AUM is offered as the music of existence—the soundless sound from which all sounds arise. Not a word but a primal mantra, it unfolds through the seed syllables A, U, and M, resonating through the head, the heart, and the navel. This meditation moves from voiced sound to inner vibration to pure listening and finally to effortless silence. Its purpose is attunement: to slip from discord into hidden harmony so that being itself hums with causeless joy.
The method is simple and exacting. In a small, closed, uncluttered room, you journey from active chanting to inward repetition, then to witnessing the subtle inner resonance, and at last into a silence beyond the doer, the hearer, and the sound. The progression from A to U to M is both a sonic map and a lived descent—mind quiets, energy gathers, and awareness flowers into stillness.
Phase Instructions
First Stage: Settle and Half-Open Gaze (10 minutes)
Before starting the 10-minute first stage, discharge bodily restlessness for about 10 minutes—dance, jump, skip, or run until the excess energy is spent. Then sit quietly with the spine upright. Keep the eyes half-closed—half turned to the world, half open to your inwardness. Let the breath be natural. Simply settle, allowing the body to become still and receptive.
Second Stage: Loud AUM with No Gaps (10 minutes)
With eyes still half-closed, softly bring your attention to the tip of the nose. Now repeat AUM as loudly as possible, using your full strength. Let each AUM overlap the last so there is no gap for the mind to intrude. Feel the whole body bathed in the vibration, as if every cell is resonating. Sustain a continuous current of sound and sensation.
Third Stage: Silent Mental AUM at the Same Speed (10 minutes)
Close your eyes fully. Close the mouth and lightly rest the tongue on the roof of the mouth. Continue repeating AUM inwardly at the same rapid pace as before, but now in complete silence. Allow the inner "omkar" to flood the body from head to toe until you feel subtly trembling with vibration, the sound seeming to reverberate within your whole being.
Fourth Stage: Listening and Witnessing (open-ended)
Drop your chin gently onto your chest, as if the head were lifeless and cut off. Become utterly still and listen inwardly for the resonance of AUM. Do not make any sound—only listen. If you are very silent, a very subtle inner tone—like AUM—will be heard. Remain a witness to this inner sound, maintaining the posture and the listening for as long as possible.
Fifth Stage: Beyond Sound and Doer (open-ended)
Now let go of everything: the chanting, the listener, even the subtle inner sound. There is no doing and nothing to hear. Simply remain in silence—effortless, unmoving, and empty—allowing awareness to rest in itself.
Core Benefits
- Attunement with hidden harmony
- Experience of causeless joy
- Transition from active sound to inner silence
- Integration of mind, energy, and awareness
- Expansion of consciousness through the primal mantra
What Osho Said About This Technique
18. Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony.
19. WITH MOUTH SLIGHTLY OPEN, KEEP MIND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TONGUE. OR, AS BREATH COMES SILENTLY IN, FEEL THE SOUND "HH". 20. CENTER ON THE SOUND "AUM" WITHOUT ANY "A" OR "M". Now they say your age will be affected by it. If you go on daily changing your body routine, then if you were going to be alive for eighty years you will be alive only for seventy years. Ten years will be lost. And if you go regularly with the body clock, then if you were going to live for eighty years you will live for ninety very easily. Ten years can be added. Exactly like this, everything all around you has its own clock, and the world moves in cosmic time. If you enter the temple at exactly the same time every day, the temple is ready for you and you are ready for the…Read the full discourse →
Aum tasya nishchintanam dhyanam aum meditation is the constant contemplation of that.
First, the Upanishads know that human consciousness has five steps. We know the three gross ones -- the waking, the dreaming and the sleep. These are three gross -- A-U-M. The Upanishads call the fourth turiya. They have not named it because it is not gross. The fourth is that in which one becomes aware of deep sleep also. If you have been deep in sleep, in a deep dreamless sleep, if in the morning you can say, "I have been in a deep, deep sleep," then someone in you has been aware and remembers somehow that there has been a very deep, dreamless sleep -- but a witness was there. That witness is known as the fourth. But the Upanishads say that even the fourth is not the ultimate, because to be a witness is still to be separate. So when the witness also dissolves, if only the Existence…Read the full discourse →
Soyam atmadhyaksaram, onkaro'dhimatram pada matra, matras ca pada akara ukaro makara iti. Jagarita-sthano vaisvanaro'karah prathama matra apter adimattva dva, apnoti ha vai. Sarvan kaman, adis ca bhavati, yaevam veda.
