The Inner Symphony: Radiance Sutras Verse 91

During this session, we discuss Verse 91 of the Yukti Verses from the 'Radiance Sutras', a translation of the Vijanana Bhairava Tantra by Lorin Loche. A meditation follows our discussion.

These sessions are recorded on a weekly basis and all are welcome.

Transcript

So today we are reading from the Radiant Sutras and this is a beautiful book which is a translation or an interpretation of the Vijnana by Rava Tantra.

And I'm going to talk about what that means because it's very significant for the sutra we're going to read today.

Vijnana is a Sanskrit word that one of its meanings is wisdom.

And it's not wisdom like knowledge.

It's not wisdom like I know this,

I know that.

Imagine wisdom is felt and not felt with our fingers but it's like our entire soul knows something.

Our entire soul recognizes a vibration that's familiar.

So something may happen like today my partner was supposed to drive to Toronto to meet someone who he was building a guitar for but they're calling for really bad weather and something in him started thinking I shouldn't go and he's not afraid of driving in the winter at all.

And he was sort of hemming and hawing and hemming and hawing and I said to him I said you're never afraid of driving in the winter.

Something is telling you not to go.

There's a vibration that can come out of our core out of our heart.

I keep pointing at my heart chakra as I'm speaking.

They call it anahat in Sanskrit and it means unstruck chord.

And what that means is there are sounds in the world like the sound of I make a sound because two things come together.

I pick up this book and I squish the pages together.

We make sound by doing something in the physical world.

So this is normally what we consider to be sound.

But in the yogic traditions and the tantric traditions and a lot of traditions the belief is that there is an original sound,

An original vibration that all things come from.

And they call this anahat,

The unstruck chord.

What is the sound that is always vibrating inside of you?

And we're going to talk about that soon but it's just interesting that I keep pointing to my heart center which is called anahat.

So sometimes something happens maybe someone says something and something in your heart goes oh yes.

And you may not have any logical reason for it but something in you is like this is true,

This is important.

Someone else might say something and it doesn't resonate at all.

Like we even use this language that doesn't resonate with me,

That doesn't feel right to me.

It doesn't feel right.

Well what's interesting is when we,

Well I want to say if we're on a spiritual path but the reality is children know this as they come in.

We kind of learn to not listen to our inner truth through schooling and learning to live in our head and learning to be super intellectual.

And then we have to go on a spiritual path to undo all of that and come back into that childlike felt sense.

Wisdom comes from living a life listening to that inner feeling.

It's like one day something happens and maybe the first time,

Maybe it's like your first day of your spiritual journey and you're sitting there and you're like I don't know what to do,

I don't know what to do.

And then something inside of you says you know what this is what feels right and I'm going to do it.

And you follow that and in the end if you're lucky you find out that this was the right choice and maybe even years later you realize wow was that ever the right choice.

Every time we do that,

Every time we trust that inner truth,

That inner vibration it becomes easier and easier to listen to that.

And over time we become wise.

And it has nothing to do with our intellect.

It has nothing to do with what we've learned.

It's all about how connected am I to truth.

This is vijnana.

It's not an intellectual wisdom.

It's a way of navigating the world through our eternal truth mechanism.

Bhairava,

Which is the second name of the book,

Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

Bhairava is the energy of life.

It's interpreted as terrifying,

The terror of life,

But not in a bad way.

That's just one example of it.

But it's like being alive is exciting.

Look at all of us here.

Like we're all we're all alive.

It's kind of crazy.

Like this physical body is being animated by some mysterious energy.

Some eternal galactic spark of divinity is somehow animating our lives.

And we're walking around exploring this world and exploring each other and trying things and doing this and doing that.

That's crazy.

Like we take it for granted because it's that's just our life.

But when you really think about it,

We're like these miracles walking around.

And we can experience all kinds of things.

We can experience pleasure.

We can experience pain.

We can experience nothing if we want.

We can live this life completely passively.

We could spend our whole life on a couch watching Netflix if we wanted.

There's nothing wrong with any of these options.

But isn't that wild?

