The universe is a dance of energies which vibrate at many frequencies. They ebb and flow, merge and part, form ripples, tides, currents, eddies, and whirlpools. They become units of all sizes, from atoms to stars, individual souls to cosmic beings. Again, they dissolve into each other. As rays, streaks, streams, rivers, oceans of light, they flow into each other and separate again, changing frequencies—and changing frequencies, they become suns, galaxies, spaces, airs, winds, fires, liquids, solids. They become the bodies of human beings into which the energy called consciousness comes and is embodied.
Of all the flowing energies in the universe, consciousness is the most dominant, the one from which all the others proceed and into which they all merge. The ancient texts are fond of the phrase, “from consciousness down to the solid earth,” for all this is a single matrix, a tantra, of energy, and within it are myriads of matrices, woven and interwoven. The human being is one such matrix of energies—ebbing, flowing, dancing at frequencies ranging from those of solid bones all the way to the subtlest waves of consciousness. Those who can understand this personality-matrix will understand the whole universe.
Observe the creation of a single human personality. As two human streams of consciousness love each other, the force of their love invites a third one for whom they provide a minute body. This third one brings along in his wake a matrix of energy, and his body grows along the lines of this energy. The fetus is connected to the mother at the navel, and it is from the navel that 72,000 energy-channels, or nadis in Sanskrit, fan out into the personality system. Since the energy pattern is arranged in a symmetrical manner, the body grows beautifully symmetrical. For instance, look at even the hairlines of the body, and you see how they are patterned along the symmetrical paths of the energy flow.
The personality of the fetus or of that of a fully grown human being is not separate from the universal dance of energies. Observe how many forces interact with the biosphere, how many energies enter into it and emerge from it unceasingly. Observe how they body clock responds to solar, lunar, stellar times, and how the blood responds to the tides in the oceans. Although all these times, tides, forces often seem to operate individually, each answering to its own constituent rhythm, their patters are all vibrant subsystems within the single master system of consciousness whose dance it all is.
The vast all-pervading oceanic energy of consciousness barely touches us with its outer fringes, and we come alive, becoming persons. Where the vibration frequencies in us are too solid, too dense, not subtle enough to flow in consonance with consciousness, it becomes our material body, the non-I. Here energy, condensed, becomes a cell. The cell is filled with the vital energy called prana which is maneuvered by the mind energy. The “I” in us is pure consciousness. It owns and operates the body vehicle, and it guides the mind. It is the purest, finest vibrating energy.
Thus, like the rest of the universe, we are layer upon layer of energy or light, which form complex patterns—the subtler layers are aware of the grosser ones but not vice versa (which is why they are hierarchical). Through the process of meditation and self-awareness, however, it is possible for us to attune ourselves to these energy processes. In fact, all of our information in this regard comes to us from the experiences imparted, through the oral tradition, by great meditation masters. Others who follow this path of self awareness will eventually know the dance that the personality, and the universe, and all the energies flowing between and within them, are dancing. There is no greater excitement than that of suddenly discovering that the universal ocean of prana is flowing right through us, that our brains are but so many stepping areas in the great dance of the universal mind, and that all that I claim to be is simply a thrill passing into this person “I” from the universal consciousness. And then the single point of this dynamic thrill becomes diffuse, and its millions of sparks, like an incredible display of fireworks, rush out into a vast network of energy channels which are spread throughout my person, to vitalize me, to make me mentally and physical a living being, to illuminate me so that I can say “I”.
Editor’s Note
Reprinted from Revision, Vol 3, No. 1, Spring 1980
