1 THE PHYSICS OF GOING WITHIN

The Physics of Going Within

Notes on the Technical Mechanics of Shabd Yoga Meditation

ध्यान

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In analyzing shabd yoga from a more dispassionate

viewpoint (putting in brackets such spiritualized

concepts as guru-bhakti and grace), it is possible to

breakdown the meditation technique into precise

components. Such an analysis allows one to

understand the process from a different vantage

point, which in itself may be both instructive and

helpful for the neophyte.

Saying the five name mantra of Jot Niranjan, Onkar,

Rarankar, Sohang, Sat Nam silently but methodically

takes anywhere from 5 to 8 seconds. Roughly

speaking we can repeat this mantra about 8 times a

minute, give or take a couple rounds. If one

meditates 2 hours it translates as about 1000 rounds

of repetition.

The 8 second mantra can be broken down further to

its separate words: Jot Niranjan (1 second plus),

Onkar (1 second or less?), and so on. In terms of

computational language, each letter equals a byte. If

we include the spaces between each word, the entire

five name mantra is equal to 42 bytes of information.

[ Sidtenote: Of course the number 42 was made famous by

Douglas Adams in his widely read science fiction novel,

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, where he alleges

that the natural number is the “Answer to the Ultimate

Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” It also

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has the distinction of being known by computer

programmers as a wildcard since it is represented by an

asterisk. It is also the atomic number of molybdenum.]

Thus 2 hours of simran equals 42,000 bytes or

approximately 41 kilobytes. Since the object of

repetition is concentration, the key is to see how

focused the mind can be in any singular moment. But

exactly what is a moment in awareness? In the mid-

19th century Hermann Helmholtz and his assistant

Wilhelm Wundt studied how fast nerve impulses

traveled which turned out be much slower than first

expected. Whatever we might presume about

“immediate” one thing is certainly clear: it is never

instantaneous. As John McCrone explains:

“Modern research has since shown that human

nerves actually conduct at a whole range of speeds,

the rate depending on the size of the axon and also

the thickness of a fatty insulation material, known as

myelin, wrapped around it. The nervous system is

like a road network with a few fast motorways and

many winding country lanes. Large, heavily

myelinated nerves — such as the muscle and sensory

nerves which must run the length of the body —

transmit their impulses at up to 240 miles per hour.

But the congested network of small unmyelinated

nerves which make up the bulk of our brain, work

much more slowly. Once inside our heads, impulses

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tend to crawl along at between two and 20 miles per

hour. What such conduction speeds mean is that

while consciousness might be fast, it cannot be

instant. It takes a minimum of 10 to 20 milliseconds

(thousandths of a second) for any sensory message to

reach the brain. After that, the brain must spend yet

more time in evolving a response.“

An easy way to grasp the significance of this is to see

how easily the brain can be duped into believing that

still pictures are moving when they are shown in

rapid succession (usually 24 frames per second). We

tend to “blur” any image that is shown sequentially

in less than 50 milliseconds. Accordingly, a

perceptual moment apparently can range anywhere

from a minimum of 40 milliseconds to 500

milliseconds. Or, as Benjamin Lipet suggested there

is a half-second delay relay in our perceptual

awareness. No matter how we parse a moment, we

know that it takes milliseconds for something to be

perceived and that it can disappear within seconds.

By paying attention only to the word being repeated

silently within, the moment gets occupied by the said

word and hopefully with the next word and so on.

However, within these segregated instances the mind

often roams in and out of other thoughts which

distract from the desired object of attention. The

difficulty is that it is exceedingly troublesome to stay

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concentrated on any particular word or sequence of

words consistently for a sustained duration of time.

The end result is a lack of progress in meditation and

the practitioner ends up spending more time either

daydreaming or temporarily (if not more

permanently) falling asleep.

Perhaps the secret to deep concentration in

meditation resides in how well we can thicken (or

immerse) our focus in any particular moment. By

this, I mean increasing our ability to “stay” or

“reside” within the stream of our repetition while

centering on any emerging light that may arise.

Hence, in this context, meditation is not something

we do for 2 hours at a stretch (though such a

parameter may be our alarm clock goal) but rather

developing our ability to keep fully focused for 8

seconds (or computationally 42 bytes). Of course, this

can only be achieved if we can first master 500

milliseconds, 1 second, and so on.

However, if such concentration can be achieved

certain telltale signs arise which can be both

attractive and distracting. Distracting because when a

certain level of concentration is achieved one tends to

divert one’s attention away from simran and start

enjoying the increasing bliss of calmness. In addition

when the body starts to go numb (due to the

withdrawal of awareness from the sensory

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apparatus) a certain anxiety arises as if something

unusual is about to occur. This feeling of expectation

increases as the concentration increases which

conversely limits the continued withdrawal since one

then gets distracted anew by the surprising sensation

of unexpected numbness.

This is precisely when and where doing repetition

within the series of moments gets more difficult,

since keeping at the focus provides ancillary flashes

of pleasure. If one can indeed stay focused, sparks of

light begin to illuminate what otherwise appears to

be mostly smeared darkness. Doing simran looking

at the light (especially one particulate which stands

out from the rest) actually increases one’s

concentration since it now occupies the visual sense,

which prior had nothing to center on precisely.

If one can steady into the light and keep the mantra

intact one’s consciousness then starts to go

consciously within, not dissimilar to the process of

falling asleep except that in this case one’s keen self-

awareness and lucidity increase manifold, so much

so, in point of fact, that there is a pulling sensation

that emerges that tugs one into a different state of

reflection.

In shabd yoga, however, the final pull-out of

awareness is optimized by listening to subtler and

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subtler sounds (usually musical in intonation, which

in the preliminary stages is similar to cascading bells)

which become markedly distinct as the concentration

becomes steadfast within the eye focus. At this point,

the danger is that such sounds distract one from

repeating the mantra so that one can often get

bifurcated and lose the full power of their leveraged

concentration. It is perhaps for this reason that shabd

yogis have suggested concentrating on simran and

dhyan first without attending to the inner sounds

that may arise.

If the simran is mastered to a significant degree the

switchover to listening to the inner sound doesn’t

necessarily lessen the concentration that was gained

by constant and attentive repetition, particularly if

the sound is strong and pulling and provided one can

become so absorbed into the sound wave as to ride

with it and merge from which itself forms.

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“The first leg of meditation is mechanical”

“Being still is a technical skill that can be learned”