# The Sounds of the Central Channel *1) Master Svatmarama says that "one who follows the sacred sound is a vessel fit for the ultimate meditation."  Describe what this meditation is, giving also its Sanskrit name, its root, and cognates.  Finally speak about the difference between the specific and general usages of this term. **The "ultimate meditation" mentioned here is of course the direct perception of emptiness during a state of deep meditation.  Again, the Master is emphasizing how the practice of sacred sound—and of the dissolution represented by the death process—brings us to this perception.** **The Sanskrit word used here for this "ultimate meditation" is _samadhi,_ which is a combination of _sama_ and _dhi._  The _sama_ means _equal_ or _even,_ and the _dhi_ comes from a root √_dha,_ meaning _to put_ or _to put down._  Cognates are _deed_ (something put down in writing); _do;_ and _doom_ (set down, fate).** **The word _samadhi_ refers most frequently to a general state of focused meditation, balanced (in an _even_ state) between dullness (getting sleepy or spacing out in meditation) and agitation (thinking about our plans for today, listening to a sound nearby).** **But in the yogic literature, say for example in the Yoga Sutra, we see the word referring to the direct perception of emptiness, or even to the state of enlightenment itself.  Here we've translated the term as "ultimate meditation," in the sense of the direct perception of emptiness.  The point is that the practice of following sound leads us to dissolution and thereby on to emptiness, the clear light.** *2) Master Svatmarama says that the practice of sacred sound brings us "bliss which is beyond all words, a bliss that is fully known only by our Teacher."  Explain. **The Master is describing the state of bliss that comes when the winds are brought into the central channel; the bliss which is utilized for perceiving emptiness directly.** **This bliss is "beyond all words" only in the sense that someone who has experienced it directly cannot usually describe it in a way which causes their listener to go into this experience themselves at that moment.  And so it's not like someone telling us how to turn on an appliance, and we simply go and do so.  The direct experience of emptiness _can_ and _will_ however be described in words by a person who has seen it to as many other people as humanly possible, since it is this experience which can save the lives of themselves and their loved ones.** **But the most important part here with these lines is that we seek out a Teacher who has themselves experienced this bliss that perceives emptiness: a person who "fully knows" this experience.  If emptiness is by nature a difficult idea to explain even for someone who _has_ experienced it directly, then explanations by those who have not experienced it can only depend upon the reports of others who have; or must necessarily be limited to the general logic which establishes that such an experience could exist.** **There is a distinct power and blessing to a description of ultimate reality by someone who has actually undergone it, and this is the kind of Teacher we must seek to find.** **3) Master Svatmarama makes mention of "keeping the mind unmoving in a state where nothing moves."  Explain the three references here.** **"Keeping the mind unmoving," on a surface level, refers to keeping our mind single-pointedly on our object of focus.  This is obviously much easier when we have blocked off our senses physically with our fingers.** **A yogi though is keeping their mind unmoving in a second sense, of course.  The winds have been emptied out of the side channels and are no longer moving in a way which would trigger a perception that objects are coming from their own side.  Sometimes this is explained as not allowing the mind to move to two different extremes.** **One of these two extremes would be the idea that nothing can change.  This is the extreme that our mind normally moves to throughout the day.  It's not here that we're actually thinking consciously that nothing around us could change.  Rather, we are holding onto things as coming from their own side.  Such things would truly be beyond our control or ability to affect, and beyond the power of anything else to affect—and this would make them unchanging.** **The other extreme would be to think that because the things around us are said to be "illusory," then they have to existence at all: that they are figments of the imagination which cannot help or hurt us.  This would imply then that they had actually stopped altogether.  We seek to keep the mind from moving to either of these two extremes.** **Really understanding the world around us though is to see that there is nothing which exists in the way we thought it did: nothing is coming from "out there."  In this third sense then "nothing is moving," meaning there is never anything around us which does anything on its own, without our mind there causing it to.** **4) The Master says that there will come a point where the inner sound drowns out the external sound.  Describe the two senses of this statement.** **On the one hand, as the Master says just after this, a yogi or yogini "will be able to overcome every form of distraction."  On a gross level, this means that by using the practice of sacred sound they have reached a state of concentration which corresponds to what are sometimes known as the "form" or "formless" realm meditations.  The point here is that we are meditating so deeply at this moment that we would not perceive any normal objects of the senses around us: we wouldn't hear a door if it were slammed nearby; we wouldn't smell popcorn if it were being popped right next to us.  