VBT – Meditation 47.4
Aum, Sweet Aum
It’s only when the mind is silent and you are absolutely calm that you can hear the sound of Aum.
The sound of aum is the most significant sound, the most fundamental, the most elemental; it is the source of all sounds. It consists of three sounds, a, u, m, and those three sounds are the basic sounds behind all sounds.
It is very symbolic in the east; it is the trinity. A, u, m: those three sounds are the three energies in life. Christians call them father, son and holy ghost. The whole life consists of three energies: scientists call them electrons, protons, neutrons. Whenever you go deep you will always find a trinity and behind the trinity you will find one; that one is the sound of aum.
It is a very strange sound; it has a few special things about it. For one: it is the only sound that can be uttered with an open and closed mouth; no other sound can be uttered with a closed mouth. Or, if you try to utter any other sound with a closed mouth, from the outside it will be heard as aum. One can try any word, any letter, any sound, but from the outside it will always be heard as aum. So it is the sound that joins the outer and the inner. It is the sound that joins the body and the soul. And those three – a, u, m – have been used as metaphors for many things. The east cherishes metaphors very much.
The first use that has been made is that those three sounds represent respectively: the state of wakefulness, a; the state of dreaming, u; and the state of dreamless sleep, m. When all these three sounds, the whole aum, becomes silent, then arises the fourth sound, the soundless sound called turiya, the fourth. That is the sound Zen people call ‘one hand clapping.’ When aum has become silent you hear silence. That is the beauty of aum: if you repeat it, if you hum it and you become completely absorbed in it, when you stop for the first time you will know what silence is.
Before that experience, whatsoever you call silence is not positive silence. It is simply a negative state, an absence of noise; that’s what people call silence. When there is no noise they say, ‘It is very silent here.’ That is absence of noise, this is not positive silence. Positive silence is when you have hummed aum, the aum disappears and you are left in soundlessness; then you hear something positive – the still small voice of Christian mystics. That can only be experienced, that cannot be expressed.
These three have also been used as three bodies: the physical body, the psychological body, the spiritual body. And when you go beyond the third you have the cosmic body: the body of god or the body of Buddha.
This sound will be of great help to you to find your path, to move towards the unknown. Ride on this sound. This is your mantra, and this is your name. Let this become your constant companion. Whenever you have time, simply repeat ‘aum’ – sometimes loudly when it is possible; when it is not possible, silently. Befriend this sound, and immense will be the benefit.
Tags: Aum Sweet Aum
