----------Literally, Pranava in Sanskrit means "humming." The mantram Aum denotes God as t he Primal Sound.

This sound can be heard as the sound of one's own nerve system, and meditators and mystics hear it daily, like the sound made by an electrical transformer or a swarm of bees, or a thousand vinas playing in the distance. It is a strong, inner experience, one that yogis hold with great reverence. The med itator is taught to inwardly transform this sound into the inner light which lig hts up ones' thoughts, and to bask in this blissful consciousness of light. Pran ava is also known as the sound of the nadanadi sakti. Hearing it one draws near to God Consciousness. When we are living in the lower chakras, or when the world too strongly dominates our mind, this sound may, for a time, not be heard. But it returns as awareness withdraws, as the mind becomes perfectly quiescent, sile nt, still. Listen for this sound in your quietest moments and you will learn to recognize it as a daily encounter with the Divine that lives within all men, wit hin all creatures, within all existence. Aum Namasivaya! ---------The High "eee" Sound Within the quantum level of consciousness there originates a vibration, a steady vibration, that can be heard with the inner ear as a high-pitched "eeeee," as i f like the sound made by an electrical transformer or a swarm of bees, or a tho usand vinas playing in the distance, as if all the nerve currents in the astral body, physical body and the body of the soul were singing in harmony. It is a di vine combination of the ida and pingala tones blended together in the sushumna. Each lineage of gurus has embedded within the psyche of tradition a certain comb ination of sounds, and that listening to this mystic sound holds all devotees cl ose to their satguru and all those who preceded him. high-pitched "eee," sounding within the head, that incomparable source of inner security, contentment and outpouring of love. When you hear the nada, endeavor t o project it in love's outpouring to all those who are in your orbit of communic ation. They will feel the blessings when your divine love is projected through y our nada into their nada. This is the height of selfless consciousness, universa l love, a constant mystically outpouring and experience of oneness. The sushumna is nada and more. Nada shakti is. It just is. My tip- direct the sound to chakras Listening to the nada, as it is called in Sanskrit, or nada-nadi shakti, brings the threshold of bliss and shows that the balance of all karmas has been attaine d. Listening to the nada and tracing it into its source carries the seeker's awa reness to the brink of the Absolute. There are today mystical orders that do not hing but listen to the nada while looking at and enjoying the darshan of their g uru's picture. Many sincere seekers wonder why they cannot hear "eeeeee," the na da, during their meditation, whereas others not only hear it during meditation b ut during the day when talking, shopping or just meandering through the garden. This is to say, it is there when awareness enters that area of the mind. The min d has to be made empty. That means resolving all unresolved conflicts within the subconscious. The striving to hear the nada will bring up unresolved issues. They may plague t he conscious mind until resolved. At first you might disregard them and feel the y will go away as abruptly as they came. But later, when they persist, and the m ajor one is deception--yes, we can even deceive ourselves--we are inwardly force d to face up to, admit our secrets and make amends. When deception goes, the nad a comes. When the subconscious is heavy, the nada and the brilliant colors it ra

diates fade.

-------I would sit for hours watching my toughts flow. I followed them so far inside of me that they were only energies flowing, and had no "words" attached to them, y et. -------when ajahn sumedho speaks of the sound of silence as a "high frequency ringing s ound that's always there", does mean it literally? if so, it completely escapes me. i've never heard it expressed before. thanks The background noise of the universe. I hear that all the time. Might not be wha t he's talking about though, but it's definitely a high pitch/frequency "noise" that's always there in the background, much too low to be a nuisance. -----------First, I want to say thank you again for those that put my attention on this "in ner sound" (pun intended). Secondly, there is a great book available in English that delves a bit deeper on the subject: Law of Attention Edward Salim Michael EAN: 9781594773044 Publisher: Inner Traditions This book has been a great help to get me started and I use the inner sound now as a source of mindfulness and as object of concentration during meditation. Res ults-wise, I have progressed more in a week of being with the sound than months of breath mindfulness. The book is written in simple language, very down to earth. No hocus-pocus, not even Sanskrit :) Just sound. -----------Hey, anybody heard an expression "Sound will take you deeper?" (This has worked for me so far.) If you try to medetate concentrating only on that sound you hear, you will soon find out that sound will change to a different tone (which is more fine and take s concentration to hear) If you keep going then the sound will change again and again, then you find yourself in a place of absolute stillness. After the meditation you are not hearing that high pitch sound anymore, I think it is because you adjusted your perseption to the new frequency and your body vi brates with it. After a couple of days you will hear the high pitch sound again... What I do is meditate on it more and it goes away. I also noticed that you cannot fight it, rather welcome it and tune in to it. ----------THE SOUND OF SILENCE As you calm down you can experience the sound of silence in the mind. You hear i t as a kind of high frequency sound, a ringing sound that's always there. It is

just normally never noticed. Now when you begin to hear that sound of silence, i t's a sign of emptiness - of silence of the mind. It's something you can always turn to. As you concentrate on it and turn to it, it can make you quite peaceful , blissful. Meditating on that, you have a way of letting the conditions of the mind cease without just supressing them with another condition. Otherwise you ju st end up putting one condition over another. This process is what is meant by making 'kamma'. For example, if you're feeling angry, then you start thinking of something else to get away from the anger. Thi s is just putting one condition on top of another. You don't like what is going on over here, so you look over there, you just run away. But if you have a way o f turning from conditioned phenomena to the unconditioned, then there is no kind of kamma being made, and the conditioned habits can fade away and cease. It's l ike a 'safety hatch' in the mind, the way out, so your kammic formations, (sankh aras), have an exit, a way of flowing away instead of re-creating themselves. One problem with meditation is that many people find it boring. People get bored with emptiness. They want to fill up emptiness with something. So recognise tha t even when the mind is quite empty, the desires and habits are still there, and they will come and want to do something interesting. You have to be patient, wi lling to turn away from boredom and from the desire to do something interesting and be content with the emptiness of the sound of silence. And you have to be qu ite determined in turning towards it. continued here: http://amaravati.org/abm/english/documents/the_way_it_is/12sos.html