Recently I had what you might call an "automatic yoga" whereby during mantra meditation I was filled with a strong desire to hum out loud. The humming vibration felt very good so I tried switching to ayammmmm... ayammmm... (the mantra i was focusing on). I did this for a bit before shifting back to the silent, internal mantra recitation. It made me think: since the goal is to follow the mantra into increasingly subtle layers of mind/space, could beginning with a little out loud recitation getting increasingly soft and whisper-like before switching over to the usual, silent mantra not help set the mind on the path towards following it into increasingly subtle strata of inner silence?
Somewhat unrelated, but does anyone here practice any out-loud chanting either as part of a sitting practice outside of deep meditation or perhaps even during asanas? It seems like the strong vibrations that can be created through really producing sound could be a powerful tool for feeling increasingly subtle vibrations.
I utter OM loudly once a while automatically during meditation/asanas. Its like having a last breath before dying. Sort of throws the breath from the belly to the crown. Must be affecting prana.
Yesterday while resting after practicing, I experienced some automatic yoga chanting. It was energy vocalizing, and it went its own way (mostly gibberish). I have listened to some Krishna Das lately per Kirtanman's recommendations and the vocalizations were loosely influenced by those songs. Very powerful energetically. Vocalizing (and any externalization really) seems to help balance and ground the energy flows and I was just buzzing when this happened yesterday.
Chanting aloud?
Posted - Mar 06 2010 : 4:23:56 PM
