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It adds vibration to the dull sound. It is especially significant that it raises o from the chest vibration
to the 0m sound in the head, the higher sphere. Thus it raises the physical sound to the chakra of
consciousness, the ajna chakra between the eyebrows, and gives it meaning. In this way, the dot
becomes the symbol for "sense."
The zero.
Just as the dot is both a "nothing" and the symbol for sense, so is zero. By itself it is a symbol of
no-thing. Added to a figure it increases its value tenfold. It gives the figure a value, a value that the
figure by itself possesses only potentially. It catalyzes something essential without possessing a
tangible value of its own.
The seed.
Only when it falls upon fertile ground can it sprout. Like the dot, like the zero. And here the latent
value is especially clear.
The void.
Here again it is the meaning that makes emptiness purposeful.
Thirty spokes unite around the nave. The void between them makes them useful as a wheel. We
shape a pot from day.
Its usefulness depends upon the void that clay surrounds. The house is made of walls, windows and
doors. The void between the walls makes it a habitation. We need what is; What-is-not makes it
useful. Lao-tzu, Too Te Ching II
Now it should be clear why bindu means "sense." The sattva principle in which the "sense" is
founded is fulfilled purity in the saint, who is all sattva.
(29-30) Dissolution
[laya] depends on nada. Laya produces prana. Prana is the lord of the mind [mano]; mind is the
lord of the senses [indriyas]. When mind is absorbed in itself it is called moksha [liberation]. Call it
this or that; when mind and prana are absorbed in each other the immeasurable joy of samadhi
ensues.
MIND AND BREATH 84
Yoga Swami Svatmarama. Hatha yoga pradipika
We enter a church and feel the sattva element that governs the lofty sacred room. Something like a
shiver of enchantment pene-
trates us. It is bindu that (for a moment) transfigures us. We know that it has to do with the divine, to
which this place is dedicated. We know it, but the inner concept of this "divine" is more than the
word; it is that which speaks within us, nada. Let us recognize this: not the specific term "the divine"
exercises its power, but the "inner something" that vibrates with this concept. Then the concept as
such, with its thought content, dissolves (laya), and what remains is the experience of the spirit. This
phrase, "experience of the spirit," already contains the duality: prana (experience) and spirit.
So much for our everyday experience. For the yogi approaching samadhi, the process is reversed: he
has recognized the meaningful germ, bindu, within himself, and knows that the divine vibrations in
him were merely released by the sattva element in the outside stimulation.
Therefore, like the ancient master mystics, he turns inward and finds liberation in detachment from
the releasing element. For liberation means "nothing but" freedom from exterior influences.
CHAPTER 13
THE DISSOLUTION
on a cold winter night a wandering monk sought shelter in a desolate mountain temple. A cold wind
was whistling through the paper walls and the frozen stranger huddled into a corner, shivering. He
longed for a fire. Then he rose, for he had discovered the firewood he needed: the ancient gold
lacquered wooden statue of the Buddha. He broke it into pieces, and soon bright flames were leaping
up. With a cry of distress the guard rushed in. "Are you a demon, brother? What have you done!"
The strange monk looked surprised. "What did I do?"
"You are burning the sacred image of our Lord! Can't you see? It is the Buddha you areburning!"
The monk smiled. "Do you believe we can burn our Lord? Don't you know that the spirit of
enlightenment is indestructible? Wait until this mortal wood is burnt up, then we will search in the
ashes for what is sacred."
The guardian shook his fists. "It will be too late. You will find nothing in the ashes." "Nothing?"
exclaimed the stranger. "Tell me, did you hold sacred something that could so readily be destroyed
by fire?"
The strange monk was Nanzen, one of the great patriarchs of Zen.
Everyone can test his relationship to the essence of a concept. Is it the thing itself that represents the
value, or is it something
subtler, something intangible? What is saintly in the saint? What is beautiful in the beautiful? It is
our subjective thinking that creates values, and at times even eternal values. The thing itself is
nothing but a clear mirror which will reflect that which we know within ourselves to be saintly or
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