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.
- One technique, two poles – the ‘or’ is not a choice; do both, in sequence. First practice Part A for some months, then Part B for some months; moving between the two extremes sustains aliveness. Getting fixed at one pole – as Meher Baba did in silence beyond the three-year limit – means the mechanism for the other direction can no longer be recovered.
- Bathing in sound (Part A): sound is omnidirectional – circular, not linear like sight; you are always the center of sound wherever you are. Sit anywhere (a market works as well as a waterfall, and its dense sound makes it ideal), close eyes, feel every sound converging on you from every direction. Even the feeling of being the center gives immediate deep peace. The sound source can also be an internally created pure, meaningless sound – a true mantra (AUM) has no meaning, only effect – and the same centering works.
- The center where sounds are received is itself soundless – only silence can hear sound, just as a sound cannot hear another sound. When you locate this silent receiving-point, a sudden transference of consciousness occurs: one moment you hear a world full of sounds; the next, awareness flips inward and you hear the soundlessness at the core. After that transference, sounds continue to seem to approach but never actually arrive.
- In the beginning: dizziness, because the senses normally act as censors/watchmen – only about two percent of surrounding sound is admitted (the full hundred percent would drive you mad). For this technique, relax the censor; allow everything in; do not label (‘this is beautiful / this is disturbing’). Hold only one thing: ‘I am the center, everything moves toward me.’
- The true center of hearing is the belly/navel – not the head. If sound hits the head, you have already converted it to words and are thinking about it, not hearing it. This is why Japan locates thinking in the belly; why the temple gong is sounded precisely so the meditator can track where the hit lands deep inside; why sounds affect an unborn child more than the mother – the child has no head-processing, only belly-reception.
- Fingers in ears (Part B): plug both ears completely. What you hear is ‘negative sound’ – the absence of sound, just as the eye sees the negative of an image after staring at a bright object and closing. This is the ‘sound of sounds’: uncreated, not produced by any object, the silence itself made audible. (The American neighborhood that heard the rerouted 2 a.m. train’s ABSENCE as a new mystery – absence is as perceptible as presence.)
- Why Part B moves you inward: sound is the vehicle to the other – society is founded on language; a dumb person is cast out of humanity while a blind person can still communicate and even lead. Plug both ears and you are suddenly alone even in a crowd; all bridges to the other are broken; the only place left to go is inward. (Gurdjieff’s three-month silent houses – forty people forbidden even eye-contact – forced exactly this inescapable inward movement.)
- Q&A practical pointer (Part A): ‘horrible city noises’ cannot be made positive by adjusting the noise – the negativity is in the listener, not the sound. Fighting sounds or setting conditions (‘I’ll sleep once the dogs stop’) is what disturbs you; the dogs are irrelevant. The minister who withdrew his condition and simply listened found the barking became a lullaby. This is the operative inner stance for bathing in sound: purely receptive, no conditions, no resistance – then any sound serves as the method.