chant

To those of you, who are relatively new to the world of energy, welcome. To those seasoned few I invite you into beginner’s mind.

Our own five senses—the “gateways to healing,” as they are referred to in Ayurveda—are very powerful tools for promoting health and wellbeing. They allow us to use everything around us as medicine.

This week, we’ll dive into the world of Sound. (We previously looked at Sight.)

As turbulence shook and rattled the cabin I chanted the Mahamrityunjaya mantra silently to myself to offer protection, to myself and to the entire plane. I had done the same thing in buses and car rides in India, when the terrain was so uncertain, when the cliffs were only inches away and I had no other way to comfort myself. We had chanted this mantra weekly during my time at the ashram and I had felt its power.

Wealth is more than money. We are all connected to an unlimited source of wealth and abundance just by being divine humans—the trick is we have either blocked it, forgotten it, or both. It is a natural state of being to access the wealth of the universe in all its many forms simply because we are a part of it and we ARE it. On a very real level, the universe is within us as much as we are within the universe.

I spent four months in a yogic immersion course in India. We chanted mantras for an hour every evening and then twice per month we chanted the entire Bhagavad Gita—which took 6 hours to complete. There were well over 100 people chanting together at any given time, and during the final month of the course we had the entire village assembled, chanting together for 8+ hours per day. I’ll tell you: the result of all this chanting was transformative to say the least.

Mantra work has been some of the most powerful work I have done in my lifetime. The effect mantra has on the cells of the body and the DNA is so pronounced that I can literally feel the shifts in my being after I chant. The resonant tones of chanting change the physical body forever. It is inescapable and undeniable: Chanting simply transforms you!

With thumb and first finger touching, hands resting gently on my knees, palms up, I tried out Chin Mudra for the first time, consciously. With curious awareness I sat on the cold stone floor of the ashram and turned my eye gaze upward toward my forehead center into Shambavi mudra. The buzz of flies and mosquitoes tried to lure me away from the inward turning of my mind. But concentration was working.

Aum (OM): A simple chant that can heal on the physical, spiritual and metaphysical planes…

Picture an enlightened yogi and you might envisage a peaceful face, calm and serene surroundings and the chanting of ‘Aum’ in the background. But why ‘Aum,’ pray tell? The reasons are many, and you are free to choose the ones that find a home in your beliefs.

Everyone’s meditation practice is deeply personal depending on individual needs, and certainly it helps to have the advice of a qualified meditation teacher. But our most profound guru dwells within us.