra in detail in my course on the Yoga of Breath and Sound. I have included for your pleasure a link below where you can hear a wonderful musical version of this mantra by Deva Premal. Enjoy!
The late 19th and early 20th century produced exponents of various art forms who pushed the boundaries of convention. Musically, one might think of composers such as Debussy, Satie, and Faure who used music to convey impressions in the same way that the French impressionist painters used their art form to convey something other than merely representations of reality as popularly conceived. These artists were conduits for transformation, triggers of transcendence who knowingly or otherwise became agents of a new kind of ‘consciousness through art’, so that those who looked and listened with eyes and ears wide opened might just glimpse a reflection of the Origin of all art. As one of the prime objectives of art is to hold up a mirror to nature, as well as to the nature of being, it is not necessary that the notes to be ‘logical’, the brush strokes be consistent with ‘reality’, or the words convey meaning in a conventional sense because life is not always logical, consistent, or conventional. As a prime example of the above, I offer a short poem by the amazing Emily Dickinson written in 1865. Prolific, innovative, and reclusive, Emily Dickinson is considered by many to be the spiritual mother of American poetry. Enjoy!
