sound (off piano topic)

[Keith McGavern]

Part of Ralph Martin's post:
>Some of you seem facinated with the chanting of some monks. OK with me!
>The Tibeton monks typically intone, "Ohm..mane padme...ohm". The ohm
>sound ends on a sustained "M". The phrase means, "Opening of the lotus
>flower" which, to them, refers to the shape of the energy column
>emanating up through the top of the head. They also refer to the opening
>of the third eye and describe it's position in the head. I assume their
>third eye is the pituitary gland and that somehow the vibration of the
>extended hum excites this tiny gland. It's supposed to gain them second
>sight for want of a better phrase...

Actually, the phrase or mantra is "Om Mani Padme Hum" (Tibetan)

To quote the following:*
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Om means, like Brahma, that which is behind it all, the unmanifest.
Mani means jewel or crystal.
Padme means lotus
Hum means heart.

"So, on one level what it means is the entire universe is just like a pure
jewel or crystal right in the heart or center of the lotus flower, which is
me, and it is manifest, it comes forth in light, in manifest light, in my
own heart.  That's one way of interpreting it...or God in unmanifest form
is like a jewel in the middle of a lotus, manifest in my heart...

...When a mantra is done sufficiently it gets into a certain kind of
vebration or harmony with the universe in a certain way which is its own
thing...a Sanskrit mantra, if you do it over and over again, will take you
to a certain state of consciousness."

*The Only Dance There Is
        by Ram Dass
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Keith A. McGavern
kam544@ionet.net
Registered Piano Technician
Oklahoma Chapter 731
Piano Technicians Guild
USA