For seven years I have been practising Yoga without chanting more than a single syllable: OM. Not that I consider myself a
person who doesn't enjoy singing, I sing with headphones, in the shower,
at concerts and sometimes with friends, but mostly when I'm alone and
always when I'm in a good mood. However, when it came to introducing
mantra chanting in my yoga practice I considered it unnecessary and
ignored the ultimate benefits it could entail both for my yoga praxis
and myself. As many people do, I strongly linked the mantras strictly to
a devotional dimension of Yoga that I did not wholly profess, chants
where a different form of pray for me and thus I was not appealed by
their nature nor by their symbolism, and was clearly driven off by the
essence of religious alienation I had reduced them to. Talking to, and
observing other Yoga students throughout these years, I have found that
this perspective is far from being uncommon. We tend to identify
chanting only with its religious dimension, ignoring its spiritual
benefits but also the physical, emotional and mental effects it can have
on us -from an Occidental point of view- and letting ourselves be pushed
away by a bunch of prejudices we unmistakably associate to its
devotional nature and its group-practice. I was no exception.
It took me seven years to reconsider such judgement
and start reflecting on the effects and importance of singing in my
daily life, in my character and in my mood. I then realised that I tend
to sing more when I'm alone and only when I am already in a good mood,
that singing made me feel happier, and that it felt even better when
someone else sang along with me. These are objective conclusions that I
draw solely from personal observation; meaning that, regardless of any
symbolical, religious or social implication, of anything I could read or
hear, I was aware of the fact I enjoy singing and that it has a positive
effect on me. Again, I am no exception. We all acknowledge from personal
experience that we mostly sing when we are happy, that we are usually
self-conscious about our voice, so we tend to sing more when we are
alone, and that, alone or along with someone else, singing
unquestionably uplifts our mood. Still, we incomprehensibly refuse to
consider singing as an intentional regular practice and instead we
content ourselves with its spontaneous and occasional occurrence in our
lives. It seems to me that, if regardless of any other consideration we
recognise that singing occurs naturally in our daily routine and that it
has a positive effect in ourselves, we should be open enough to consider
its regular practice as a useful tool to improve our mood, our spirits
and ultimately our lives. Starting from our Yoga practice, we must allow
ourselves to put aside the prejudices, the religious aspects and the
preconceived, and be determined to experience chanting solely from the
observance of its effects in our body, mood and mind. Only then we will
give mantras a chance to demonstrate their inherent power. |
When first introducing Yoga students to chanting, it
is common practice to start them with the OM chant and get them used to
it before introducing any mantras at all. This established initiation
procedure not only responds to the founding and essential nature of this
syllable in Yogic philosophy and texts (OM is the cosmic syllable, the
eternal, unity and source, the seed of any idea, word, thought, or thing
in nature. OM is everything we can and cannot touch, see, feel and
think. Everything is OM and OM is All) but also to the fact that our
prejudices and shyness are not as strongly grounded for OM chanting as
they are for mantras. OM being a single syllable allows us to be less
self-conscious of our singing skills and the abstract and complex nature
of its meaning and translation allows us to detach from its devotional
or praying nature. These two aspects clearly helped me in introducing OM
in my Yoga practice almost from the start though at first I remained
somewhat suspicious of its hypothetical positive effects. I accepted it
as a ritual feature, an ornament, but I didn't recognise the purpose or
the importance it could have in my personal Yoga practice, not until I
read about the physical and medically proved effects it has in our
bodies.
Looking back, I know consider this the first turning
point from my reductionist approach towards chanting in Yoga. Religious
devotion and mysticism aside, I realised that singing OM on a regular
basis has numerous positive physical effects in our bodies mostly due to
the internal vibration of the sound in itself. It has been
scientifically proved that singing OM has invaluable vibratory effects
in our bodies, helps to achieve slow, regular and complete exhalation,
aids to control and relax our breathing system and has several soothing
effects in our minds. However, stating such benefits is frequently
insufficient, it seems to me that it is essential to understand the
physical explanations than underlay these benefits for a change in
perception to occur in our western epistemological minds. Thus, we are
now going to take the time to develop each of them separately, in order
to understand why and how when we are chanting OM we aren't just
singing, nor praying, but enabling a series of positive physical changes
to occur in our bodies and mind, making us feel better than we did
before.
Of the above mentioned, the most powerful physical
benefit of chanting OM is related with its vibratory effects. The
sustained 'O' -formed by the 'AU'- sound makes all the bones of the
thoracic cage vibrate, proving that vibration is communicated to the
mass of air contained in our lungs and that the delicate membrane of
alveolus in contact with this air vibrates too, this stimulates the
pulmonary cells and enables an optimum gaseous exchange in our lungs.
Furthermore, the latest research of many Western physiologists has also
shown how this vibration produces very accentuated effects in the
endocrine glands, to which Science is gradually attributing an
increasing importance.
