Updated: September 17, 2024
आकाशस्तल्लिङ्गात् ākāśastalliṅgāt The word ākāśa refers to infinite space. And here it refers also to Brahman, but also to elemental space. So I'll just read a little bit from the original text as translated by classical commentators. What is the goal of this world? For all these beings take their rise from ākāśa only and dissolve in it. They rise in ākāśa, they appear in ākāśa and they dissolve in ākāśa is even greater than this. It is their ultimate goal. It is the supreme incomprehensible, infinite formless. That is the source of all beings. He who knowing this as such meditates on the supreme formless. OK. So the commentary goes on. But basically there are two types of ākāśa. One is the elemental ākāśa. So put your attention right here in front of you space and you're connected to all space, intergalactic space and just remind yourself that is as you gaze here with soft eyes, you are surrounded by infinity in all directions. In fact, you're a your recycling of infinity is this verb this activity. But so is everything else that you see.
So is everything else that you see that is elemental ākāśa, which differentiates into … which becomes the biosphere into … which is the energy that we associate with light into which is water and ultimately into… which is earth. And all these can be accessed through sound, touch, side, taste and smell. Smell being the most primordial because smell has all the elements at the risk of sounding gosh, you know, I was walking in New York City the other day and I smelled cigarette smoke. And then I realized somebody, you know, almost half a block away was smoking cigarettes and I was inhaling matter that was coming from that person's not only lungs but from all his body. In other words, every time you smell something, you are inhaling matter and that body is becoming your body. Every time you drink something, you're actually don't maybe realize you are part of the recycling of the circulation in all sentient beings.
And every time you touch something or touch someone, you also exchange microbes. In other words, be a part of the inter Being-ness of the matrix of all creation. And just meditation on ākāśa can lead you to stillness because in the ākāśa, there is no time. ākāśa is the eternal law. And even as one moment unfolds into the next, it remains the present moment. And that is the still point around which the universe arises and subsides only to be reborn again, fresh as a newborn baby.
And for this, in every moment, you have to step into the unknown. And in order to step into the unknown, you have to dissociate, identifying with perceptual activities that we call objects and trace them back to their origin in the infinite ākāśa or or chitākāśa is the womb of creation. I'm traveling today and I forgot to bring my computer.
but I had my phone so I thought I'd do a short version of the next installment or next, next item on our, on our Brahma Sutras, the Brahma Sutras. Ok..
