Ivan Dale

There is a fundamental vibratory hum or pulse to reality that we notice when we look very closely. The universe appears to flicker in and out of existence like the wings of a rainbow colored butterfly. The Buddhists call this Udayabbaya - the unceasing arising and passing away of phenomena. We train our concentration and perceptual sensitivity in part to perceive it more clearly. In Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra they call it spanda: the dynamic throbbing of consciousness. The tantrikas use the metaphor of God’s eyes opening and closing in each moment to manifest and withdraw the universe. Their language calls to mind the image of God’s REM conjuring the dream we call reality. Recently, scientific papers like the one QTd below are finding correlations to this phenomena in brain activity. The brain seeming to flicker between processing conscious and unconscious content at a rate of ~15 Hz (15 times per second). Like a fractal microcosm of the universe, we call forth our own dream of reality in this vibratory trance. This is why seeing this process more clearly is so important to the process of waking up from the dream. In some Buddhist systems we seek to become so sensitive to these arisings and passings aways that we start to see between their cracks. In doing so, we experience “bhanga” - the dissolution of our mind’s dream of a stable, continuous reality. But in the gaps between consciousness, we find not a blank nothingness but a reality beyond words. Something we might call luminous, empty and deeply blissful but of course is really none of these things because these are all words. Likewise, the tantric Shaivites seek to see in between the gaps between moments of perception in order - in their more theological language - to experience the everpresent luminosity of God (Shiva). Whether you are a Buddhist, a Shaivite, an atheist or something else entirely, learning to sensitize to the fundamentally vibratory nature of reality is one of the most powerful spiritual skills you can learn in this life. To peer between the cracks of existence. To find the numinous, luminous truths that wait for us there. To wake up from this flickering trance of a dream that we call reality.