Space is the body of Consciousness.

Akasa sariram Brahma
Space is the body of Consciousness (Brahma)

Space also contains
Silence from which all sound arises
Stillness from which all actions arises
Prana the life force which animates/vivifies
All of which are part of meditation

Silence is the gateway into the Divine Consciousness and space is full of silence. Meditation is all about finding the Divine Consciousness within, it is an inward focus instead of our usual outward one. Space is the subtle medium which we can use to contact Consciousness.

You only have to look upwards into the sky and the universe to see how much space is available. In our everyday lives our attention is drawn to objects held in space not the actual space that surrounds them, living creatures including humans are also objects held in space. Take a leap of faith - we are made from that same space, we are Consciousness itself. If that is the conclusion, how do we come to realise it? If we are created in God’s (Consciousness) image, how do we come to know this firsthand?

Let us personally get to know space first, sit quietly and then open out your listening by simply having the desire to hear. Do not be attracted to any sounds you might hear let them dissolve back into the silence that they arose from. Listen very carefully and you will hear a slight buzzing sound and that is space expanding. You can hear silence and it is full of potential.

Listen in the same way to a sound, you can hear it arise out of silence, resonate in it and dissolve back into it. The attention remains on the background of all sound – silence. In our busy lives we are constantly draw to sounds yet remain quite oblivious to the silence that contains it. Resting in silence is therapeutic physically, mentally and emotionally. It brings balance and harmony into your life that counteracts all the noise and stress it brings with it. The secret is to listen to the silence and not the sounds.

Mantras are sacred sounds that take you back into silence, space and Consciousness – the causal realm from which everything emanates. A simple practice to start with is by sounding a long ‘aaaa’ (just like at a doctors when you have a sore throat). The mouth is wide open but not strained, tongue rested in the bottom of the mouth and as you make the ‘aaaa’ from the guttural back part of the throat keep everything relaxed. Do not be tempted to make the sound pretty or melodious but let it happen, if it wobbles or jumps let it – just sound it as you would if you blew air through a flute. You will become aware of the spaciousness in the mouth and as the sound emanates you can listen to it without commentary. Feel its gross manifestation in your throat, hear it resonating in the space within your body and also in the space that surrounds your body – feel its vibration. Keep listening as that vibration dissolves into a more subtle resonance and then back into silence. With no expectation of outcome let the sound lead you back into Consciousness, listen very carefully – can you hear it? Sound vibration, resonance then silence.

The breath can also be used to take you into Consciousness. Sitting quietly you can observe your inward and outward breath. Do not change it in any way, simply be the observer of the breath breathing your body. It is an automatic response where you can become quite detached as you observe it, be an interested enquirer with no prejudgements. As the breath starts to slow down start to notice the turning points of the breath, firstly follow the exhalation and notice a slight pause before it turns into an inhalation, do not be in a rush to inhale, let it take place naturally. You can also notice the breath turning at the other end from an inhalation to exhalation, there is also a pause there, observe it. Feel as though the breath is dissolving back into the space, Consciousness from whence it came. You can even feel as though Consciousness is breathing your body, it is flowing air into you on your inhalation and you are receiving it, then you give it back on your exhalation, it becomes a beautiful receiving and giving process, not just a mechanical function.

The breath carries the life force, prana into our bodies which vivifies, again this is Consciousness enlivening our body. The space of Consciousness is held at our heart centre (not meaning our physical pumping heart) but the centre of our Being called Cid akasa. The term cavern of the heart is appropriate as it is full of space waiting for you to discover that it is Consciousness itself.

The heart centre holds the Infinite it is the source from which the Universe arises and our own sense of existence within it; it is an excellent point of focus on which to rest your awareness during meditation - you Awaken to the Consciousness within.

Finding the Divine Within

This might seem an impossible task when first contemplating a spiritual journey. We might have had a glimpse of its existence through a spiritual encounter or we might inwardly know there is more to life than just existing on a day to day basis. Either way it is there for us to return to.

How might you do this? The understanding comes from the statement in the Bible that ‘we are made in God’s image’. So let us piece together our understanding of this.

We were not randomly given a body just to live on this planet for a set amount of time then die. We were put on this earth to find our way back to its source, the Divine Essence that created all, including us. Our journey is to find the Divine within, to realise we are made in God’s image.

In our everyday lives we tend to ignore our bodies until something goes wrong. We are never in awe of its wonderful structure and how every organ and cell works. The fine detail of its workings and complexity go unnoticed. To examine the body closely one can only come to the conclusion it was created by a divine source.

