Mantra and voice
You have chanted a syllable in every chakra lesson so far without much explanation of what you were doing. This lesson gives the explanation, and it corrects the two mistakes almost every beginner makes with their voice.
By the end of this lesson you will know all seven mantras and how to pronounce them, be able to chant with a bowl rather than over it, and understand why the notebook contains two different mantra sets.
The seven mantras
| Chakra | Mantra | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| Root | Lam | lum — short, closed, low |
| Sacral | Vam | vum — lips together first, a slight buzz |
| Solar Plexus | Rum | rum — a light roll on the R |
| Heart | Yum | yum — open and warm |
| Throat | Hum | hoom — finishing with the lips closed |
| Third Eye | Aum | ah · oo · mm — three shapes, one breath |
| Crown | Aung | ah-oong — or silence |
Notice the pattern. The five lower mantras all end the same way — Lam, Vam, Rum, Yum, Hum. Five variations on one sound, differing only in how they begin. Then the two head chakras leave that family entirely and use the Om sounds instead.
That is not a coincidence, and it makes the seven far easier to learn than a list of unrelated syllables. Five body sounds and two head sounds.
How to chant with a bowl
Here are the two mistakes, and they are both about volume and pitch.
Mistake one: chanting over the bowl. Beginners chant at their ordinary speaking volume, which is considerably louder than a struck bowl. The result is a person singing with a faint metallic noise underneath. The bowl should be the louder of the two. Your voice sits beneath it.
Mistake two: chanting too high. Most people pitch a mantra at whatever note is comfortable, which is usually well above the bowl. Sing it low — at the bottom of your comfortable range, and lower for the root than for the crown.
The correct relationship is straightforward: strike the bowl, listen, then let your voice join the tone that is already there. Not lead it. Join it.
A useful exercise. Strike your bowl and hum any note. Slide your hum slowly up and down until you find the point where the sound suddenly feels easier and your chest buzzes slightly. You have found the bowl's note. That is where the mantra belongs — that pitch, or an octave above if the bowl is too low for you.
The mechanics
- Once per strike. Not continuously. Strike, listen, chant once on the outbreath, then silence until the tone has gone.
- On the outbreath only. Never force air. If you are running out, you are chanting too long.
- Quietly. If someone in the next room can hear you, it is too loud.
- Feel where it lands. Lam should be felt low in the body, Hum in the throat and face, Aum behind the eyes. If a mantra is buzzing in the wrong place, drop your pitch.
- Do not worry about your accent. These syllables have been pronounced differently in every valley in the Himalaya for centuries. Sincerity carries further than precision.
Why there are two sets of mantras
Sunita's notebook contains a second list of mantras, and it is entirely different from the first:
| Chakra | First set | Second set |
|---|---|---|
| Root | Lam | silent |
| Sacral | Vam | Djna |
| Solar Plexus | Rum | Ram |
| Heart | Yum | Hung |
| Throat | Hum | Om |
| Third Eye | Aum | Aa |
| Crown | Aung | silent |
Two things stand out.
The second set contains Om, Aa and Hung. Those three syllables — usually written Om Ah Hung — are the Tibetan triad representing body, speech and mind. Their presence strongly suggests that the second list belongs to the Tibetan system rather than the Vedic one, which is exactly the division the notebook makes elsewhere and which Course Three deals with properly.
Both ends are silent. In the second set the root has no mantra and neither does the crown. The bottom and the top of the body are worked without the voice, and only the five centres in between are chanted.
For now, use the first set. It is the one the chakra lessons have been teaching, and it is the one that belongs with the seven notes you have learned. The second set becomes relevant in Course Three.
Practice
Take one chakra — ideally the one you identified in Lesson 2.9 — and work only on the voice for ten minutes.
- Strike the bowl and hum until you find its note, as described above.
- Strike again. Listen to the tone for a few seconds before you make any sound.
- Chant the mantra once, quietly, on the outbreath, at the bowl's pitch.
- Stop and let the bowl finish alone.
- Repeat eight times, checking each round that you are underneath the bowl rather than above it.
- On the last two rounds, do not chant at all. Only listen.
Those last two silent rounds are there for a reason. The point of chanting is not the chanting.
Common mistakes
- Chanting louder than the bowl. The commonest error by a wide margin.
- Pitching too high. Low, at the bottom of your range.
- Chanting continuously. Once per strike, then silence.
- Mixing the two mantra sets. Pick one system. Do not chant Lam at the root and Om at the throat.
- Self-consciousness. Everybody sounds strange to themselves for the first week. Practise alone until you stop noticing.
- Chasing correct Sanskrit. Useful eventually, unnecessary now.
How do you know you got it right?
You can chant all seven mantras from memory in order, and you can find your bowl's note with your voice within a few seconds.
The real marker is subtler: when the chanting is working, you stop being able to tell exactly where your voice ends and the bowl begins. Students usually notice this happening before they can explain it.
Something to sit with
Five of the seven mantras are the same sound with a different beginning.
The tradition could have chosen seven unrelated words and did not. What do you think it is saying by making the differences so small?