July 31, 2020

Attribute three in the collection of Goddess descriptors is ūrmi, which means wave or more specifically wave of consciousness. It is interesting that the ocean is an often- used metaphor for the immensity of the One who is the source of all and now we have wave used as a specific quality of Her. And what are waves? They are defined as the individual expressions of the ocean, a swaying or undulating motion that remains fixed to one point, a movement to and fro in greeting and a sudden increase of a specified phenomenon.

Totality refers to the immensity of the One who holds the potency that creates infinite impressions on Her ocean nature. These impressions are then enlivened by the swaying, undulating force that we know as waves and which we find in the breath and in the heartbeat. In the ocean of space around us and inside us, the breath is the wave which brings us to life and sustains the beat of our heart. This is what allows us to form and function as unique entities.

Yogis have been fascinated by and searched for understanding of this enlivening agent. Their quest yielded the recognition of Prana, the life force that moves us into becoming when we are born and takes life away at death. The wheel of life cycles into form and returns just like the waves rising from the ocean depths, crashing on the shore and ebbing back into the ocean. In the non-dual Tantrik view, it is further recognized that while this force brings us to life, we can also remain asleep to the truth of who and what we are. in the tradition, awakening to the recognition of this deeper truth may come about by a surging, undulating wave of energy that travels up the body from the pelvis to the crown of the head.

Waves are also transformational, both in intensity, like storms, and in their constancy. They wear away stone, smooth off rough edges and reveal the deeper layers of beauty. Waves penetrate the smallest cracks, widening and expanding the crevasses. This is an apt metaphor for our spiritual practice. Our practices erode our rough edges of tension, penetrate the cracks in our stony armour and ultimately transform our understanding and unites us with the truth of our ocean nature.

We also use “wave” to describe the washes of intense emotion and sensation that arise and move through us. These emotional waves may seem so strong as to knock us off our feet. Our tendency can be to build up surf breaks to protect us against the fear of being submerged by one of these strong waves. These barriers, while seeming to protect us from the storms, allow for a build-up of residue that blocks free movement through our system. The collected accumulation of emotional remnants interferes with our breath and the access to the prana in the breath.

As well, the waves of breath wash up against our engrained tendencies. These habitual modes of being become hard identities that are impediments to the rhythmic action of the breath waves and also reduce our ability to access prana.

As spiritual seekers, we use our practices and our attention on our breath to gently and persistently dissolve the barriers we have built up against the breath. A key practice that utilizes wave in the form of sound is mantra. The rhythmic vibration of mantra meeting up against our engrained tendencies and the accumulated remains of our emotions act just like the ocean waves meeting the shore. Eventually, these sound waves move constantly through us just like the eternal motion of the ocean waves, present even when we are not engaged in the active repetition of the mantra.

As we deconstruct our storm breaks, erode away our preconditioned responses and tune into our ocean nature, we free our breath and access the potency of the life force. We become attuned to a truth held in the wave contemplation: everything changes. Grounded in this truth, we anchor in the totality (we are the ocean) and allow the waves of emotion and identifications with our independent wave-self to wash up and over us without submerging us. This brings forth the potency within our infinite ocean nature and we are enlivened by the free movement of the life force within us.