Nada Brahma — The Universe as Sound
Nada Brahma ('the universe is sound') is the Tantric teaching that the fundamental nature of reality is vibrational — that consciousness itself is a form of sound, and the universe is the self-expression of the primordial sound.
The teaching that Nada (sound/vibration) is the most fundamental nature of reality pervades the Tantric and Vedic traditions. The Nada Bindu Upanishad states that the entire universe is a manifestation of divine sound (Nada Brahma). Shabda (sound) is both the first manifestation of consciousness (Para Shabda — the unstruck sound, the primordial silence from which all other sounds arise) and the last refuge (Anahata Nada — the unstruck sound heard in deep meditation). The progression from Para Shabda through Pashyanti, Madhyama, and Vaikhari represents the densification of consciousness into language. The Tantric science of Shabda Vidya (knowledge of sacred sound) includes the study of Sanskrit phonetics, the correspondence between sounds and tattvas, the therapeutic and transformative use of sound, and the ultimate dissolution of all sound back into silence. Modern physics' discovery that the Big Bang began as a single, uniform vibration supports the cosmological aspect of Nada Brahma.
Listen to the unstruck sound in the silence of meditation — that is the voice of God, the root of all creation.
Cosmologist John Cramer's Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics describes subatomic interactions as 'handshakes' between offer and confirmation waves — a vibrational exchange model consistent with the Tantric teaching that all reality is vibrational communication between aspects of consciousness.
Nada Bindu Upanishad