LIGHT & VIBRATION
CONSCIOUSNESS, MYSTICISM AND THE CULMINATION OF YOGA
By Swami Sivananda Radha
In Light and Vibration, Swami Sivananda Radha presents a living philosophy, an exciting exploration of higher consciousness that challenges spiritual preconceptions and stimulates deep reflection.
Based on the understanding that the universe is made up of light and vibration, Swami Radha goes beyond the clothing of religious symbolism to help the student toward enlightenment. She explains how by opening the heart and exercising the mind, we can move beyond form, into more and more subtle realms of awareness.
Light and Vibration is a reminder that we can all access the hidden place of the mind, a place where Light is always present. Swami Radha encourages seekers to undertake this exciting journey into the unknown. She offers us her knowledge of how light and sound can open us to the brilliant universe within.
This book is a gathering of Swami Radha's final years of work and expresses the culmination of her spiritual wisdom. She stretches the breadth of language to connect with the reader and to "explain the unexplainable."
Paperback | 176 Pages | 5 1/2” x 8&rdquo
ISBN:978-1-932018-15-8
CAN: $19.95 | US: $14.95
Printed on 100% post consumer waste recycled paper
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Excerpt from Light and Vibration
The mind is capable of reflecting the Light, but it has to be trained to do so by focus, by discipline, by concentration. When the mind is intensely focused, there is no Energy left for distraction. When we are free from being needed, heard, seen and loved, we can open to higher perceptions and step into greater freedom. Achieving single-pointed concentration does not require a belief in a divine power. It is rather approaching a super-conscious state where we become receptive to knowledge beyond the logical mind, knowledge that we did not have access to before. Single-pointedness can be achieved through intention and practice or it can be achieved through danger, pain and fear. The results will be the same.
Scientists may reach single-pointed concentration by constant repetition of experiments. All thoughts, expectations and hopes become geared toward results. Sleep and meals may be forgotten in pursuit of the goal, until finally the scientist gives up, thinking, IÕve tried everything. At the moment when the mind has run dry and can no longer speculate, insights arise. Two things have taken place - intense concentration, which is needed to create a mood of receptivity, and admitting that the intellect can go only so far. When we acknowledge defeat, we are saying that we need something beyond our own power. When we no longer rely on what we think we know, something else can happen. We can say that the ego-mind is defeated or that the insight comes from a higher level of our own mind. But obviously, the part of the mind we usually depend on cannot provide the answers.
The yogi also uses repetition to become single-pointed and receptive, for example, by repeating a mantra with awareness. If I repeat a mantra with a definite deter?mination to achieve a certain result, I will do it until I achieve that result. If I know that others before me have attained Realization through the mantra, I will be encouraged, which helps to create a receptive mood. The repetition of a mantra is not done automatically. We follow the instruction to observe the mind and its struggles and the impasses and how the impasses arise, how the mind goes into the im?passe and comes out of it. By doing this, we increase our sense of observation so we do not have to repeat the same problems. We anticipate them.
The nature of single-pointedness of mind is one thought exclusive of all others. Keeping the mind focused is the process of getting there. When we do acquire knowledge by personal experience, we can pass on the methods to others so they can duplicate the experiment. Gurus have always known how to transmit knowledge. Just because there is not yet scientific evidence of such transmission does not mean that the required mental powers do not exist, only that science has yet to discover the way to measure such power.
My experience was that it took a long time before I was able to recite even one line of mantra without any interfering thought. Because nobody can see what goes on in your mind, you can cheat yourself very easily by saying, "Oh, this was too faint to be a thought." But if you are determined to know whether something valuable can be gained through the practice, you will be ready and willing to do it honestly.
When you try to direct your thoughts, and other thoughts intrude, the Energy is divided - here is what I want to think, and here is what actually comes through. If you can stop the influx of "other" thoughts, then all the Energy is directed. And that is when things begin to happen. The concentrated mind extends beyond its usual limitations to a much greater capacity. But if your focus stays only on the physical, the mantra will not necessarily help you develop. If that were so, then every opera singer would have attained Higher Consciousness. So obviously something else must be involved.
