Swedish Bhairavi Says: “Listening..”
Learning sacred sound is not only about producing or voicing out sound. It is also about becoming capable of listening, hearing, receiving it.
This week, Bhairav ji speaks about the Vādya Yantra and in that video, amongst other things, he invites us all to learn how listening itself can become a meditation. In the video he plays the instrument and allows its sound to slowly dissolve into silence, and one of our practices is to remain with it as it becomes finer and finer, letting it permeate, without the mind becoming distracted or immediately conjuring another thought.
It may appear to be a small and obvious practice; listen to the sound and follow it as it fades and remain as it disappears. But all of Bhairav ji’s videos carry many layers of wisdom, if one truly listens and allows the teaching to ripen.
Sometimes I observe to see what you all will catch from the teachings, and by doing that letting your internal process and your own power of discernment grow strong. Sometimes I try in different ways to recommend, invite or hint at things.
When we are recording the course videos I usually sit to listen and this time inspiration came, instead of observations and hints, to tell you something about the teaching so you do not miss it, because it is essential.
Do not think that following the sound into silence is a separate action whose expression belongs only to the practice with the Vādya Yantra. It does not begin and end with the instrument. It ripples into how we receive a mantra, how we receive a teaching, what use we make of the time for teachings and how we remain with an experience before deciding what it means.
Many people, even though with good intent, listen while already preparing their own response. Something is being said, but before it has settled, the mind begins composing:
“What can I add?” “How does this relate to me?” “What should I say next?”
Sometimes we repeat what has just been said while decorating it with our own interpretations. Sometimes we begin speaking before we even know what we want to say. In those cases, usually the teaching has come to the door, but we have not yet received it. We have already covered it with another sound.
I need to tell you that not every silence is waiting to be filled.
Some silences are where the teaching exists, flourish and eligibility builds.
And if we on top of not giving space for the teachings also happen to be in a group setting, not being able to hold space for others also results in rushing to sound in the silence, in which another person perhaps was still listening, reflecting or gathering the courage to speak.
Mantra and sacred sound training asks us to develop various capacities: to let a sound enter without immediately placing a habitual pattern of our own on top of it. When a mantra is sounded, there is pronunciation, rhythm, resonance and vibration. But there is also the moment afterward. The space after the mantra is part of the mantra.
If we rush immediately into another sound, another explanation or another thought, we may miss what the mantra has begun to do, and where it is taking us. Sometimes a mantra is immediately followed by something else, could be another mantra deployed, some gesture, some instrument, some mudra, a flow we are invited to follow. A practitioner should gradually learn not only how to chant, but how to remain available after chanting. For this reason, many times in various rituals in the tradition there are times when one sits in silence in the middle or after the practice or chanting or ritual, to let what has been be, and give a chance for it to permeate and continue to bare its fruits.
The same applies when receiving a teaching.
Receiving requires a certain digestion and state of being. We may need to let the words move through us before deciding that we understand them or adding on to them. Sometimes an instruction that seemed to concern only one exercise begins to show itself in our relationships, our habits and the way we enter space with other people.
But for that to happen, the teaching must be given somewhere to land.
And it is easier said than done.. but we still try to tell you and give various practices, so that you develop a sense and ability for it..
Countless times I myself have mistaken a word or a sentence to have been of less importance and realized it in retrospect when it was too late, that what initially appeared very simple or obvious, was actually having a whole world of meaning and ripples… If I would have let it take full form, full meaning, I would not have lost that chance. That is just how it works for many people and we often need to go through the actual losses and the pain of that to have a chance to realize it, embody the teaching.
This topic of silence, holding space and receptivity for teachings is a very layered and important practice and contemplation for a student on a spiritual path, and especially for a Siddha Tantra practitioner.
If we cannot allow one sound to finish, or one teaching to settle without immediately adding our voice and opinion on it, we will struggle to receive subtler practices. More advanced teachings with us in Siddha Tantra Arts do not merely require a greater quantity of information. They require an awareness that can hold what is given. This ability is necessary to develop to be able to journey further with us. It is because Siddha Tantra requires receptivity. It requires the capacity to listen, remain, digest and allow something to permeate us before we rush to explain or add-on or change it.
(…………………………………………………)
Swedish Bhairavi
