The Om Technique

by Brother Ishtananda - Part 2 (excerpts from a talk at 2004 Convocation)

AUM (OM) Technique

What should we do with our calm mind once we are there? How to concentrate on the transcendental God beyond creation?

The bridge, the link has existed since creation came into being. Two minute history of creation: Before creation, there was only undifferentiated Spirit. Someone said, “In the beginning God created … and this has been widely regarded as a bad move.” Before creation, God was just Blissful consciousness, but as soon as it began to think, to dream creation, it manifested as both light and sound. That was the holy vibration of Aum. This vibration devolved – it became grosser and grosser until it became what we call solid matter. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

In manifesting creation, Spirit becomes:

God the Father – existing transcendentally untouched by any tremor of vibratory creation
The Son – the only begotten Christ Consciousness inherent in all creation
The Holy Ghost – the Cosmic Vibration, the Word, the Aum.

Aum is the bridge.

This is our link back to God – it is God Himself.

The Word, Amen, Aum - being the manifestation of the Eternal Nature of God or His Own Self, is inseparable from and nothing but God Himself; as the burning power is inseparable from and nothing but the fire itself. Communion with the Holy Ghost is the purpose of the Aum technique. The technique gives us the means to connect with God.

Read everything about Aum. Understanding helps practice. Paramahansa Yogananda talks about the Aum technique in The Second Coming (pg 123-124):

“As the devotee concentrates on Aum, first by mentally chanting Aum, and then by actually hearing that sound, his mind is diverted from the physical sounds of matter outside his body to the circulatory and other sounds of the vibrating flesh. Then his consciousness is diverted from the vibrations of the physical body to the musical vibrations of the spinal centers of the astral body. His consciousness then expands from the vibrations of the astral body to the vibrations of consciousness in the causal body and in the omnipresence of the Holy Ghost. When the devotee’s consciousness is able not only to hear the cosmic sound of Aum, but also to feel its actual presence in every unit of space, in all finite vibrating matter, then the soul of the devotee becomes one with the Holy Ghost. His consciousness vibrates simultaneously in his body, in the sphere of the earth, the planets, the universes, and in every particle of matter, space, and astral manifestation. Through the expanding power of the Holy Ghost, the all-spreading Aum-vibrating sound heard in meditation, the consciousness then becomes immersed, or baptized, in the sacred stream of Christ Consciousness.”

This is a tremendous technique that Paramahansa Yogananda has given. The techniques Paramahansa Yogananda gave came down from India’s golden age. It is very effective for creating that actual communion with God. Let the techniques work. The ego is used to doing, controlling, making it happen. Our job is just to practice and let the techniques do the work.

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