That you can literally experience all the things between birth and death.

And there's a natural terror or a natural edginess to it or a natural unknown that makes life exciting.

This is Bhairava.

And when we actually live life with the awareness and the excitement of Bhairava,

What is that like?

And Tantra just simply means teaching or book in this instance.

So Vijnana Bhairava Tantra.

And for anyone who's joining later,

This is what the Radiant Sutras is a translation of.

Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is the wisdom of that life-giving energy that allows us to be here on earth.

And we can do whatever we want with it.

And that's what this book is all about.

And it's separated into sutras,

Which means thread.

And each thread,

We can kind of,

You know,

Explore this thread of the wisdom.

And then we can explore another thread of the wisdom.

And they're different,

Because of course,

This is a very multi-dimensional,

Interesting place.

And each thread is meant to help us transform a little bit.

It's meant to help us feel Bhairava a little bit more in our day-to-day life.

And then imagine all these beautiful threads woven together make up the wisdom of Bhairava.

So that's what we're going to do.

We're going to read a sutra.

And we're going to have a chit-chat about it.

And in this case,

For example,

It's actually a practice.

So we're going to do the practice,

The tantric practice at the end.

They say birds can hear a wise ones in town.

They can always feel what's coming.

It's not logical.

All right,

So today we are reading 91 on page 126,

In case you have the book.

But even if you have the book,

Let's all close our eyes for a moment.

And just breathe deeply.

Close the ears that track the outer world.

Open the ears of the soul.

Engage the muscles at the base of the pelvis,

The intimate special places,

And cherish the vibrating energies there contained.

The song of creation,

Sustaining,

Enlivening,

Is thrumming in your body,

Whispering secrets.

Listen in.

Meditating on the symphony of your own life currents,

Enter the palace of the creator.

What comes to you when you hear that?

What feelings or what phrases stood out for you?

Or words?

Enter the palace of the creator.

Wow,

You go inside and enter the palace of creator.

Can I please read it again?

Sure.

Close the ears that track the outer world.

Open the ears to the soul.

Engage the muscles at the base of the pelvis,

The intimate special places,

And cherish the vibrating energies there contained.

The song of creation,

Sustaining,

Enlivening,

Is thrumming in your body,

Whispering secrets.

Listen in.

Meditating on the symphony of your own life currents,

Enter the palace of the creator.

Our body is a temple.

Bliss,

Expanse,

Soothing,

And powerful at the same time.

What's in the pelvis?

So,

It's a great question.

So let's talk about this,

What they're talking about.

The symphony of our own life currents.

Yes.

So,

The practice,

So this is actually describing a tantric practice to hear the primordial sound.

They actually call it Anahata Nada.

Nada is sound.

Nada is,

It's not just sound,

It's that sound of life.

And Anahata means unstruck sound,

Which we normally talk about in the heart center,

But this is just simply where we connect with it primarily.

So the meditation itself,

In a very physical way,

Says,

Close the ears.

So they actually tell us to take the index fingers and just press them,

Put them inside the ears,

Just,

And they don't have to be like completely blocking out sound,

But we just need to kind of stop the primary sound being outside and we want the primary sound to be inside.

So we just take the index fingers and put them in the ears so that the outside world is muffled and we allow our attention to go inside.

Then,

They say to pull Mula Bandha.

Now,

In Kundalini Yoga,

They actually bring all three of these together.

So for example,

Mula Bandha,

As I teach in Kundalini Yoga,

You contract your perineum,

Which is the place in between the anus and your sexual organ.

So you bring up,

Up,

Imagine like right now,

Wherever you are,

Sitting,

Lying,

Standing,

Picture that part of your body between the anus and sex organ,

The perineum,

And pull it up into your pelvis,

And then release that.

And then imagine contracting the anus,

Like just feel what that feels like,

As if you were literally saying,

This door is closed,

And then release that.

And then to contract the urinary sphincter,

Whatever that is for you.

And again,

It takes time even in yoga practice to actually be able to identify these things.

