Greetings, everyone. I hope things are going smoothly in your world.
Below you will find details of a few upcoming events, including We Still Need to Talk, the next 1-day Retreat in Knowlton on July 25th, and a just-added mini series of Morning Movement, Mantra and Meditation practices in August.
I also want to say a few more words about the pranava mantra OM.
In a newsletter you received in May, I spoke about OM as an assent, an affirmation, a yes. It’s like a sonic blessing, something that nourishes whatever action follows in its wake.
We also know OM as a vehicle for ascent, an energetic rising that leads from the mundane contracted state towards the higher, the subtler, the more expansive. We experience the resonance of OM very beautifully in the physical body and also follow it at the level of our awareness through specific practices.
Another understanding about OM, one that really made an impression on me when I first heard it decades ago, is that OM echoes the primordial, underlying, ongoing sound of our universe.
This idea reflects the widely held understanding in the Indian spiritual traditions that sound is a primary mechanism for universal creative expression: our cosmos comes into being through sound. This expression continues to resonate.
When we chant OM, it’s like we are adding our individual voices to this fundamental sonic outpouring. We pour our voices into the ongoing performance of a great Cosmic Choir.
There are many OM and other mantra-related practices, especially in the Trika Tantric tradition. Their purposes and effects vary, but in general all OM practices involve some kind of ascent, an attuning to something very subtle and vast and already present.
Also, OM practices require our assent, a willingness to keep expanding, which means letting go of our contractive tendencies. Even the most well-meaning yoga practitioners like us have spent lifetimes masterfully clinging to a limited sense of self.
Joining the cosmic choir entices, encourages, and requires us to soften the edges of contracted awareness step by step, OM by OM.
That’s it for now. Please know that these are just a few drops from the great ocean of understanding available to us through sadhana and yogic practice. May they be of benefit.
Peace, Robin
