by Marinus Jan Marijs
Within Indian Hindu philosophy one can find descriptions of what is called the Bindu, the blue pearl:
Citations:
It has been described as the point at which the capacity for the unmanifest to become manifest is realised
…. a nucleus where prâna or consciousness, space and time come together
The Goraksha Paddhati refers to that light as the Nila Bindu, “the blue dot”
Bindu: (“seed/point”): the creative potency of anything where all energies are focused
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…. The bindu is atman. That is the nucleus. The Bindu is the doorway to the Absolute. The experience of Bindu is an actual, internally experienced reality The dot at the top of the OM symbolizes Turiya, the Absolute Reality, or Pure Consciousness. The dot, point, or Bindu represents the absolute consciousness, and is called Turiya. the Bindu is encountered in the later or advanced stages of Meditation. Meditation on Bindu is not merely a visualization exercise whereby you imagine some mental object. To find the Bindu takes a great deal of effort and patience, after having purified the mind. While it takes great effort, it also takes great surrender. Bindu: is the doorway to the Absolute. The Bindu is an actual, directly experienced reality. Bindu is the convergence: The Bindu is the convergence point of the highest principles and practices of Raja Yoga as codified in the Yoga Sutras, Advaita Vedanta as summarized in the Mandukya Upanishad, and the highest Tantra, which is Samaya (Internal) Tantra and Sri Vidya. Yoga: The Bindu at the top of the OM symbolizes Turiya, the Absolute Reality, Purusha or Pure Consciousness that is to be realized. The point (bindu) signifies unity, the origin, the principle of manifestation and emanation. BLUE PEARL:
In Sanskrit, Bindu means Point or Dot It is also described as “the sacred symbol of the cosmos in its unmanifested state.” The Yoga Upanishads References: 1) The Yoga Upanishads translated by T. R. Srinivasa Ayyangar, B.A., L.T. (Retired Head Master, Kalyana-sundaram High School, Tanjore) and edited by Pandit S. Subrahmanya Sastri, F.T.S.; The Adyar Library 1938) 2) The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosphy and Practice by Georg Feuerstein (1999, 2001) and published by Hohm Press, Prescott, Arizona; Chapter 15 “God, Vision, and Power–The Yoga Upanishads”, pages 311-331. Feuerstein offers his own translated excerpts of several of these Upanishads. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, possibly as old as 2000 years (written around the start of the Common Era), is a terse systemization of yogic meditation practices that developed over a large span of time predating the start of the Common Era. Even though the text of 196 concise aphorisms is associated with the dualistic school of Samkyha and Classical Yoga, where the goal is liberation of the “soul” (atman and purusha) of a person from the “material” level of reality, the outlining of the basic steps in meditation practice have been adopted by non-dualistic schools’ teaching practices that liberate while one is alive and involved in this “material” reality. The Upanishads, a body of literature consisting of 108 texts with the earliest written perhaps 800 years before the start of the Common Era, Twenty of the 108 Upanishads are known as the “Yoga Upanishads” and, though precise dates for them are generally not known, the writings of these 20 texts likely occurred between 1000 and 1600 C.E., long after Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Five of the 20 Yoga Upanishads have the term “bindu” in them, which refers to a concentrated point of latent power or energy. In these Upanishads, mantras are used as the focusing tool. The term “bindu” arises out of the Tantra tradition so that basicly places these texts in the 900-1200 C.E. time period. Georg Feuerstein, page 312 of above reference: In India, undoubtedly the oldest and most sacred sound or word (mantra) is the syllable OM, symbolizing the Absolute. It is pronounced with a strongly nasalized or hummed “m”, which is indicated in Sanskrit by a dot (called “bindu” or “seed-point”) under the letter “m”. Whereas the syllable OM by itself is said to represent the creative or manifest dimension of the Divine, the echo, or “bindu” of the sound “m” is thought to represent the Divine in its unmanifest dimension….. what remains, that, is the non-dual Brahman”. This form of Yoga became popular during the medieval period in India. Georg Feuerstein provides (see reference two) a basic explanation of this yogic practice (page 320): Experiences of inner light occur well before the yogin has reached the point of spiritual maturity where the encounter with the transcendental Light takes place, and to which the only viable response is self-surrender. These experiences, known as photisms, can be looked upon as dress rehearsals for the great experience of the Light of lights. They can be quite spectacular internal fireworks, though more often they are simpler experiences of localized or sometimes diffused nonphysical light or lights. The experience of the ‘blue pearl’ (nils-bindu), often talked about by Swami Muktananda in his autobiography The Play of Consciousness, is such a preliminary manifestation of the Ultimate. G. Feuerstein (page 325 from reference two above) describes a key point made in this Upanishad: We can only guess at the experiential significance of these luminous spaces. They are clearly supra physical and only vaguely analogous to the ether once thought by physicists to be the medium for the propagation of light. It is easier for meditators than for non meditators to appreciate what these potent radiance-spaces might be like. Bindu is the first form to emerge out of mahasunya (great void). Bindu is the state of the gathered – up power of Consciousness that is about to create the universe. Therefore it is called “ primordial seed of the universe” or “cosmic creative drop.” It is connected to the State of sahaja samadhi, the non-dual state End of citations. ———————————————————————————————- There are many opinions as to exactly where related to the human body the bindu physically resides, but there is no consensus to where exactly the bindu is located. Phenomenology: In a state of spiritual experience the Bindu is actually experienced as a blue pearl, a ball of light 8 milimeter in diameter, (it has been described as “A brilliant blue light, the size of a pea”, which is 7,5 milimeter diameter) and it is a very clear lapis lazuli blue colour, the same colour as the subtle energy in the sushumna:
lapis lazuli blue The Bindu has a definitive spatial location, it is located in front of the body, 20 centimeters to the left of the body. It is located at the edge of the aura field, about 50 to 60 centimeters from the body, and 30 to 40 centimeters below eyelevel (see the three figures here below) ↓ |
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This 8 milimeter in diameter ball of blue light, which I have seen hundreds of times over a period of more than 40 years, and always at the same location. I did ask four others who could perceive the bindu where they did see it, without giving specifics and they all gave the same location.
What is the Bindu?
The Bindu is the Atman point; in the Sankhya system it is called purusha and what Leibnitz called “The monad”. This is the point where that which transcends space and time:
the “Absolute”, the universal consciousness, is connected our individual consciousness.
It is here where this dimensionless point assembles this highly concentrated 8 milimeter across ball-shaped blue energy.
As the Atman point is the focal-point of our consciousness, it may seem strange that it is located at a distance from the physical body. But the Bindu activates the whole subtle energy field that surrounds the physical body, so its peculiar location isn’t a problem.
