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Re: Could someone explain the meaning of OM?
RDubey1660 (rdubey1660@aol.com) wrote:
: I have heard from different sources that OM also means "Welcome to God"
: How can you interpret this phrase?
: Personally, I have always thought of OM as an excellent means of
: meditation as well as getting my thoughts togather. Whatever it means, it
: is definitely a very useful thing to know about - I guess the last is more
: phychological view than anything else!!!
: Rishi Dubey
On a more metaphysical note: OM is sometimes referred to as the "sound
of God." It is the sound that permeates the universe spiritually,
analagous to the "cosmic background radiation" that can be detected
coming from every direction by radio telescopes.
>From what I understand, the Sanskrit language evolved as a direct
consequence of the fact that the mystical revelations of the ancient
seers were experiences of a type that cannot be communicated through
ordinary symbolic and logical language. In other words, mystical
knowledge, which is beyond thought, cannot be communicated with the set
of symbols used to communicate mental knowledge. Thus the Sanskrit
evolved as a sort of "closest approximation" to being able to communicate
mystical knowlege with a physical sound language. In effect, the basic
sounds of Sanskrit convey meaning of a mystical nature. OM is one of
those sounds.
If you ever hear Sanskrit spoken (or "sung", as it is inherently
musical), without even knowing the language, there is something about it
that you understand. It touches the soul. It's very different from
other languages.
Another way to look at OM is through modern and theoretical physics.
These disciplines are revealing that matter is really the condensation of
energy--waves of electromagnetic radiation that have closed up upon
themselves into standing wave patterns. Hence, the universe is a complex
interference pattern of waves of energy. These ideas are sometimes
thrown around a little to lightly, almost like a fad. But these things
are very real to physicists. I learned some of the key elements of these
understandings from a general chemistry textbook. But understanding this
has had an impact on the way I feel about the physical world. And on an
intuitive level, I can sometimes percieve the background noise of all the
oscillating energy fields averaged out around and through me. Notice I
said *intuitive*, not physical. But this spiritual sound is "OM".
Just some thoughts.
_____________________
Christopher R. Carlen
crobc@epix.net
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