You Can Plug Your Ears
And You Can Still Hear IT
Sant Mat Quote of the Day:
The following reflection on the experience of the Mystic Sound is from, "The Sound of Silence: The Selected Teachings of Ajahn Sumedho":
The mind is in a very wide, expansive state of awareness: inclusive, open, and receptive rather than closed and controlled. So notice and contemplate this experience, and then just concentrate your attention on the Sound of silence. If you think about it, think of it like a blessing, grace, or a lovely feeling of being open, rather than as a Buzz in the ear, in which case you think that it's tinnitus or some other disease. If you start contemplating it as the Sound of Angels, as a Cosmic or Primordial Sound, blessing every moment as you open to it, you will feel then blessed. Reflecting in this way, in a positive way helps us to take an interest in it and get a good feeling from it.
Listening to the Sound of silence, you can begin to contemplate non-thinking, because when you are just listening to the Cosmic Sound there is no thought. It's like this -- emptiness, not-self. When you're just with the Cosmic Sound alone, there is pure attention, no sense of a person or personality, of "me" and "mine". This points to anatta ["not-self, no-self, non-self"].
Relax into the Sound, don't try to force attention onto it. Just have a sense of relaxing and resting, peacefulness. Try counting to say, ten, to sustain listening to the Sound of silence: "one, two, three.....nine, ten." The mind is not used to resting in that way, it's used to thinking and to restless mental activities. It takes a while to calm, to relax, and to rest in this silence. (Ajahn Sumedho, Buddhist Teacher)
Shah Niaz: "A Sound is vibrating in the whole of creation. When you open your inner ear you will hear a continuous Sound, which will lead you across all limitations of mind and matter. My Beloved is speaking to you all the time. Alas! you do not hear his Voice."
"All religious scriptures mention the Sound Current or the Word, but unfortunately most remain unaware of it.
"When a Master initiates a soul he brings to that soul, at that moment, the ability to become conscious of this Sound Current. During all the millions of years we have been wandering around, lost and blind, we have forgotten our true selves and our Maker; we have lost the way (the Sound Current). Now it will be different. We are to meet our Creator through the Sound Current, which keeps creation in being." ("Encyclopaedia of Saints of India, Volume 19: Radhasoami", By Dr. S.R. Bakshi and Dr. Sangh Mittra)
"The Original Divine Sound, which originated from the Supreme Sovereign, continuously without break reverberates throughout the hearts of the entire macrocosm and microcosm. The Sound will inherently go on for the duration of creation because the evolution of creation depends upon the existence of Sound. Should the Sound cease so would creation." (Maharshi Mehi)
"Through the practice of meditation one can progressively move the consciousness inward within oneself.... through the practice of Surat Shabd Yoga (the Yoga of Sound), the transcending of all the Realms is achieved." (Maharshi Mehi)
"If during meditation Sound appears to come from the left side, the practitioner should try to shift his attention towards his right side, and he should reduce (lessen) the pressure on the left ear or should not press the left ear at all, or should take the thumb out of the (left) ear. Then, he would find that, slowly and slowly the Sound would appear to be coming from the above the centre of the two eyes. Then he should apply, or focus, his attention on that very Sound." (Huzur Maharaj {Rai Saligram}, found in the book, "Santwaani Sateek" {Commentary on Sayings of Sants, Radhasoami Satsang, Agra}, by Maharshi Mehi Paramhans ji Maharaj, here translated into English, by Pravesh K. Singh)
Hazrat Khan's List of Mystic Sounds: "It sounds like Thunder, the roaring of the Sea, the jingling of Bells, running the Water, the Buzzing of bees, the Twittering of sparrows, the Vina, the Whistle, or the Sound of Shankha..." ("The Mysticism of Sound")
"The practitioner may hear sounds like the sound of the Ocean, a Rain Cloud, a Drum, a Kettledrum, a Conch, a Bell, a Horn, a Flute, a Lute, or a bee [Hum]." (Svatmarama Yogindra, the author of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika)
Inner Sounds: "They are similar to the sounds of the Veena (stringed instrument similar to the lyre), the Murali (flute), the Nafeeri (horn instrument), the Mridang (drum), the Mrdal (cymbals), the Singi (a horn), the Sitar (stringed instrument), or the Sarangi (similar to a lute). Other descriptions compare these Sounds to a peal of Thunder and a roar of a Lion." (Maharishi Mehi)
"Sound by its nature has the quality to draw one to its Point of Origin [GOD].........No other means is better than the Sound for transcending the concealments (realms) of creation." (Maharshi Mehi)
