Intone a sound, as Aum, slowly. As sound enters soundfulness, so do you.
- Why Aum: A-U-M are the three basic ‘atomic’ sounds from which all sound derives (Osho’s analogy: as basic as the electron, neutron and proton in matter — the ‘Law of the Three’). Aum is the last station before sound ends; just beyond it lies the soundless absolute, the undivided One. ‘As sound enters soundfulness’ = the chant crosses from the world of three into the one.
- The method — descend in pitch: Start intoning Aum loudly and outwardly (you hear it clearly; it is your natural habit). Become the sound — feel it reverberate through every cell (‘intoning is in-tuning’). Then close the lips and intone inwardly, first still loudly, then progressively slower. The subtler the sound the deeper it goes (homeopathy: the smaller the dose, the deeper it penetrates). Coarse sound reaches only the ears; only slow, atomic sound reaches the heart — and the mantra is incomplete until the sound enters the heart, the deepest core.
- The hinge — two movements at once: As the sound descends toward silence, awareness must simultaneously ascend toward its peak — opposite directions. When the sound reaches the valley (dissolves), alertness must already be at its Everest. Then wait: at the moment the sound becomes so atomic that it suddenly vanishes — and you cannot find where it has gone — it has entered soundfulness and you enter total awareness. Reduce the sound AND grow more alert together, or the method fails entirely.
- The central pitfall — sleep (yoga tandra / hypnos): Mechanical repetition breeds boredom, and boredom breeds a special induced sleep, not ordinary sleep — the questioning/reasoning mind sleeps while the rest ‘hears,’ and visions arise that feel more real than waking life and conform to one’s conditioning (a Christian sees Christ, a Hindu Krishna, utterly convincing). A mantra repeated without an alert listener inside is just a non-medical tranquilizer — good only for insomnia, useless for awakening. Sleep is not meditation.
- The safeguard: Do not merely intone — intone AND consciously listen at the same time (be both the chanter and the conscious inner ear). Without this dual alertness the mantra becomes a lullaby and the method a route to hypnosis.
- Q&A — mantra initiation (deeksha): A transmitted mantra is personal, possible only after total surrender (ego / self-defense is the sole barrier; there is no partial surrender). The master enters your body-mind-spirit, feels your inner music, and gives a symbolic key-sound tuned to your particular lock; he chants it into your ear and you must be so alert that your whole consciousness gathers there. Even Aum, emphasized on A, U, or M, becomes three different keys opening three different locks — exact use is everything. A wrong key forced into a lock can damage it so that even the right key later won’t work.
- Q&A — secrecy is part of the mechanism: Anything you chatter about, you are relieved of — it rises to the surface and its inner roots break. Kept secret, the mantra sinks deeper until it hits the exact lock. Telling it also harms the unsuited recipient and breaks your living contact with the master. (Marpa kept his mantra even when his master asked for it in a dream, and stopped sleeping for a week lest he reveal it asleep.)