Sound of Unity: SHAM

Welcome, dear friends. We have been looking at a wide range of very simple sounds, and seeing how they influence our being. How they influence our breath, how they influence the spaces within and without us. How they change our lives in a million different ways. Next what we are going to do is look at the sound, sham.

You're all familiar with the sound, shanti, which means peace. That word comes from the root sound, sham. And I think this is a beautiful way to close this episode, where we do the sound, sham. It's a combination of shuh, and om. Shuh has the experiential effect of vehemence in unison.

It brings things, it unites things, in a powerful manner. And the om is the establishment. Therefore, the combination, sham, helps to unite, concentrate, focus, it brings stability, endurance, all the different words that are associated around this kind of unity and establishment. So we are going to close our eyes, imagine that there is this balancing that happens within us. And then just do the sound, sham.

So try that out. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and say, sham. Once more. Sham. You can accompany the sound with whatever gesture comes to you naturally, to represent a stability and a harmony, and a balance.

Anything that helps to make you feel that your being is at rest. But this rest also implies, again, that there is a certain amount of destruction that happens, because for silence to happen, noise has to be destroyed. Yes? So when we do sham, allow all these vibrations to settle and dissolve in a balanced state of being. You can add the gesture of the pose of Buddha, as you will have noticed, where he puts the right hand on top of the left palm, the back of the right hand is on the left palm.

If you'd like to do the chin mudra by bringing your index and thumb together, feel free to do so. Take whatever position makes you feel totally relaxed, and get attentive, and say the sound, sham. For a last time. Take a deep breath, and say the sound, sham. The root sham also means auspicious.

It is the benevolent, so may there be a lot of benevolence, goodness, harmony, peace and balance in your lives as you practice these sounds. Thank you.