ABBREVIATED UCCHĀRA PRACTICE: THE INTERNAL ASCENT OF 'OM' Preparation. a. In seated meditation posture, engage some initial rounds of the PRANAYAMA of your choice to get centered in the body in order to disengage the grip of the thinking mind on your core perceptual Awareness. b. Engaging the ‘Divine Posture.’ After drawing in the breath with a pause, exhale it upward as a long ‘sigh’ that from the heart through the crown. As you do this, gently release the jaw a bit, leaving a slight space between your rows of teeth and lips for the remainder of this practice. Allow the eyes to gently drift upward towards the third eye. This critical facial pose is called the ‘divine posture’.
AUM Ucchāra Practice. 1.
ATTUNING TO THE LUNAR IN-BREATH.
Slowly inhale the cool ‘lunar’ breath, envisioning it as a column of cool light that is 'sipped' as if through a straw (central channel) down into the heart, opening a lotus (or any flower) around the heart as it descends. 2. BREATH PAUSE: GENERATING THE SONIC HEART FIRE. Hold the retained inhale in the now opened heart lotus for 5+ rounds of internal OM chanting (adding to the count each week or so). This powerfully draws prana in the heart meant to open the central channel, the domain of SHIVA consciousness.
a. during the pause / internal chanting of OM, visualize the subtle heat generated in the heart as a coil of flame, ready to 'spring' upward from within the heart lotus. 3.
RAISING THE VOWELS OF THE AUM SYLLABLE:
i. ‘A’. with the first 2/3 of your subsequent out-breath, slowly chant the vowel A (‘aaah…’) as one long, ascending syllable, visualizing that the sound slowly draws the heart-flame upward through the crown of the head. ii. Then, for the last 1/3 of the same out-breath, slowly, audibly transition the sound ‘A’ into the vowel ‘NNG’ (sounds like the gentle resonance of a bee’s buzz) as the breath passes through the palate / 3rd eye center; drawn ‘NNG’ from the palate up through the crown of the head. iii. after A + NNG is raised via the ascending out-breath to the crown location, cycle back into step #1 (above). iv. ‘U.’ Repeat steps #1-3 one time only, now employing the vowel ‘U’ (‘ooooh’), merging it into ‘NNG’ via the same steps given in i - iii.1 4. RAISING THE CONJOINED OM (A + U + M) SYLLABLE: ‘O.’ Repeat #1-3, now raising ‘O’ (= ‘A + U’), merging it into ‘NNG’ via the same steps given in step #3 (i – iii). Repeat # for 5-10 rounds (15 minutes or more), followed by meditation for at least 15 minutes. Key: Divine Posture. we are taught to keep the jaw, lips, and teeth slightly parted as the mantra ‘AUM’ is carried up from the heart, through the palate, and naturally dissolves with the waning subtle out 1 ‘A’ and ‘U’ are raised and joined to ‘NNG’ one time each.
breath in the crown. * Try to keep this ‘Divine Posture’ (See ‘preparation’ above) throughout meditation. Notice how your analyzing/thinking mind tries to ‘grip’ or contract your thought-free awareness as it attempts to close the jaw. Tip: Add to the breath pause each week or so, which generates a stronger draw of prana into the heart lotus, necessary to break open the granthis (subtle body karmic ‘knots’ or blockages) in the central channel. Tip: Visualized that the arising OM syllable is carrying your consciousness into the crown lotus where SHIVA presides as your omniscient Self. Tip: try to add 5 minutes to your meditation phase of practice each week.