So what they're saying is to contract all three,

Pull up the perineum,

Contract the anal sphincter,

Contract the urinary tract,

All at the same time.

And then also plug the ears.

So just for a moment,

Just kind of relax your body.

And we're just going to try this for just like five seconds or 10 seconds.

So first,

We're going to contract Mula Bandha.

So you pull up the perineum,

You pull in the sexual organ or the urinary tract,

And then you contract the anal sphincter.

And then let's just place our fingertips in our ears.

And we're just going to breathe for a moment.

All right,

Let's come back.

Just relax everything.

What did that feel like?

What did it sound like inside?

I got the sensation of being in the womb.

Yeah,

Cool.

What else did you guys feel?

I could feel my heartbeat.

Helped me go more inward.

So it's a very interesting practice.

So the idea is that we want to connect with this sound of Anahat.

I could hear the blood circulating through my body.

But what's interesting is the yogis say like,

When you do it,

You practice,

You focus here in the heart center.

But they say that you actually hear it in the Bindu chakra.

Now the Bindu chakra is not one of the normal seven that we talk about.

In the upper here,

We normally think about here,

Ajna chakra.

We think of the seventh chakra.

Now,

The Bindu chakra is actually in the back of the head.

And it's just above where Ajna chakra is just above the third eye.

So if you were to kind of draw a line through your head and go up about an inch,

There's sort of a spot there.

Maybe it feels in for me there's,

It almost feels like it's a little flat there.

But maybe that's just my head.

But that's Bindu chakra.

And so they actually say that when we do this,

We listen up here in Bindu chakra.

So let's try that.

Okay,

We're going to do it again.

We're going to contract Mulabandha.

And then we're going to plug the ears.

And then we're going to listen within,

But try to direct your attention up into that Bindu chakra,

Just for fun.

We're only going to do it for 5-10 seconds.

Okay,

Ready?

So wherever you are,

We're going to contract Mulabandha,

Contract the perineum up,

The anal sphincter,

The urinary tract or the sexual organ,

Pull it all,

All three in.

Then we're going to place our index fingers in our ears.

And we're going to listen within.

So did you guys notice anything different?

Or what was your sensation?

It's a bit,

For me,

It's very,

Sounds quite muffled.

Like it's just sort of a,

It's almost like a sound that I never hear.

Kind of to BD's point that feeling like you're in the womb or something.

Energy flow.

Space sounds.

We are the universe.

Open the soul's ears to feel the vibrations of our being.

Lots of movement around like wind.

Sounded like a wind tunnel.

Gurgles.

Yeah.

So I'm going to read to you some of the experiences that people have had with this.

Now,

When I first read this,

I thought,

Wow,

I'm a long way from experiencing something like that.

But it's something that the thing with these practices is none of them are one-offs.

The idea with having a practice like this is to do it consistently.

Because when we do it consistently,

It's like in the beginning,

You're sort of just thinking about what you're doing and you're thinking about Mouliband and you're kind of like,

Oh,

That's interesting.

The second time it gets a little bit easier and you kind of relax.

And the third time gets a bit easier.

But what happens is you start to notice more subtle things.

Imagine the first time you go into the woods,

The first time ever,

Like you've been raised downtown Toronto,

Never been in the woods and you're walking and you're literally like,

Whoa,

There's so much green and there's so many sounds.

You know,

It's just like,

It's just there's so much.

Right.

And then the second time you go,

You don't notice the trees quite as much and you start to notice the rocks.

The third time you go,

You start to notice the colors of this and the smell of that.

And the 20th time you go,

You're walking along and all of a sudden you look up and there's a squirrel there.

Like you felt it.

And every time we do it,

It's like our subtle body is able to pick other things up.

So for example,

This guy says,

Listening for the inner sounds with a quiet mind takes us to the subtlest and most exquisite levels of energy in our consciousness.

Some hear these inner sounds as a subtle version of outer sounds,

Like the symphony of crickets at night,

Or tiny cymbals ringing,

Or rushing water,

Or distant thunder,

Or the sound of ohm reverberating in infinity.

