THE BACKWARD-FLOWING MOVEMENT
Dialogue 8P: I would like to ask you about the backward-flowing movement, a state in
which there is a drawing in of sight, hearing and the energies of sex. In the Yoga-
sūtra there is a word parāvṛtti, which denotes the state where thought turns back
upon itself. Is there such a state as the drawing in of the outward-flowing senses,
and of thought turning back on itself?
K: Like a glove turned inside out? Are you saying that thought looking at itself,
or swallowing itself is the backward-flowing movement?
P: What is meant by the word is a matter of experience.
K: You are asking: Is there a state in which hearing, seeing and the sensual
energies draw themselves in and there is a moving backwards? What do you
mean by ‘backwards’? Are you saying that the hearing, the seeing and the
sensual energies are withdrawing without propelling outward?
P: The normal movement of the eyes, ears and the sensual energies is an outer
movement, linked with an object. Can there be a freeing of the senses from the
object and a drawing-in of the senses?
K: I wonder if in the drawing-in, the no hearing, no seeing and the sensual
energy not expanding, there is not a state where there is the hearing of sound, the
seeing of everything, and yet a total quiet—a state of being withdrawn, where
there is no desire.
P: It is not the suppression of desire.
K: Is there a state where there is the hearing of sound, the eyes seeing, objects
existing and, yet, no sensuous desire? I think there is such a state, where there is
sensation yet no desire. Not that one has become old, lost vitality, but there is no
desire as the seeing, the touching—sensation and, out of that sensation, the
wanting to possess.
P: What happens to the process of hearing when there is no naming?
K: Do you hear that siren? There is the vibration of sound and the interpretation
that takes place when you hear the siren. Now, can you listen to it without any
movement of memory as thought? Can you hear only the sound? Can there be no
image, no naming, no interpretation? Can there be only sound? That is all. And
the sound is out of silence. Because the activity of thought has come to an end,
there is a hearing of sound out of emptiness. In the same way, can there be a