OM

Also known as Aum; the foundational Vibration of Life (IIRC), or some such thing. Title of a John Coltrane LP (1965, with Pharoah Sanders), during the beginning of the heavily-Hindu final phase of his career:

"All these am I... the mantram, the clarified butter. I am the oblation and I the flame into which it is offered. I am the sire of the world, and this world's mother and grandsire. I am he who awards to each the fruit of his action. I make all things clean. I am OM, OM, OM..."

Also a ham abbreviation taken from morse code meaning "Old Man".

Om is a mantra. It is believed that chanting OM will invoke a perspective of yourself as a part of the universe. In Sanskrit, OM is spelled Aum. Each letter of the word has a separate meaning.

a represents the self in the material world
u represents the psychic realm
m represents the spiritual light within the self

It is usually chanted during meditation or yoga practice. Sit and quiet yourself, decompress so to speak. Focus on your breathing and when you are ready to chant, take a deep breath in. On the exhale, say OM. Make the sound as long as your exhale, stretch the "au" sound out for most of the exhale and then move into the "mm" sound. Let the sound fill the room, fill your being. Inhale deeply again, and once again chant OM. Chant as many times as you wish, I usually chant three times after yoga practice. Some people follow OM with shanti shanti shanti.

The name of the god worshipped by the Omnians in Terry Pratchett's standalone Discworld novel, "Small Gods".

Usually Om appears as an enormous, flaming, anthropomorphic bull, when he bothers to appear to mortals at all, except for the time when he got stuck as a one-eyed tortoise for three years. Turns out all of his worshippers had been spending the last several years worshipping the church and statues of him therein, with the sole exception of Brutha. Fortunately, Brutha wound up being instrumental in changing things around and becoming the last great prophet of Om.

Since then, the Church of Om has broken up into more denominations than you can shake an incense burner at, but on the whole they're more sincere about it. So that's okay.

Before the beginning, the Brahman was one and non-dual. It thought, "I am only one -- may I become many." This caused a vibration which eventually became sound, and this sound was Om. Creation itself was set in motion by the vibration of Om. The closest approach to Brahman is that first sound, Om. Thus, this sacred symbol has become emblematic of Brahman just as images are emblematic of material objects.

The vibration produced by chanting Om in the physical universe corresponds to the original vibration that first arose at the time of creation. The sound of Om is also called Pranava, meaning that it sustains life and runs through Prana or breath. Om also represents the four states of the Supreme Being. The three sounds in Om (AUM) represent the waking, dream and deep sleep states and the silence which surrounds Om represents the "Turiya" state.

Because the first of the three states of consciousness is the waking state, it is represented by the sound "A" pronounced like "A" in accounting. Since the dream state of consciousness lies between the waking and the deep sleep states, it is represented by the letter "U" which lies between the "A" and "M". This "U" is pronounced like the "U" in would. The last state of consciousness is the deep sleep state and is represented by "M" pronounced as in "sum." This closes the pronunciation of Om just as deep sleep is the final stage of the mind at rest. Whenever Om is recited in succession there is an inevitable period of silence between two successive Oms. This silence represents the "fourth state" known as "Turiya" which is the state of perfect bliss when the individual self recognizes his identity with the supreme.

Om is the name of a Stoner Rock band from California, United States. The band originally consisted of the rhythm section of the hugely influential band Sleep, with Al Cisneros on vocal and bass duty, and Chris Hakius on drums.

With this line-up the band released all of it's full length albums so far, having released the first record featuring new drummer Emil Amos (a 7" vinyl entitled Gebel Barkal) in 2008.

Continuing in the vein of Dopesmoker, the band write long, bass-heavy songs with chanting vocals.

DISCOGRAPHY

VARIATIONS ON A THEME (2005)

1.	On The Mountain At Dawn	21:16
2.	Kapila's Theme	11:56
3.	Annapurna	11:52
Total playing time		45:04

12" LP in three colours: black, purple or clear. A sticker denotes vinyl colour.

CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS (2006)

1.	At Giza	15:57
2.	Flight Of The Eagle	17:28
Total playing time		33:25

12" LP limited to 1,000 copies on orange marble; 2nd edition limited to 300 on
green.

PILGRIMAGE (2007)

1.	Pilgrimage	10:33
2.	Unitive Knowledge of the Godhead	05:50
3.	Bhima's Theme	11:40
4.	Pilgrimage (Reprise)	04:15
Total playing time		32:21

First 100 orders received a poster of the album cover.

LP version limited to 550 copies.

Current Line-up:

• Al Cisneros - vocals, bass
• Emil Amos - drums

Former members:

• Chris Hakius - drums
  

Om (?), interj. & n. [Also Aum, Um. Skr. om.]

A mystic syllable or ejaculation used by Hindus and Buddhists in religious rites, -- orig. among the Hindus an exclamation of assent, like Amen, then an invocation, and later a symbol of the trinity formed by Vishnu, Siva, and Brahma. -- Om mani padme hum, a sacred formula of buddhism (esp. of the Lamaists) translated "O, the Jewel in the Lotus, Amen," and referring to Amitabha, who is commonly represented as standing or sitting within a lotus.

 

© Webster 1913.