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Siva-linga in yoni-pedestal, the<br />
union of male and female organs<br />
symbolizing cosmic totality.<br />
Banaras, 19th century. Stone.<br />
150<br />
humming of bees, or the sound of a flute, or the adept may sit in a<br />
natural environment and concentrate on an imagined sound.<br />
An inner meditative experience through visualization of a<br />
divine image is another method practised by the tantrikas. The<br />
technique of visualization normally involves withdrawing the<br />
energy flowing through the conscious function and directing it<br />
inwards. When this happens our inner vision projects an image on<br />
a mental screen, and we see and experience that form on the surface<br />
of the mind. Such visions are neither pathological fantasies nor<br />
dreams. In a dream one sees several images arising from the<br />
unconscious mind; visualization differs from a dream in that it is<br />
self-induced, even though it uses a picture-language similar to a<br />
dream's; it is nearer to consciousness. Visualization is performed in<br />
a meditative or solitary place, and the adept, with eyes closed,<br />
mentally constructs an image of the chosen deity. What is<br />
projected by deliberate effort on the inner screen of the mind is not<br />
a personal construct but an iconographic imprint, based on<br />
elaborate descriptions found in the traditional texts. The<br />
visualization is strictly pursued, following the canonical imagery,<br />
and each part of the deity's body and its symbols are highly<br />
dramatized to regulate the creative imagination of the adept. The<br />
adept is like a craftsman weaving together the threads of a<br />
canonical archetype, or a sculptor building a minutely-detailed<br />
mental image. The created mental image should not be disturbed<br />
by inner restlessness or thought since visualization is followed by<br />
identification. The adept concentrates very deeply on each aspect<br />
of the divinity, imagining that he is slowly being transformed into<br />
it. This exercise demands an active play of creative imagination.<br />
The common thread uniting all meditative techniques is that<br />
meditation takes the adept to a centre of his own psychic forces by<br />
gathering up his variously directed energy into a nucleus. In this<br />
way the aids become 'bridges' along the path of sadhana. There are<br />
two major effects of meditation: 'centering' and, the other which<br />
follows as a consequence of it, the experience of an altered state<br />
is necessarily arational and intuitive in experience and content.<br />
The basic function of all techniques is to heighten the influx of<br />
intuitive insight, and that is why these techniques have recourse to<br />
mediums which involve each of our senses: sound through<br />
mantra; touch through mudras, nyasas, asanas; smell and breath<br />
through pranayama; the mind through meditation, concentration,<br />
visualization. Each of these involves a basic sensitivity, and in<br />
combination they trigger an altered state so that the intuitive side<br />
of our consciousness finds its fullest play.