The play of sound is the play of the mind. We can use it to remain in our periphery, or to reach our core. Complete soundlessness is no mind. When this happens, we have touched the core. When we touch the core, we have transcended the mind. Then inner and outer harmonies happen irrespective of our thought, word and deed. We then remain centered in the core and the outside functions seamlessly. In the last two techniques, we used omkara to connect with the saguna and nirguna aspects of reality. We focused on the sound and the silence separately. Here, we go a step further and use the very sound to enter into silence! When the sound dissolves into the silence, we realize that sound and silence are not separate as we think. Without the silence, the sound would have no meaning, and vice-versa. Both form and formlessness, sound and silence are simply the play of the one Reality that is beyond both! When you work with this technique, you experience the continuous contact of sound and silence in yourself. You experience yourself as the play of the manifest and the unmanifest, of energy and consciousness! The total duration of this meditation technique to be practiced is 28 minutes.
Instructions
Step 1 (7 minutes)
Sit upright with your eyes closed. Concentrate on your navel center, manipuraka chakra Now from your navel, start creating the deep vibration of Omkaara or ‘Om’. Intone the mantra as loudly as possible, as deeply as possible, as lengthily as possible. Enter totally into the resonance of the mantra.
Step 2 (7 minutes)
When you will yourself filled with the resonance of the mantra, stop saying it out loud. Continue to chant the mantra inside. The sound mantra should fill you inside, it should resonate inside you again and again.
Step 3 (7 minutes)
Slowly, turn down the volume of your inner chanting. Let the sound of the chanting become subtler and subtler inside you. Let it become a silent vibration inside you, rather than a sound. Continue to experience this vibration.
Step 4 (7 minutes)
Wait for the moment when the sound has become so subtle that it will simply dissolve into silence. You can no more hear the sound, even inside. All you experience now is a vibrating silence. Carry this vibrant silence inside you.
