1) Matrka & Shabda

[Guest guest]

[Reposting material from Marcus on inner sound... Matrika and Shabda...

with some related questions and answers]

 

Dharma <fisher1

< >

Thursday, March 18, 1999 8:34 AM

Re: Paravak

 

Hi Marcus,

> There is the common misconception that words can adequately

>describe the subtle. This is like a mute trying to describe chocolate.

>Spanda is the term used to describe the Divine Creative Principle. At the

>highest, or most suble level is Paravak (or Paravani), or energy of

>ParaShakti. This level is pure Cosmic Ideation; Logos. The Divine Creative

>Principle....

 

Thank you for this post! I have that book, but I seem to have gone right

over this passage without spending enough time with it. I hear various

sounds, and I use sound in meditation... but I don't know how one would

know which center it's connected to... to me it all seems to be in the

head...

 

I usually have noise in my ears of various sorts, but sometimes one ear

suddenly goes completely silent and then a single tone comes, sometimes

fairly loud... I think sometimes it's my spiritual guru, my higher self,

getting my attention for one reason or another... but sometimes I feel I

should meditate with it, and I do. When I'm in meditation, sometimes one

clear tone appears. I drop anything else and just focus on that

tone... hearing it as clearly and loudly as possible, feeling it, aware of

nothing but that... going wherever it leads me... If there's more than one

tone, I either focus on the loudest and clearest or listen to the several

tones together... the chord...

 

I don't know just what I'm doing with this... but since I know I'm guided,

I follow... Can you tell me more about this? Thank you..

 

Love,

Dharma

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"Gemini" <currwamp

< >

Thu, 18 Mar 1999 06:11:32 -0000

Re: Fw: Paravak

 

Dharma, I am sending you two posts. One on the meditation of the inner

sound, or Shabda. A profound core meditation used since India for

centuries. It is not widely known in many regions in the West, but pertains

to the very sound which is of the essence of creation; In fact Shabda

literally means "sound as such" and can be the vehicle for much Grace.

Also sending a post to the list on Matrka: matrka is the power inherent in

all the letters of the alphabet. This confounds the bound individual and

enlightens the individual with understanding. This is such an important

facet to understand. Matrka is a post worth reading three times.

Bhaktananda Marcus

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"Gemini" <currwamp

< >

Thu, 18 Mar 1999 06:12:51 -0000

Fw: [Ananda] Muktananda

 

Matrka creates infinite images. If one doesn't identify with the images or

their objects, one doesn't experience suffering.

 

Lists, Page # 7, 8,9 from 'Nothing Exists That Is Not Siva'

 

jnanadhisthanam matrka

Matrka (the power of sound

inherent in the letters of the alphabet) is the source of limited knowledge.

When Parashakti--who is also called Chiti Bhagavati, the universal

Consciousness--limits Herself, She manifests in the form of matrka, the

group of letters, or sound-syllables. Matrka is the cause of one's pain

and pleasure. All the thoughts and feelings that arise in the

mind--happiness and unhappiness, desire, agitation, love, expectation, and

jealousy--are the work of matrka. Neither language, nor terminology, nor

poetry, nor scriptures, nor words of praise and blame can pass beyond the

world of letters.

Matrka arises in the heart, from the inner speech. There are four levels

of speech corresponding to the four bodies. Everyone is aware of the

speech of the tongue. It is called vaikari and corresponds to the gross

body. With the subtle intellect, one can also know the second level of

speech, which is in the throat. There, words have taken form but have not

yet emerged. This level is called madhyama and corresponds to the subtle

body. At a deeper level, words exist in the heart. This is the third level

of speech, pasyanti, which corresponds to the causal body. Here, words are

hidden, and what arises at this level is matrka. Beneath this level is a

fourth level, para, which corresponds to the supracausal body. Some say

that para is in the navel region, but in actuality this subtlest level of

speech pervades everywhere. Since it is all-pervading, it can be known

anywhere. Matrka has its source in the Para level.

------------------

* Note from Marcus--Not only does matrka have its source at this level,

but all things arise at this level. This is the subtlest level of sound,

which is synonymous with the energy of Shakti, which is why this is called

the para level, or paravak. Here is the definition:

Paravak: The vibratory pulsation of the Divine Mind that brings about

manifestation, Logos; Cosmic Ideation, Spanda.

As you can see, this is the level of pure energy, where energy and sound

are one; it is here that Shakti is of the nature of movement without any

external support. It is the level before any differentiation has taken

place. The first thing to arise out of this creative pulsation is sound.

This goes from subtle to gross in this way:

Paravak or Para--everywhere

Pashyanti--level of the heart, where all letters that can be

vocalized arise. Matrka arises at this level.

Madhyama--level of the throat, where words are formed, but not yet spoken.

Vaikari--level of gross speech.

-----------------

Back to the author:

Letters combine to form a word--for example, m-a-n-g-o- becomes mango.

Each word has its own meaning, the meaning creates its own image, and that

image has its own feeling. Whenever an image is created in the mind, one

experiences an emotion, whether it is happiness or unhappiness, friendship

or enmity. For example, if I call someone a fool, the letters come together

and compose words, the words compose a sentence, the sentence has its own

meaning, and the meaning creates its own image. When I utter the sentence,

"That girl is a fool," it strikes her, and a painful and angry feeling

arises in her mind. Matrka creates infinite images. If one doesn't

identify with the images or their objects, one doesn't experience suffering.

Matrka is the source not only of our pain and pleasure but of this

entire universe. This world has arisen from the sound-syllables of the

Sanskrit alphabet, which are nothing but matrka. Just as it creates the

outer world, matrka creates infinite inner worlds. Different feelings

arise in the heart, and the individual soul keeps moving among these

feelings throughout its life, experiencing pain and pleasure. Day and

night, the matrka sakti creates these things within us. Even when we sleep,

it doesn't sleep. It is alive even in the savikalpa state of samadhi, the

samadhi with thought. It dies only when one attains the state of

thoughtlessness, nirvikalpa samadhi.

Matrka is the source of the three malas, the impurities that cause

knowledge to become contracted. Due to anavamala, one feels imperfect; due

to mayiyamala, one becomes lost in duality; and due to karmamala, one

becomes caught up in the fruit of one's good and bad actions. Instead of

understanding that one is the Self, one understands oneself to be a mere

human being. One feels "I am a man,I am a priest,I am a woman,"

"I

am thin," and in this way, one makes oneself small. In the inner space,

matrka sakti creates letters and one experiences them. One begins to dwell

in them, one becomes infatuated with them, and as a result, one performs

actions in this world. This is worldliness.

However, just as matrka helps us to contract, it also helps us to expand

ourselves. The moment one understands the matrka sakti and its work, one is

no longer a human being. When the matrka sakti expands within, in this very

body one becomes Siva.

Sit quietly and watch the play of the matrka sakti. Watch how the matrka

gives rise to letters, how the letters compose words, how the meaning of

the words creates images in the mind; watch how you become involved in

these images.

The yogi pursues matrka sakti; he watches it and makes it steady. He

brings it under his control, he manipulates it any way he likes. He turns

evil thoughts into good thoughts. The matrka sakti works according to his

will. Such a yogi is called a conqueror of the senses.

One who understands the play of matrka sakti and makes it still rises

above pain and pleasure. One cannot attain peace as long as he is driven by

the play of the matrka sakti. For this reason, one has to practice yoga.

Through yoga, the movements of the mind are stilled and the power of matrka

is overcome.

Much Light marcus