Om Chanting: Clearing Mental Chatter

Cut through the mental chatter by chanting this ancient sound. Specifically, we will chant A-U-M to feel all parts of the sound, from the back of the throat to the closing of the lips. You can either use my chanting as an object of meditative attention or chant along with me.

Transcript

So I'm not going to say too much about OM chanting here. I'll describe a little bit at the beginning. But I'd like you mainly to experience it. And when we experience it, I will demonstrate once and then I'll guide us through maybe three to four repetitions. But first I will say a few things. Ohm can be understood as the sound of the universe, The sound of the Big Bang. Some might describe it as cosmic ringing. You get deep enough in meditation, You might notice this like, That's buzzing, Maybe on a quantum level, In the midst of everything beneath all the noise. And when you chant Aum or express Aum, Particularly in the way that we'll do it, A-U-M. You express all parts of sound. So you'll begin, Ah, From the back of the throat. And then you'll move into O in the sort of middle of the mouth and close with M. In the front. And you could view that as like. All of history, All of time, All of a lifetime, All of one day, All of one breath arising, And then dropping back out of the source, Out of the void, And then back into the void, This sound that we'll make together. It's also just a really powerful meditative practice. If you're fully making the sound or experiencing the sound, There is no room for thoughts. There's no room for self-consciousness and worry and planning and all the habit energy of the thinking mind. Oftentimes, Meditation can be co-opted by the thinking mind and it takes over. But this, You, Kind of can't. If you're fully doing it, There's really no space for thoughts to come in. So let's try it out and I'll do it once and then I'll guide us through doing it together. When it gets to the point of doing it together, I'll take a deep exaggerated inhale and that will signal the time to do it. So it'll be like. And then you'll know that it's coming. And when we do it, I would encourage you to go for as long as you possibly can. That's the practice of breathing. You breathe in, Take in all the breath and then express it for as long and maybe as loud. As you can. It's a nice way of releasing inhibitions and insecurities. Self-consciousness as someone who historically is incredibly self-conscious and introverted and kind of controlled, This is a quite liberating practice. Also liberating for me right now because I, You know, Am exposed to your potential judgment and the sound of my voice. But that is a wonderful practice to help release the way that that inhibits me in daily life. So without further ado, When we do it together, Maybe I can guide us to have the eyes closed, But for now, Maybe you can watch and experience me doing it once. Rawr! You And when we do it together, There will be a little space of silence in between each chant. So it won't go. One right after the other. It'll be a little open space. Okay, So if you like, You can do this with me here. If you want, You can allow your eyes to be closed if that feels right. Maybe let's do it three times together. So just follow along with my guidance. We could take a couple of deep breaths here. Allow the body to release, Relax however it can. And then on the next deep inhale, We will begin. And again, It's ah, Oh, Mm, Starting in the back of the throat. Feeling the sound moving to the middle whenever the moment feels right for you. And then closing with mm. And just going as long as you can. If I go longer than you, That's fine. And if you go longer than me, That's fine. And here we go. Rawr! You And just taking in this silent space for a moment in between. And here comes another one. For the first time. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Aum Just taking in the silent space. Kind of like the space in between the inhale and the exhale. And we'll do this just one more time together. If you're doing it with me, You might really Go for it. The more you go for it, The less space there is. For self-consciousness. To enter and you are no longer self-conscious but you become a conscious self. And here we go. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa you and just becoming the silence for a little while, Which of course is not silent, But the more silent you become. The more you become. The sound that is here. And we'll experience this once more, But in a different way. To come to a close. We will experience. A singing bowl. Which is also making this sound, Ohm. In its own way. Just seeing if you can become the sound. Really noticing. That point at which the sound dissolves into silence. And here it comes. In three, To I'll play this sound one more time. Let's see if you might be able to notice the two notes that are playing simultaneously. One low and one high. Could represent you and me. Could represent non-duality. Two and one. Not thinking about the notes or analyzing, Interpreting, Labeling, But just seeing if you can feel this. One more in three, Two, One. You And here you might just take a few more deep inhales. And exhales. And allow the body to release, Relax again, However it can. And then very gradually, If your eyes were closed, Just allowing them to reopen. Whenever the moment feels right. You might notice. . . What you feel like sometimes that the OM chanting and the experience of the bowl can bring up. Really interesting. Sensations, Maybe profound sensations, Liberating sensations, Strange sensations, So you could just notice what's here without thinking too much about it. Feel free to share about your experience in the comments if you want to, I'm curious to know. And I would encourage you to try this on your own, Certainly come back here and do it with me, But if you can find a space to practice it, Maybe on your commute, Driving in the car, Or. . . To begin your meditation practice or anywhere. I have a PhD in clinical psychology, So I know all the different, Not all of them, But lots of the different concepts and ways of coping with things, Anxiety. All kinds of stuff in the mind, But to me the most powerful stuff, For me, Tends to be this kind of stuff, Where it just cuts through. Cuts through all that when you bring yourself into what is here. Like the chants, The sound, The sensation, This presence to me is the most powerful answer. To the problems of the mind. I'll just share, Zen is a great deep dive for that kind of stuff. So if you're curious, I have a course on Zen. It's called The Zen Path. You can find it on my profile, Or you can just search that title, The Zen Path, And it's 111 sessions long, An audio course, But they're all just five minutes, And they're all intended to bring you into this just direct felt awakening. Each one, 111, A lot of them, But they're all just this one, Just this one, Just this one. And that to me is what the chanting is an attempt to do is like, Can you be fully present for one expression of Aum? And that might just answer the deepest questions at the mind. Okay, Thank you. For taking this time with me and maybe I'll see you again sometime soon.