Sticks of Fire

Om - the only mantra you'll ever need...

Mantras, sacred chants, come in all shapes and sizes. They can be composed of sentences, single words, or even single syllables; they can be perfectly intelligible or completely mystifying (at least to the uninitiated).
Single-syllable mantras, known as bija (seed) mantras, are the easiest to remember and recite; they're also the most powerful. It's believed that, just as a tiny seed contains a majestic tree, each bija contains vast amounts of spiritual wisdom and creative force. One of the oldest and most widely known of these seeds is om.
Om is the "primordial seed" of the universe - this whole world, says one ancient text, "is nothing but om."
Yogis often meditate on the four "measures," or parts, of om. Though commonly spelled om, the mantra actually consists of three letters, a, u, and m. (In Sanskrit, whenever an initial a is followed by a u, they coalesce into a long o sound.) Each of these three parts has numerous metaphysical associations, which themselves serve as meditative seeds. For example, a (pronounced "ah") represents our waking state, which is also the subjective consciousness of the outer world; u (pronounced "ooh") is the dreaming state, or the consciousness of our inner world of thoughts, dreams, memories, and so on; and m is the dreamless state of deep sleep and the experience of ultimate unity.

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