True calmness of the mind results from understanding the mental proclivities towards its ceaseless thought running process. There are possible gaps in that process that can be quite educative in the non-verbal perception about us. The Bardo
There are times during our daily lives when our consciousness is not obscured by thought. With the noisy mind in action, such moments are few and far between. However, there are two occasions during a day when consciousness is less obscured by mental noise. On those occasions, there is a gap across which the mind jumps so quickly that we don’t notice the pure awareness existing in that gap. These are the moments immediately after waking up in the morning and those just before falling asleep. During those very short periods, consciousness shifts from sleep to waking and the other way. Called Sandhyakal in Sanskrit, they represent a meeting of two things in time, and, in Tibetan language, it is called the Bardo. When we bring ourselves to focus on these Bardo periods, we get an inkling of pure awareness, a state of mind that is not dominated by thought. During our young days, the Bardo is somewhat long but, as we grow up, it shrinks thin to a hundredth of a second or even less. Fortunately, it can never be reduced to zero. In the mornings, we can see how the thought-surge invades us as soon as we are awake. It is good to observe this thought entry as it takes place and see how long one can remain in pure awareness. After some time, it becomes relatively easy to stay in Bardo long enough to appreciate its silence. Then it begins to keep us company through the day. The second Bardo, in the night, is a period when it is relatively harder to keep up one’s alertness. However, it becomes viable with continued interest. Such awareness clears a burdened state of mind before falling asleep and so our sleep is likely to go deeper. In other words, the quality of sleep improves and there is the likelihood of fewer dreams and less disturbing ones at that – a salutary by-product.
Nadha Yoga
One of the things that help us free ourselves from the tyranny of thought is the willingness to direct our attention to what is happening around us at any given moment. To bring this into focus, we can close our eyes and listen to the sounds coming from different directions. This is called Nadha Yoga. Here Nadha is the word for sound in Sanskrit and Yoga stands for the state of attention. It is a good feeling when we allow the sound waves to enter and vibrate within us. In any case, Nadha Yoga brings in some freedom from being occupied by thought. There is no need to set apart any routine practice time for this yoga. It is good to let it take place spontaneously as and when one is reminded of it by an inner call. During Nadha Yoga, we notice that a base of silence supports the vibrations of sound. Soon we sense that this silence is not the opposite of sound and that it has a cosmic content to it.
Sounds around us can be of different kinds: A bird’s chirping, human voice from the next room or from across a field, rustle of leaves, music from a radio, the groaning whistle of a departing train, patter of rain on the roof and the murmur of distant thunder, cry of a baby, and so on.
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