More specifically, Dr.Leser-Lasario dedicated 25
years of study to the effects of vocal vibrations in the human body and
his work has concluded, with an absolute scientific rigor, that the
emission of vowels during exhales causes a vibratory auto-massage of the
internal organs. These vibrations reach the deepest tissues and nervous
cells, intensifying blood circulation in the target tissues and internal
organs. Internal secreting glands are equally stimulated to secrete
their hormones directly into the bloodstream and the lymph (pituitary,
pineal, thyroids, thymus, adrenals and gonads), and this vibration of
the vocal chords similarly influences both the sympathetic and vagus
nerve. The musculature of the breathing apparatus is both relaxed and
strengthened, expanding the thoracic cavity and thus the pulmonary
capacity, an enlarged breathe which translates in an increase of oxygen
supply to the whole body. Besides, the vibrant internal massage
resulting from the emission of the vowels 'au', acts especially in the
abdominal organs and the organs of the thoracic cage, whilst the
vibration of the 'mmm' in our skulls induces a vibration of the cranial
nerves.
The OM being chanted during the exhalation, it
directly contributes to make it slow, regular and complete. The emission
of the 'Au' sound limits the pace of the expired air, and the benefits
of slow breathing are numerous and well known by Yoga practitioners
(increased lung capacity results in a higher supply of oxygen, increased
vitality, cleansing of the bloodstream and toxins in the lungs, and
calming of the brain, amongst others). Regular exhale is a direct result
of a uniform emission of the 'au' sound, which, if prolonged until the
end of our capacity, assures the complete emptiness of our lungs. This
complete, regular and slow breathing enables us to totally expel the
stale air from our lungs and reduce as much as possible the volume of
residual air. As an immediate and direct consequence of this integral
emptying of the lungs, our inhale enlarges and deepens progressively,
increasing our lung capacity and oxygen supply with the previously
stated beneficial effects.
Chanting Om correctly will also help us to relax and
gain control over our breathing apparatus. Since the exhaling is
produced by a relaxation of the muscles in our breathing system, the OM
sound will not be emitted uniformly unless this relaxation is fully
under control. Thus, should there be any tension at the throat or
muscles of the thoracic cage, the sound will exit our bodies in jolts,
whereas, if the sound is continuous and smooth, it will indicate a
perfect control of progressive relaxation of all the breathing muscles
and subsequently a comfortable and ease inhale. This appreciation of the
quality of our sound emission during our OM chanting enables us to learn
how to eliminate latent and unconscious contractions in muscles of our
body that we do not fully control.
And last of all, the OM chanting produces direct
effects in our minds that are just as important as the effects it has in
our body. The abstract and complex meaning of the syllable OM makes its
way into our minds intercepting the flow of thoughts we are constantly
submitted too. Our mental stuff is made out of words, when we think,
talk, dream and even when we talk to ourselves internally; we use words
in detriment of images. However, when the air is expelled from our
lungs, accompanied by the sound OM and the vibration of the vocal
chords, it occupies entirely our conscience inhibiting the process of
sentence construction in our minds. Gaining the control over our minds
to restrain this continuous flow of thoughts to which we are constantly
subjected is the ultimate goal of Yoga practice and it can only be
achieved through meditation -liberating the mind of all thoughts, what
we would define as leaving the mind blank for a sustained period of
time-, but gaining mastery of the mind is a long and difficult process.
Therefore, the OM reveals itself as the first taste of this sensation
for a new practitioner, it provides a sort of parenthesis to our minds
in which we experience a preliminary detachment of this flow of thoughts
that we are so used to having we can no longer conceive as possible to
restrain. The fact is, OM chanting on its own will not restrain it, but
it aids in achieving the first step: slowing it down. As a result of
this temporary vacation from our thoughts, the mind is calmed, and
because the mind governs the whole body, its calm state will in turn
reflect in a further relaxation of the latest too. Furthermore,
concentration becomes easier and your mind is awaken, while the
electromagnetic waves produced by the vibration are spread throughout
all the body increasing dynamism and vitality. The experiences of Dr.
Leser-Lasario greatly proved how the entire body is relaxed by the
internal vibrant-massage, which mentally liberates us from our
inhibitions, depressions and complexes, harmonising our psyches.
Learning these scientific explanations underlying the
benefits of OM chanting in my body was a crucial step for me to change
my preconceived judgement. From then onwards I started to consider it
another Yoga exercise, freed from any suspicion, this enabled me to
observe its effects in my body, in my breath, in my mood. Devotion may
or may not arrive with practice, but the fact is, the effects of OM
chanting in our practice are just as obvious as the asanas' if we allow
ourselves to experience it from the certainty that its effects greatly
exceed its mystical nature and have a logical scientific base. And in
order to do this, learning and understanding this base is essential for
Western practitioners. Everything is ineffective if we approach it with
the inner conviction that it will not work, and vice versa, placebo
treatments in medicine rely strictly on this principle. Our minds are so
powerful that if we convince ourselves something will be useless, even a
medical treatment, we will inhibit its positive effects. Thus,
liberating the OM from my doubts and prejudices was my first
acknowledgment of the benefits of chanting in my Yoga practice, in fact,
the Om would become the one and only chant I would perform for the
following five years, before the mantras finally made their way into my
practice. |