Sound: a passage to feeling

Amrit Sadhana

In this environment full of noise polution and artificially produced eletronic sounds we have forgotten the value of natural sounds which can be used as a direct passage to deep feelings and to the silent spaces of the heart. Natural sounds have a calming effect on the mind, the nervous system and the body. Any sound uttered with feeling can lead one to the silent harmony of the heart.

Recently I came across a wonderful sutra, a meditation technique from The Book of Secrets, the ancient treatise of Tantra.

The technique goes like this: Intone a sound audibly and then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony.

It may sound like a scientific formula, difficult to solve. It indeed is a formula. And it needs an enlightened one like Osho to unravel the mystery of this ambiguous sutra. You will come to know the secret if you practise it.

There are some sounds we have a feeling for. For instance the names of our loved ones, or a certain art-form, maybe our birthplace or our mother tounge. When we utter these names which are essentially sounds a deep feeling of love, pride, gratitude or joy wells up. These feelings stem from the heart. Normally we are not aware of them while uttering the sound hence we don't separate the sound from the feeling. But Tantra shows us the way of intoning the sound, and by repeating it continuously we can intensify the feeling hidden in the sound.

Osho gives the clue: " Intone one sound. Go on intoning it, first audibly so that you can hear it, and then by and by, inaudibly. No one else can hear it then, but you can hear it inside. Make it more quiet, make it less and less audible, and then suddenly drop it. There will be silence, an explosion of silence -- but feeling will be there. Now there will be no thought, but simply feeling will be there."

In this way the name you love becomes a mantra. Even your own name can become your mantra. This sound can be used as a passage toward feeling. The mind cannot reach the heart directly, it needs a passage. Repeating a sound creates vibrations and these sound vibrations reach the core of the heart.

Go on dropping the audible sound, make it more subtle and you will feel the change. The more sound will drop, the more you will be filled with feeling. It is like peelingoff the skin of a fruit. When sound disappears, only feeling remains. This feeling cannot be named. It is a deep love, but not towards anyone . It is unaddressed. It is the inner sky-- a cloudless, blue presence.

Love and Jealousy

Sadhana

It is difficult to find lovers who are not jealous of each other. Even though it creates misery people go on clinging to it because jealousy is considered to be a sign of deep love. If your woman or your man goes with somebody else and you don't feel jealous at all, you will start questioning your love. Both the partners will think they don’t love enough.
The initial romance and rosy magic between two lovers dries into the desert of jealousy and possessiveness. But everybody clings to jealousy because they would like to cling to the false idea of love. Jealousy has become an intrinsic part of love- life as it is commonly understood. Lovers think if they want their relationship to continue, they will have to accept their jealousy and the misery that is created by it.
It is a catch 22 situation. But it is based on sheer misunderstanding of love.
Osho has prescribed a fool-proof remedy that can help you drop jealousy and other petty feelings and fly high in the realm of love. “ Go deeper into your feelings. Don’t avoid them. But remember one thing: jealousy, insecurity etc are separate from you. You are the witness; as you go deeper, you will come across many things which you have suppressed; but you are as pure as a mirror. When you are going deeper, the mirror reflects jealousy, but the mirror is not jealousy. Just as the mirror reflects buffalo standing in front, the mirror doen't become the buffalo! The mirror is not identified with anything that it reflects -- the mirror is just empty, silent, clean.
In meditation you will come to recognize that you are the mirror. All other things are reflected in you. A mirror is just a reflecting phenomenon; so are you. Be a mirror, and then all these problems, whatever their names, will start disappearing -- they are only reflections. You need not try to get rid of them. The very idea of getting free of them still accepts that they are realities of your being.”
Courtesy Osho International Foundation