Feel yourself in the center of sounds

What the Method Is

The core instruction for this meditation method is: “Bathe in the center of sound, as in the continuous sound of a waterfall. Or, by putting the fingers in the ears, hear the sound of sounds.”. This technique aims to lead the practitioner from the experience of sound to the underlying soundlessness or soundfulness that resides at their deepest core.

How It Is Done

This meditation technique involves two primary approaches, which can be practiced alternately to enhance understanding and dynamism:

  • Bathe in External Sounds:
    • Sit silently anywhere, whether in a busy market or a quiet retreat, recognizing that sounds are always present.
    • Close your eyes and feel that you are the center from which all sounds originate and toward which all sounds are moving. Unlike sight, which is linear, sound is circular, making you the natural center.
    • Visualize a continuous sound, like a waterfall, encircling and falling upon you from every direction, reaffirming your position as the center.
    • Do not intellectualize or judge the sounds (e.g., good or bad, disturbing or harmonious); simply allow everything to enter your awareness and focus on the feeling of being the center.
    • Relax your senses, becoming more liquid and open, allowing all sounds to move towards you.
  • Hear the Sound of Sounds (Inner Silence):
    • Put your fingers in your ears (or use earplugs/any method to forcibly close your ears) and contract your rectum. This action closes off external input and internal outflow, creating a closed space within the body.
    • In this sealed state, listen to the sound that emerges from within. This “sound of sounds” is often described as a subtle, inner hum or pillar of sound.
    • Remain with what is happening inside you, observing the vacant state created by these actions.
Commentaries and Insights
  • Sound as a Path to Soundlessness: Tantra posits that sound can only exist because of silence, its anti-phenomenon, which lies just behind it. The technique aims to use sound as a jumping board to transcend the mind, which is seen as a process of sounds, words, and thoughts. The core of your being is absolute silence, the soundless center that enables you to hear sounds.
  • The Body’s Centers:
    • While words and thoughts are typically associated with the head, working with pure sounds (rather than words) can shift one’s center of awareness. For example, in Japanese tradition, continuous work with sounds led to the understanding that the belly (navel) is the center of thought, as sounds tend to “hit” at the navel rather than the head.
    • When the inner sound is heard, it is often felt as a “pillar of sound” within the body’s closed space, and it can cause thoughts to dissolve, leading to inner solidity and immovability.
  • Mantras and Pure Sound: The technique can be applied to any sound, including mantras like “Aum”. Mantras are essentially meaningless sounds (without linguistic meaning) designed to create specific inner vibrations and feelings. By intoning a sound slowly and attuning to its subtle vibrations, one can gradually move from audible sound to inaudible sound, and then to pure feeling and inner silence. The “Aum” mantra, for instance, is a synthesis of three basic sounds (A-U-M).
  • Transformation and Awareness: When the sound dissolves into soundlessness or soundfulness, your alertness touches its peak, and you dissolve into total awareness. This is a profound and beautiful experience, leading to a state where no sound can disturb you, and you feel a stillness inside regardless of external noise. This awareness is not achieved by thinking but by doing and feeling; it is the ultimate goal of these methods.
  • Warnings and Risks:
    • Sleep/Auto-hypnosis: A significant risk with repetitive sound techniques, including mantras, is that they can induce sleep or a trance-like state (yoga tandra/hypnos), which is not genuine meditation or spiritual awakening. True meditation requires alertness and conscious listening to the sound, preventing it from becoming a mere lullaby.
    • Superficial Practice: The method seems simple, but its effectiveness depends on alertness and deep feeling, not mechanical repetition. Without true awareness, one might only achieve a surface-level calm without addressing deeper inner issues.
  • Inner and Outer Movement: Sound acts as a vehicle for communication with others (moving outwards). Conversely, soundlessness becomes the vehicle for moving to oneself (moving inwards), breaking the bridges to the external world. The technique encourages moving between opposites (outer sound vs. inner soundlessness) to foster dynamism and aliveness, preventing fixation at any extreme.
  • The Master’s Role: While these are generalized methods, individualized initiation from a master can accelerate the process and ensure correct practice, helping to navigate the subtleties and potential difficulties. A master can assess the disciple’s type and adjust the method for deeper, faster transformation. The “Book of Secrets” itself is presented as a collection of techniques to be experimented with, encouraging seekers to “play” with them to find what “clicks”.
  • Tantra’s Approach: Tantra is a science of technique focused on “how” to attain truth, rather than a philosophy concerned with “what” truth is. It starts with the practitioner as they are, accepting all aspects of their being (including the body and senses), and then providing methods for transformation from that point. This approach emphasizes acceptance as transformation, where understanding rather than suppression or indulgence leads to growth.