We are at a level completely beyond the sense perceptions of the lowest of the three realms, the desire realm.** **This intense form of concentration is in fact what is required if we hope to have any chance of perceiving emptiness directly.  It is a point where we have total concentration on inner sound, a concentration that rules out hearing any outer sounds.** **But the Master also mentions "reaching a state of happiness," which is a reference to the state of peace we call "freedom from all negative thoughts."  Here the "noise" of the two side channels—the channels of the sun and moon—has been drowned out by the sound of wind moving through the central channel.  Connected to this wind are our pure thoughts, and thus we come to happiness.** **5) Master Svatmarama says that, when we first start the practice of listening, we hear all sorts of obvious sounds; but that as our practice becomes more developed, we hear more and more subtle ones.  What general principle in the development of our meditation is raised here, and what danger does it entail?** **In the Tibetan yogic tradition, the principle here is called _shirak gi nampachen:_ the relativity of meditation.  What this means is that, as we develop increasingly higher states of concentration, we let go of grosser objects and states of mind in order to reach for more subtle ones.** **All this obviously begins with the gross objects of the senses.  For example, we may correctly utilize the practice of listening to subtle outside sounds or staring at a candle flame in order to gain the very most basic form of concentration: just trying to stay on one gross outside object.  Even for an advanced meditator, there are bad days when there is no more than we can do than this.** **If though we find ourselves reaching concentration on these outside sounds, then we can begin to go inside and listen for the inner sounds.  As described in the text with the four stages of the listening and dissolution practice, these sounds begin with very gross, unavoidable, explosive noises—and then proceed to more subtle, tiny, tinkling sounds.** **The danger here is that we are simply going more subtle into deceptive reality, and not necessarily switching over to ultimate reality.  At very fine levels we feel a deep sense of calm and quiet, but at the same time we are still aging, still marching inevitably towards our death.  And when death comes it doesn't matter how fine a level our mind has been able to reach—we will still lose everything, even this meditation.  In the end it will have been meaningless.** **We need yes to get to a very fine and subtle state of meditation, but only as a platform for looking through the portal between the two realities, to catch a glimpse of ultimate reality.  In the end, the principle of the relative subtlety of meditation cannot save us: we need to go deep in our usual dimension and then work sideways into another.** *6) What are some typical sounds which the Master says will come at three steps in the progression of our listening practice?  And what does he say these sounds represent?  What, according to the tradition as it came into Tibet, are some signs of the advancement of this process? **In this section, the Master divides the steps of our practice into the beginning, the middle, and final stages.  He says that, in the beginning, we will hear "the sound of a kettle drum, like gentle thunder in the clouds."  Midway in the development of our practice, we hear the sound of a belly drum, a conch horn, or a pealing bell.  At the final stages then we hear sounds like the tinkling of tiny bells, a flute, or a lute.** **Master Svatmarama then says that these sounds represent the movement of the winds into the "center of the body," meaning the central channel.  The Tibetan yogic tradition divides the progression of this movement into three stages: the entrance of the winds into the central channel; the staying of these winds within this channel; and their dissolving into the central channel.** **Each of these stages is accompanied by a traditional sign: a milestone that we can recognize to judge our own progress in the inner body.  The sign that the winds have just entered the central channel is that our breath begins to flow smoothly and evenly through both nostrils, in equal exhalation and inhalation.** **The sign that the winds are beginning to stay in the central channel is that the passage of the breath through the nostrils stops completely.  And then the sign that the winds are dissolving within the central channel is that we begin to go through the actual dissolution process involving the domino collapse of the four elements, similar to what happens at death.** *7) The Master says that—even if we begin to hear massive sounds like thunder or a bass drum—that we should use them to reach "further down."  Describe how this is done, and how it reflects a tradition of Mahamudra meditation. **What Master Svatmarama is describing here is a masterful meditation technique that we still see in the Mahamudra meditation teachings of India as they have survived in Tibet.  The idea is that—no matter where or when we try to meditate—we will doubtlessly be interrupted by some kind of outside noises or the like; and we will also be interrupted by our own distracting thoughts about unrelated things.** **In this form of Mahamudra meditation, we follow our Master's advice to "use them to reach further down."  That is, instead of trying to struggle against these interruptions, we turn around and focus upon them, using them as tools for _increasing_ our concentration.  If for example our meditation is shattered by the sound of a garbage truck outside, we turn our attention to that sound, rather than trying to block it out.  