What I would like to examine here is the senses that operate through the physical body. It is our senses that are a direct link to the Divine through the subtle realm. We hear, feel, see, taste and smell. These are the faculties of recognising and negotiating in our environment. A baby first learns about objects in its world by putting them in his/hers mouth to sense them. At this stage the mouth is the primary source of knowledge and as we mature there is a subtler aspect of using the mouth to taste things. For us to be able to taste we need the added element of water in our mouth in the form of saliva, which is the medium to activate the taste buds - sweet, savoury spicy, salty. In to adulthood we are able to taste the difference between all manner of foods but there is also a subtler aspect to taste, as in our personal preferences in work, homes, clothes, friends, furniture etc. This is a way of expressing our individuality. Taste differs from person to person and it is quite ephemeral to tie down, yet ultimately it is related to the element water, which is a construction block of the universe; as are all the other elements. My interest is the subtle and that is what I would like to examine with the other senses.

With our sense of hearing we can fine tune it to listen to the space that surrounds us. By sitting quietly and letting the body fall still, we can open out our listening with simply having the desire to hear, this puts us in touch with the space that surrounds our body. If you listen very carefully you might hear space expanding. Space is everywhere but we pay it little attention. Space is the body of Brahma the creator “Akasa sariram Brahma” and through our sense of hearing we can be in direct contact with it. Space is made up our 50% space and 12 ½% of each of the other elements air, fire, water and earth.

Everything is created from a mixture of these elements. A fish would contain a higher percentage of the water element, whilst a bird would contain a higher portion of the element air. We know as humans have a high water content of between 50-70% in our body and saliva plays an important part in our digestion. Often if we anticipate a favourite food our mouth waters naturally. Through the sacred sanksrit svara of “u” when sounded, its vibrations can also produce water in the mouth and this is not by chance. It is a direct contact with the Divine through our sense of articulation – speech.

We have our vocal apparatus to make sounds, we are not talking about everyday speech here but sounding the language of the Divine, sanskrit. If you sound the cerebal “r” you can activate heat in the body or light in the forehead. That is evidence of its connection to the element of fire. We need the element of fire to illuminate our vision, to be able to see the forms around us. We also need space around every form. When I was learning to draw the hand in art class, we used the negative space to outline the hand. We also have the light of awareness within with which to perceive objects in environment.

Science tells us everything is made up of vibrating atoms and the Story of Creation from the ancient teachings tells that creation was sung into manifestation, again vibrating atoms. We can create vibrating atoms with our voice, we can feel then physically vibrating in our voice box but there is a subtler aspect to sound, it resonates in space and ultimately dissolves back into it. There we can use our hearing apparatus to listen to sound emanating from silence, resonating in it and finally returning to the silence it came from. We can fine tune our hearing to be present to this process. Getting into the habit of listening to silence can be very therapeutic and beneficial. Retraining the mind to listen to silence will help to turn its focus away from its normal mental running commentary.

With regular practice of meditation your senses improve and become more sensitive. You can see things more distinctly. You can hear sounds that you have overlooked before. You smell all sorts of things that had previously gone unnoticed. Meditation fine tunes your senses to be more affective, which is a step closer towards the Divine.

Aroma or scent is very subtle yet we are designed to receive them though the means of our sense of smell. The smell of a flower is not visible to the naked eye yet it is present to our perception through our sense of smell and our olfactory equipment. It leads to the question “what else is present to our perception” that we cannot see? When we look at space we normally only focus on the objects that are held within it, we can look up at the night sky and acknowledge space but our focus will be on the stars or moon. If we look nearer home at the space within our room, what if the house burnt down, what would happen to the space? It would be still there. Space is eternal and every present to our perception.

We know space contains air and we can feel the play of air on our skin, we cannot see air playing on the skin but we know it is there. We know air contains oxygen and carbon dioxide but we cannot see it. The same with the pranic life force, we can feel its effects in the body – animating/invigorating and cleansing/purifying. Space, Air and Prana are aspects of the Divine and we can feel them with our senses. The sense of touch is the most important as we need to be in touch with all our senses for only by being in touch with each one of them will they make ‘sense’. To really be present in our living breathing body and being alive to all our sense perceptions will put us in touch with the Divine. A word of caution, the process is not about intellectualizing this mentally but actually feeling it with your body. Be present to every nuance of sensation for it is arising from the Divine.

Everything in our world was created from the elements. The elements are of the Divine’s creation and if we use then on a subtle level within our bodies they will help us back to their source – the Divine.