What is that something else? First, it is preventing intruding thoughts from using part of the Energy. Then it is focus. Sounds are vibrations, but unless you maintain your focus, these vibrations will not take you where they could. Where do you want to go? What do you want to achieve? Concentrating for three minutes is said to be the first stage of samadhi. You could test this hypothesis: Is that possible? Or what if your hypothesis was to find other places from which Wisdom radiates? Could you find one of those places within your own mind? Or perhaps you want to reach another dimension. You may not achieve your goal completely, but even the attempt could be quite interesting. If the brain is like a car and the mind is like the driver of the car, you may examine the hypothesis that the mind can leave the brain just as the driver can leave the car. Or to use another analogy, can the mind emanate from the body like the fragrance that emanates from a flower? If your focus is to be absorbed in the inner Light and finally to become Light, that sets your direction. It is right motivation if you have a deep desire to be in the Light.
Whatever can be described is only the process - the practices set out by those who have achieved their goal and have attained the inner Light. When you become aware that others have achieved this extraordinary goal, you might be inspired to try the same method. Can you get the same result? When you want to duplicate an experiment, you have to observe all the intricate single steps and take them. Some steps cannot be changed or skipped to suit yourself. Only when you have attained results may you discover a way to speed up the process. Speeding up is only possible when there is less resistance. When resistance, which is also En?ergy, is dissipated, that Energy becomes available to you.
As you test your hypothesis, you may come close to your first destination and experience exhilaration. But you may also be gripped with fear because you are entering unknown territory. You may question: Is my mind sound? Can I think straight? Do I still understand ordinary things that I have understood be?fore? Only repetition will take away the fear. Resistance disappears because you know now that you can "get there." In other words, you can overcome your identification with yourself as the image in the mirror.
Another problem may arise, which is the mental capacity of doubt. The intellect will say that whatever you experience beyond its limitations is an illusion. As the experience is repeated, each time you move one increment closer, until finally you move past the guardian at the entrance of the hidden place of the mind. Then you will become aware that the intellect, although it has quite some power, does not have unlimited power. If it did, it would not need to fight. The next step is to decide to use the in?tellect for discrimination. Question the doubt itself: Why are you doubting? Perhaps because no one else can confirm exactly what you have experienced; or nobody would believe your experience; or you, yourself, may not accept the experience and question your own sanity. All of these ideas can underlie doubt. The power of doubt rests with pride.
What this really means, in terms of spiritual practice, is to persist. Keep a close record and you will see many repeating patterns. In time, you will learn to master your states of mind, just as you can wake up from a fearful dream. Eventually you will reach that sublime state where you recognize it does not matter if it is day or night, the mind is al?ways dreaming.
When you go past the dragon - the resistance, doubt, pride and egocentricity - you may reach that hidden place in your own mind. You did not know it existed. And as with many things in life - such as vitamins, the division of red blood cells and white blood cells - they have always existed, but we had to discover them and learn the secrets of their functioning. The same principle can be applied to the mind. When you discover the existence of this hidden place, you strip away the mystery and diminish fear, which eats up Energy. You diminish resistance, which also eats up Energy. And you become much more aware.
When you come to this place, you now enrich yourself with totally new material. Imagine going into outer space for the first time. You would be in awe because you had not known exactly what to expect. You would have speculated, but you would not have known for sure. You would have made many assumptions, based on imagi?nation. Now you may find that some of what you imagined has proven true, while you have to totally discard other preconceptions. The journey to the far reaches of the mind is actually the very same. You may have heard about higher states of Consciousness and people who are enlightened, so you drew conclusions - wrongly or rightly - and created your own hypothesis. Now you may be on the edge of finding out.
You reach the first point of your destination. Although I say "first point" - it may all be there. It is like space with all the stars and planets. Everything exists and is there to be discovered, but we can only go so far in our first explorations. Just as the first major voyages in space were to the moon, our first exploration is to the hidden place in our mind, which reflects the Light of divine Wisdom. We cannot take all the Light at once. We must take it in degrees. We may have a great flash, but it is a flash, and will not stay.
The more you overcome the resistance of the intellect, the more often you can connect to this place of Light. As you make repeated visits, you may discover new laws, like physicists who discover the laws of the physical world or biologists who understand the laws of nature. You may not give this law a name or define it, but it is there. You will also experience the repercussions of your discovery, which will reshape your entire perspective.
But you cannot stop there, just as astronomers do not stop exploring space once they have reached the moon, but want to know about the sun and other stars, and beyond the known stars and into previously unseen galaxies. What are the possibilities? We can always discover more, but we can never discover it all. Still the journey of discovery alone will provide an expanded perspective that changes your view of your capabilities.
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