W ellness , S cience
Above: The word “om,” as written in Sanskrit.
Below: The lotus position is traditionally believed to be ideally suited to successful meditation.
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M edicine
The Sound of Creation You’d be doing well to find a much shorter word than om—the sacred exclamation used in so many eastern prayers. A little like amen in the Judeo– Christian tradition, it punctuates prayerful language and has the effect of underlining its religious significance. (Some scholars in fact believe that the holy sound, imported from India into the Middle East, was actually the origin of the Hebrew word.) Where amen is generally used as a conclusion, a sort of signing-off, om is employed as an opening, an introductory calling to attention. This is certainly how it is used in the ancient Vedas and the later Upanishads. It represents an opening, a start in a profounder sense as well. The god Vishnu, Hindu tradition has it, blew a mighty blast on his conch-shell trumpet: the word om is the sound that brought the universe into being. Hummed aloud, it is held to recall this “primordial vibration”: in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, it is the word both of creation and of God. This is why, for so many centuries, it has been chanted as a mantra—the word, phrase or formula that is repeated as an aid to meditation. Sometimes longer sections or verses of the Vedas may be recited, but—like the Cloud of Unknowing author—Eastern mystics have found that, in meditation, short is beautiful. And, with all its meanings, the word om is a prayer in itself. Yoga: A Life’s Work It’s easy to forget in the Western context, in which it often falls ambiguously somewhere between alternative philosophy and exercise, that the tradition of yoga was originally a religious regimen. Believers pretty much consecrated their whole lives to the pursuit of enlightenment through exercise and meditation—and still do, through much of the world, where the great Indian religions continue to be practiced. No spoken mantra is necessarily needed. Often counting breaths (anapanasati or “mindful breathing”) is all that’s needed; alternatively, the thoughts can be focused on an object—perhaps an element or color. An experienced yogi may be able to enter the meditative state without any of these aids—but such mastery doesn’t make the act of meditation any less important. Seated meditation—in the lotus position—is at the very center of Zen Buddhism, as it is practiced in the Far East. This sort of sitting meditation is known as zazen. Often, however, practitioners will literally ring the changes, a sounding bell being the signal for zazen to end and for a period of kinhin—walking meditation, with rhythmic breathing—to begin. Fringe Benefits By the standards of the dedicated eastern yogi, even the keenest Western, part-time practitioner of yoga is really only dipping 90