VBT – Meditation 40.4

VBT – Meditation 40.4

Anahat Nad

We also have a question – whether the anahat nad – soundless sound – is a type of sound or whether it is total soundlessness.

Anahat nad is not a type of sound, it is soundlessness, but this soundlessness is heard. To express it is difficult because then the logical question arises of how soundlessness can be heard.

Let me explain it…. I am sitting on this chair. If I go away from this chair, will you not see my absence in the chair? It cannot be seen by one who has not seen me sitting here, he will simply see the chair. But a moment before I was here and you have seen me sitting here. If I move away and you look at the chair, you will see two things: the chair and my absence. But that absence will be seen only if you have seen me and you have not forgotten me, that I was there.

We are hearing sounds; we only know sounds. So when that soundlessness comes, anahat nad, we feel that every sound has disappeared and absence is felt. That is why it is called anahat nad. It is also called nad; nad means sound. But anahat changes the quality of the sound. Anahat means uncreated, so it is an uncreated sound.

Every sound is a created sound. Whatsoever sounds you have heard, they are all created. That which is created will die. I can clap my hands – a sound is created. It was not there before and now it is no more; it was created and it has died. A created sound is known as anahat nad. Uncreated sound is known as anahat nad – the sound that is always. Which is that sound that is always? It is not really a sound. You call it a sound because the absence is heard.

We are accustomed to sounds. Every moment is filled with sound. Our heads are constantly filled by sounds and sounds and sounds. When your mind goes away, moves up or down, goes beyond or below, when you are not in the world of sounds, you can hear the absence. That absence is soundlessness.

But we have called it anahat nad. Because it is heard we call it nad – sound; and because it is not really a sound we call it anahat – uncreated. “Uncreated sound” is contradictory. Sound is created – “uncreated” contradicts. So all deep experiences of life have to be expressed in contradictory terms.

If you go and ask a master like Eckhart or Jacob Boehme, or Zen masters like Hui Hai or Huang Po or Bodhidharma or Nagarjuna, or Vedanta and the Upanishads, everywhere you will find two contradictory terms whenever a deeper experience is talked about. The Vedas say, “he is and He is not” – about God.

You cannot find a more atheistic expression: “He is and he is not.” He is far away and He is near. He is far away and he is also near. Why contradictory statements? The Upanishads say, “You cannot see him, but unless you see him you have not seen anything.” What type of language is this?

Lao Tzu says that “Truth cannot be said” – and he is saying it! This too is a saying. He says that “Truth cannot be said, if it is said it cannot be true,” and then he writes a book and says something about the truth. It is contradictory.