For some,

The inner sounds are a dimension of inner music,

Unlike anything they have heard before.

And for some,

These sounds are like the hum of life itself.

In whatever ways,

This subtle vibration presents itself to you.

Once you find it,

Stay with it.

It will take you into deeper dimensions and eventually to the deepest bliss of your being.

That is from this book called The 112 Meditations from the Book of Divine Wisdom.

I want to read from another book.

This is from,

This book is called Sri Vijnana by Rava Tantra,

The Ascent by Swami Satya Sagananda Saraswati.

And he says,

This inner music has been described in the songs of Mirabai and in the couplets of Kabir,

Surdas,

Tulsidas,

And many other saints throughout the ages,

In whom the Anahat Nara was experienced.

Mirabai heard it as the song of the peacock and the melody of the flute.

Others have heard the roar of thunder,

The clashing of cymbals,

The blowing of the conch,

And the beating of drums.

So again,

I don't hear any of those.

Not yet anyway.

So they say that our senses,

So our actual hearing that we hear out here,

Is designed to pick up change in our surroundings.

It's designed to pick up when something is different.

But when we're listening within,

We're not listening for change.

We're not listening for the struck sound.

We're not.

So even when they say that they hear the clanging of cymbals,

Or the rushing of water,

Or the sound of thunder,

What are they really hearing?

What in your body would the clashing of cymbals feel like?

We know what they would sound like out here.

But what would they feel like inside?

What would thunder?

On the outside,

We know that what thunder sounds like with our ear,

But what does it feel like?

What does the sound of thunder feel like in your body?

When you hear crickets with your external ear,

What does that feel like inside?

So it's interesting to imagine what we quote,

Hear inside.

It's like we're hearing the primal sound,

Not the struck sound.

Does that make sense?

I love that low bass feeling of thunder in my sacral chakra.

So let's take thunder for a moment.

What does thunder,

We know what it sounds like,

But what does the sound of thunder feel like inside of you?

I would love to know in the comments.

I hear the rumble before the thunder.

A low rumbling vibration.

Felt it too.

What about the clanging of cymbals?

What does the sound of clanging of cymbals feel like?

Exciting vibration,

High energy.

Tingly.

It feels higher in my chest.

So what's beautiful about this practice,

Cymbals vibrate higher in the body than the thunder.

Isn't that interesting?

So what's so interesting about this practice is when we're listening within,

It's like we can actually listen through the whole body.

You know,

And what are we really hearing?

Or what are we really feeling in the body?

It's like we're feeling the primary rumble before the sound comes.

We're feeling the primary energy before something comes.

Like,

Even if you imagine,

We don't actually have to,

I don't need cymbals here and clanging them so you guys can hear them.

All I have to do is say,

What would the sound of cymbals clanging sound like?

And your body automatically vibrates.

It automatically knows.

So what's really interesting is,

This sutra actually can go along with the sutra before it.

Last week,

We studied the idea of sitting and gazing outward at the world with your eyes wide open,

With a gentle gaze,

While you were also looking inside.

If you weren't here last week,

It's totally fine.

So let's just imagine that for a moment as we're sitting here.

You're sitting and you're gazing out at the world.

It doesn't matter what you're looking at.

It could be a beautiful vista and it could just be the couch in your living room.

But you're looking outward and you kind of relax your gaze a little and then you also look inward into your own being.

So now,

Imagine you close your eyes,

Plug your ears,

Contract mula band,

All the locks,

And you now listen for the vibration inside of your body.

It's almost like you take the world and you bring it all inside and you experience it at its foundational self.

So why is this helpful?

Like,

How does this help us on a day-to-day basis?

The foundation of Tantra is to remember that we are fully eternal,

Infinite,

Multi-dimensional beings.

Well,

That we are infinite energy and we are physical beings.

So as we walk through our life today,

As we ponder work or holidays or personal issues or whatever it is that's going on or hopes or dreams,

That we also remember that primal energy that we're made of.

Can you imagine like walking through life,

Even through all the trials and tribulations and whatever's going on,

But always being able to close your eyes and hear the sound of life flowing through you?

