yogaEQ

AUM chanting is a letting go process.

AUM chanting is a letting go process. After EACH time you chant there should be an obvious reduction in the amount of tension you feel you are carrying. You should feel more light after each chant. You should feel more clear after each chant. If you are satisfied with AUM adding more tension then you are missing the point and you are missing the bliss and clarity that can pretty easily come with this. You have to understand that even if you are not perfectly paying attention to each vibration appearing THEY ARE STILL THERE. DONT WORRY. The body and chakras are still feeling it. As you practice this more and more you will effortlessly feel the vibrations, but before then, focus on relaxing as the chant goes on.

You should end the chant at the end of your natural exhale AND all of the muscles in your body (including your eyes and tongue) should be more relaxed after each chant. If your natural relaxed exhale for whatever reason was 3 seconds long, then thats how long the chant should have been. If your natural relaxed exhale on a few of your chants can only get the sound up to UUUUUU then so be it. You must sacrifice the MMM in this circumstance otherwise you are adding more tension which is just dumb. Even the volume of the chant doesn’t matter as long as you are letting go of tension as the chant goes on.

You might not get this immediately as you might not notice a reduction in general tension, but as long as you are going in the right direction thats all the matters. This teaches you to let go and teaches you the inner workings of AUM. It’s very powerful if you stick to it. You can notice the vibrations so much more if you work on letting go first, because letting go opens up your attention whereas trying to deliberately focus on the vibrations narrows attention and limits the amount of information that can be taken in. If you wanted to examine the whole forest you wouldn’t pull out binoculars, you’d stand back and take it all in. This is what I am suggesting. Let go of the exhale and the AUM and you will naturally take it all in.

I will wholeheartedly defend this belief if you wish to disagree. It seems fairly obvious that this is true but I’m sure there are some SG worshippers out there who will disagree.

Edit: For the record it’s unlikely SG would agree with this framing of AUM but I think that’s silly. If you could feel how Sadhguru feels when he chants AUM you’d realize that he is effortlessly letting go of the breath and letting go of tension the entire time without an atom of excessive force involved in the sound production. The fact that he doesn’t emphasize the letting go aspect of the chant when he himself almost certainly experiences it that way should be a crime. It really makes it so much more enjoyable and powerful if you can perfect this dimension of AUM.