As our text has advised us, we go deeper and deeper into all the details of the sound, using each more gross sound as a stepping stone to a more subtle sound within the whole noisy whole.** **Famous texts like His Holiness the First Panchen Lama's presentation on Mahamudra entitled _A Dispute Between Wisdom and the Tendency to Hold Things as Self-Existent_ include the line, "The more distracting thoughts you have, the more bodies of an enlightened being you can produce."  If we can learn to _ride_ distractions rather than _struggle_ against them, then the more distractions that come up the deeper we can go in our meditation.** **8) Master Svatmarama gives us a certain warning about our practice of following sound; advice which he says we must heed "whether we are moving from the gross to the more subtle, or from the subtle to the more gross."  First of all, why would we ever even _want_ to be moving from the subtle to the gross in our meditation?** **In the Tibetan yogic tradition, this refers to a practice called _tsel jangwa,_ meaning a meditative exercise designed purely to increase our flexibility in concentration.  Here we purposely "jump around" to different depths of concentration just to _increase_ our overall concentration.** **We can take the very gross example of listening to a song, which is not a bad place for a beginner to start in this exercise.  On one level we are just aware that music is playing: for example, in a store or restaurant where background music is being played.  We're not listening to any details at all, but if someone later on asks us if there was any music playing at the store we can honestly say that there was: that we remember something was on, even if we can't remember exactly what it was.** **We can move to deeper and deeper levels of recognizing what the song is; listening to some of the lyrics; trying to hear the bass line; seeing how our emotions change over the length of the song.** **If we then want to increase the _flexibility_ of our listening, we could jump around through these levels purposely: we go to the tiniest details of the song, the half-notes of the bass line; and then we jump back to being aware of the store and barely aware of the music; then back to sounds of breathing or whatever else the singer might be doing between lines of the lyrics; and then over to the implications of three or four words of the lyrics on our own life.  With all this going on we may not enjoy the song all that much, but we'll find that the quality of _flexibility_ in our listening and concentration increases noticeably.** **Then we can turn these same skills to details within a more serious meditation: listening for an inner sound; watching our thoughts; jumping to the emptiness of one of these thoughts; and then purposely out of deep concentration onto our breath for a few seconds; finally back down.** **9) Master Svatmarama warns us that as our meditational skill increases, we may encounter an unexpected obstacle.  What is it, and why is it undesirable?** **The Master states that, as we get more sophisticated in our meditational flexibility, we might get distracted by the _feeling_ we get as we meditate, and lose the _meaning_ of what we're meditating on.** **For example, in a pure Mahamudra meditation where we are supposed to be concentrating on our own thoughts and then examining the ways in which these are empty, we might get distracted by the pleasant sensation that comes as our meditation ability becomes strong.** **This pleasant sensation even has a name in Sanskrit and Tibetan.  The Sanskrit is _kaya chitta prashrabdhi,_ which literally means _extreme flexibility of the body and mind._  The corresponding Tibetan is _lusem shintu jangpa._** **The point is that, as our meditation ability improves, more wind is moving freely through the body.  This creates a pleasant sensation in the body and in the mind, since the thoughts ride upon these winds.  We can enjoy and appreciate the fact that we are making progress, and that our winds and concentration are improving, but it's important for us to stay focused on the task at hand.** **A surgeon might well admire the sharpness of the scalpel he or she is using, but to get caught up in it might actually kill the patient.  The goal of our meditation is just as serious, and the results of getting distracted—even by our progress—just as disastrous.** **10) Describe briefly where we'll be going with the next course of the _Yoga of the Sun and Moon—_the fourth and final course of the series.** **In the fourth and final course of this series, we'll first be finishing the second half of the third chapter.  That is, we'll be going through the last five of the ten seals, or mudras.  These five will be (1) the Root Lock (Mulabandha), a lock in the area of the muladhara or perineal chakra; (2) the Water Catcher (Jalandhara), a chin lock; (3) the Reverse Action (Viparita Karani), an easy shoulder stand; (4) the Diamond Fluid (Vajroli), retention of the sexual fluids; and (5) Inciting Her Power (Shakti Chalana), a lotus posture with a pressing of the lower abdomen.  The third chapter then concludes with a summary on seals.** **We'll then move on the last quarter of the fourth chapter (remember, we've been doing a quarter of this chapter in each course of the series, in order to point up the importance of raja or meditational yoga even as we practice hatha or physical yoga).  Here we cover concentration and other benefits of nada yoga—the yoga of sacred sounds—and then hear a detailed description of all the benefits of raja yoga; not the least of which is the state of deathlessness, for ourselves and all those in our world.**