It's like no matter what's going on,

You always have connection to your eternal self.

And using this practice,

You can actually close your ears,

Close all the orifices,

And just listen within.

It's like one person had this example where,

Let's say you're sitting in your living room and you really just want to relax to some beautiful classical music.

But outside,

There's a party going on and there's really loud,

You know,

I don't know,

Pop music or metal music or something.

And you can't even hear your own beautiful classical music.

So what do you do?

Well,

You close the windows and maybe you pull the curtains and you do whatever you can to kind of block out the external sound so that you can hear the sound within.

And that's all we're doing with the blocking of the ears,

The contracting of mulaban,

Closing of the eyes,

Obviously of the mouth.

And we just sit and we listen to the beautiful music within.

Like there's a drum circle happening within my cells and the veins are chanting while the blood's dancing blissfully along harmonizing the energy.

Oh,

That's beautiful.

Thank you for that.

Someone said last week,

Be present,

Answers are within.

Does anyone have any comments or questions before we go into the meditation?

Of course,

This is a funny meditation to do here because it requires plugging of the ears.

So we'll have to just do a partial earplug for now.

But then later,

You can do this anytime you want with truly plugging your ears.

And some people even,

You know,

You can even use actual earplugs if you want.

You can actually just,

That's not part of the original practice because perhaps they didn't have earplugs,

But you could.

All right,

You guys ready?

In the meditation,

We're going to combine last week's practice with this week's practice.

So let's close our eyes.

Breathe deeply.

Expanding the belly as we inhale.

Contracting as we exhale.

And in our mind's eye,

I'd love for you to visualize yourself walking down a country path or a country road.

There's trees along the side.

The sun is shining.

The birds are singing.

You're breathing deeply.

And up ahead,

There is a park bench.

So you go and you sit on the bench and you just look around at the world.

You look at the trees.

You see birds flying.

You see little clouds in the sky,

Blue sky.

And you're kind of taking it all in.

And you have this inner smile and outer smile.

And then you just relax your focus forward,

Whatever you're looking at,

Whatever you want to be looking at.

Maybe it's trees.

Maybe it's a lake.

Maybe it's a mountain.

Maybe it's the view from a mountain.

You allow your eyes to focus forward.

And then you kind of relax your focus as if you're receiving the entire world in through your eyes.

And you follow that path into your body,

Into your mind.

And even though your eyes are open,

You are looking within yourself.

And then we close our eyes.

Feeling all that energy inside of us.

And now we're going to contract mula band.

We're going to bring the perineum,

The place between the anus and the sexual organ.

We're going to lift it up into the pelvis.

Contract the anus.

Close that door.

Contract the sexual organ,

The urinary tract.

Pull them all up in and hold them here.

Then you're going to take your index fingers and just gently put them inside your ear.

Not all the way,

Because I want you to be able to hear me when I pull us out of this.

Allow your focus to go inside.

Allow yourself to hear with your inner ear.

And we're going to stay here for one minute.

So I'm going to be silent for one minute.

So you can press your fingertips in a little bit more.

Listen within.

Listen.

Feel what the world is saying to you.

Feel what the world feels like.

And then let's bring our fingers out of our ears.

Let our hands rest on our lap.

Release the mula band.

But stay with your eyes closed.

Eva ca anakam ahalam dhyanam vishat brahma sanatanam Close the ears that track the outer world.

Open the ears of the soul.

Engage the muscles at the base of the pelvis.

The intimate special places and cherish the vibrating energies there contained.

The song of creation sustaining enlivening is thrumming in your body whispering secrets.

Listen in.

Meditating on the symphony of your own life currents.

Enter the palace of the creator.

And just before we come out,

That feeling within,

Allow it to permeate all of your cells.

So that as we walk in our day,

Our cells remember this eternal sound.

Let's take a deep breath in together.

Exhale.

Let's come back together.

Thank you so much for being here and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

As a person who has just barely scratch the surface learning about Tantra, Katrina makes it very accessible.
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