{"id":38,"date":"2008-04-08T15:52:44","date_gmt":"2008-04-08T22:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=38"},"modified":"2009-04-05T13:42:39","modified_gmt":"2009-04-05T20:42:39","slug":"so-hum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"So Hum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-40\" title=\"buddha-pond-reflected\" src=\"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/buddha-pond-reflected1.jpg\" alt=\"buddha-pond-reflected\" width=\"232\" height=\"720\" \/>I guess this story really began during my first meditation sit of the day (which often ends up being my ONLY meditation for the day &#8212; but that&#8217;s another story.)\u00a0 I was inhaling gently through my nose and in my mind&#8217;s eye saying SO and exhaling softly and saying HUM (I AM).\u00a0 SO &#8230; HUM.\u00a0 SO &#8230; HUM.\u00a0 This yogic mantra is said to be an onomatopoeia.\u00a0 As we inhale we can hear the subtle sound of SO and as we exhale our body vibrates the sound HUM.\u00a0 It also carries the meaning &#8220;I am that&#8221; (<em>so<\/em> = &#8220;I am&#8221; and <em>hum<\/em> = &#8220;that&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>On this morning, there was no mental noise, no thoughts.\u00a0 Just this still peace filled space and the sound of my own breath &#8230; SO HUM.<\/p>\n<p>Soon I noticed the birds outside my window.\u00a0 Each songbird had a different tune that it repeated. Twee-do-do-dowee.\u00a0 Twee-do-do-dowee.\u00a0 It was suddenly clear.\u00a0 Each bird had its own mantra and it was singing the praise of God just as I was.<\/p>\n<p>That night the kids and I meditated while my husband, Richard, took his nightly walk.\u00a0 The room was dark and we had flickering LCD candles and a warm glow of a salt stone on the altar.\u00a0 I gave the instructions for the children to practice SO HUM and so we began.\u00a0 SO &#8230; HUM.\u00a0\u00a0 SO &#8230; HUM, Silently in our head.<\/p>\n<p>After a while, all was still in my mind once again.\u00a0 I could hear the refrigerator humming downstairs but I didn&#8217;t label it &#8220;refrigerator&#8221; in my mind it was simply pure sound.\u00a0 It was the mantra of the refrigerator.\u00a0 There was a cable airport plane overhead.\u00a0 The roar of the engine had a mantra.\u00a0 The rustle of Daniel&#8217;s jeans &#8230; this too was God&#8217;s name.\u00a0 Soon there was a choir that joined with the tinnitus in my own ears in the most jubilant song of praise.\u00a0 Every sound, every where was the name of God.\u00a0 And I was awareness itself, hearing the glory of my name.<\/p>\n<p>Netti, Netti.\u00a0\u00a0 SO &#8230; HUM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I guess this story really began during my first meditation sit of the day (which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27,25,26],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-satori","tag-meditation","tag-unity-consciousness","tag-zen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}