SVAPNA-STHANAS TAIJASA UKARO DVITIYA MATRA UTKARSADU- BHAYATVAD VA UTKARSATI HA VAI JNANA-SANTATI, SAMANAS CA BHAVATI NASYABRAHMA-VIT KULE BHAVATI YA EVAM VEDA. SUSUPTA-STHANAH PRAJNO MAKARAS TRTIYA MATRA MITER APITER BA, MINOTI HA VA IDAM SARVAM, APITAS CA BHAVATI YA EVAM VEDA. AMATRAS CATURTHO'VYAVAHARYAH PRAPANCOPASAMAH, SIVODVAITA EVAM OMKARA ATMAIVA SAMVISTYATMANATMANAM YA EVAM VEDA, YA EVAM VEDA. THIS PURE SELF AND AUM ARE AS ONE; AND THE DIFFERENT QUARTERS OF THE SELF CORRESPOND TO AUM AND ITS SOUNDS, A-U-M. EXPERIENCE OF THE OUTER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO A, THE FIRST SOUND. THIS INITIATES ACTION AND ACHIEVEMENT. WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS ACTS IN FREEDOM AND ACHIEVES SUCCESS. EXPERIENCE OF THE INNER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO U, THE SECOND SOUND. THIS INITIATES UPHOLDING AND UNIFICATION. WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS UPHOLDS THE TRADITION OF KNOWLEDGE AND UNIFIES THE DIVERSITIES OF LIFE. EVERYTHING THAT COMES ALONG SPEAKS TO HIM OF BRAHMAN. THE STATE OF DREAMLESS SLEEP CORRESPONDS TO M,…Read the full discourse →
In the context of the seventh body, you talked about aum yesterday. There is still a small question on the same subject. Which chakras do a, u and m influence, and how is this helpful to the meditator?
The greater possibility with chantings and mantras is that your mind with its tendency to dream will at once, by its very mechanical process, fall into dreaming. But if you are fully awake and witnessing inside, observing the sound of aum without merging into it, without losing yourself in it, then it could do the same work as repeating "Who am I?" -- which I advocate. Now if you ask "Who am I?" in a sleepy state and are not a witness, the same error can take place here and you will merely be dreaming. But the possibility of this happening with "Who am I?" is less than with the repetition of aum, and there is a reason for it. With aum there is no question asked; it is only a gentle touch. With "Who am I?" there is a question, not a mere pat. There is a question mark…Read the full discourse →
Being beyond the limits of time he is the master of masters. He is known as aum.
REPEAT AND MEDITATE ON AUM. REPEATING AND MEDITATING ON AUM BRINGS ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALL OBSTACLES AND AN AWAKENING OF A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS. Remember this -- desire and need -- these two words. Desire is of the mind; need is of the body. Desire and need, then you are a clock with hands. Only need, no desire, then you are a clock without hands, and when need also drops, you have gone beyond time. This is eternity; beyond time is eternity. For example: if I don't look at the watch -- and I have to look continuously the whole day -- if I don't look at the watch, I don't know what is the time. Even if I have seen it five minutes before, again I have to look because I don't know exactly, because now -- no time inside -- only the body is ticking. Consciousness has no…Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
The primary purpose is attunement, assisting one to transition from discord into hidden harmony.
It progresses from active chanting to inward repetition, then to witnessing subtle inner resonance, and finally into silence.
The components are the seed syllables A, U, and M, each resonating through different parts of the body.
A small, closed, and uncluttered room is ideal for practicing AUM meditation.
At the final stage, one experiences a silence beyond the doer, the hearer, and the sound.