Through this article, I hope to create a tratak meditation experience by taking the readers along a visual journey through several representations of Oneness.
Tratak is a style of concentration meditation that fosters Oneness. As a visual meditation tratak helps develop the power of concentration. Vision is concentrated on an object, preferably a luminous object or image. Concentrating on a luminous image, one thinks firmly on the object of concentration. Concentrating consciousness on an image allows the whole consciousness to be centered. Repeating this meditation can become easy and normal and bring a feeling of oneness.
In this visual narrative, I have created digital images inspired by relevant quotes from Sri Aurobindo. It is hoped that these images will create a meditative experience for the viewer.
Sri Aurobindo offers a clear definition of Sachchidananda as the state of Oneness of the Divine.
“He in whom the self has become all existences, how shall he have delusion, whence shall he have grief who knows entirely and sees in all things oneness.” (quote from Isha Upanishad, cited in The Life Divine, SABCL, volume 18, p. 150)
Meditating on the concept of sachchidananda also inspires this experience.
“The principle of transcendent and infinite Existence (sat), Consciousness (cit) and Bliss (ananda) which is the nature of divine being”…”the consciousness of unity dominates; the soul lives in its awareness of eternity, universality, unity, and whatever diversity there is, …is only a multitudinous aspect of oneness.” (Synthesis of Yoga, CWSA, Volume: 23-24, p. 629.
And finally, let us meditate upon a poem of oneness written by Sri Aurobindo called, “Divine Sight” which reveals the poetic sensibility of the direct experience of Oneness.
Each sight is now immortal with Thy Bliss:
My soul through the rapt eyes has come to see;
A veil is rent and they no more can miss
The miracle of Thy world-epiphany.
Into an ecstasy of vision caught
Each natural object is of Thee a part,
A rapture-symbol from Thy substance wrought,
A poem shaped in Beauty’s living heart,
A master-work of colour and design
A mighty sweetness borne on grandeur’s wings;
A burdened wonder of significant line
Reveals itself in even commonest things.
All forms are Thy dream-dialect of delight,
O Absolute, O vivid Infinite.”
(Sri Aurobindo Collected Poems, The Complete Poetical Works), p. 155
It is hoped that these three insights and the accompanying images support the reader’s exploration and experience of “…the soul [living] in its awareness of eternity, universality, unity, and whatever diversity there is, …is only a multitudinous aspect of oneness.” Volume: 23-24 [CWSA] (The Synthesis of Yoga), Page: 629
About the author: Margaret Astrid Phanes, M.A., MFT, is a visionary, artist, and trainer. She has pioneered digital art as visual meditation. She teaches digital media arts and concentration meditation training at the College on Maui, Hawaii, USA. She is an online facilitator for SACAR, Puducherry. For more information on digital art as visual meditation, visit: http://www.margaretphanes.com.
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