**1) What are three different stages that our practical practice of sacred sound might go through?** The practical practice of sacred sound could begin, for example, with listening carefully to inspiring words, and sounds.  These might take the form for example of poetry, and then poetry set to music: the lyrics of uplifting music. It’s important to realize though that the practice of sacred sound, at some point, goes then to silence: listening to silence, in order to quiet the mind, eventually as a step towards that deep focus required to perceive the true nature of reality, on a deeper level. There are what we can call “impressions of sound” on this level.  A typical example would be the feeling, inside, of like a sonic boom, often accompanied by a jolting sensation in the body.  This can be a sign that we are achieving some success in moving the inner winds, which then facilitates deeper realizations. **2) What is the “fallacy of staring at a tangka,” and what might be an equivalent here in the study of sacred sound?** In perfecting our practice of meditation, we learn to bring up an image say of a particularly inspiring individual, and hold it in our mind.  There is an ancient debate about this tradition where some people thought it might be helpful to sit and stare at the central figure in a religious scroll painting, which in the Himalayas is called a “tangka.” The teachers of the authentic lineage here though are insistent that this practice of meditative visualization has to be done _in the mind,_ and not through the physical senses.  The highest objects—the deep truths that we seek to make contact with through our practice of both hatha and raja yoga—are all revealed to the mind, and not to the senses.  From the beginning then we are encouraged for example to visualize an inspiring figure deep inside our mind, rather than in front of our eyes. The same principle applies to sacred sound.  People who are relatively removed from authentic yoga lineages might for example feel that there is great importance or benefit in listening to the sound of traditional Asian instruments such as a hand-bell, or “singing bowls.”  But this sound is an extremely gross form of outer reality, and it does not sharpen our purely mental faculties to devote any serious time and effort to following these gross outer sounds.] **3) Give the word in Sanskrit for the general practice of sacred sound; then give a typical practical use of this sound itself.  Please also give some Western cognates.** The word in Sanskrit for the practice of sacred sound is _nāda._  The root here is possibly a cognate for the English word _note,_ both in the sense of being aware of something and a tone in music.  This word itself comes from the Indo-European root /_gno,_ which is a source for and connotes knowledge or knowing (as also in _cunning_ or even _can_ and _ken_)—an awareness of things like notes of music. There is a famous practice where a visual representation of the sacred sound of _nāda_ is used as a mnemonic to reflect the passage of prana through the body both during the death process, and in seeing ultimate reality. **4) In the verses at this point, Svami Svatmarama draws a connection between sacred sound and self-control.  Share some of your own thoughts on this link.** As long as the student makes a sincere effort, different answers to this question are fine.  One more obvious connection here is that calming the mind with music and sacred sound makes us less liable to lose our self-control, for example by becoming easily angered.  We can in general say that people who know how to be quiet, and listen to the subtleties of music, don’t tend to exhibit the same degree of being upset or angry that other people might show. **5) In one of the verses in this section, Svami Svatmarama says that the mind can be “freed by the alchemy of sacred sound,” so that it can “roam freely through the sky, free of any supports.”  Give the original Sanskrit word for “free of any supports” here; connect this word to physical asana practice; and then explain its higher meaning, in the practice of raja yoga.** The Sanskrit word for “support” here is _ālamba_ or _ālambana,_ with the negative “without support” being _nirālambana._  We see this name in yoga poses that are done without additional support, such as headstand where we don’t use our hands on the floor for support. On a higher level, in the practice of meditation on ultimate truth—which is what actually produces the deathless state promised by hatha yoga—“unsupported” means that we are no longer resting or relying upon mistaken states of mind: we are flying free in the perception of highest reality. 6. **Svami Svatmarama says,**                         **So long as we**                         **Contemplate**                         **Empty space,**                         **We will enter**                         **Within**                         **The sacred sound.**                         **Where there is no sound**                         **There is highest purity.** **What is the “highest purity” here, and what is the sound that should be absent?** The expression “highest purity” in these lines refers to emptiness: the highest truth of things, that they are devoid of existing from their own side, and are nothing but produced by the images that exit from our own mind, from seeds planted there by how we have treated other living beings.  At this point, our mind is free of “sound” in the sense of the “noise” of thoughts that things like pens are coming from their own side.