Vibration is Everything - The Mantras and the Chakras

It's impossible to understand the way mantras work on a physical level with no understanding of quantum physics or the vibrational energy that emits from every living thing.  This sounds tricky to comprehend but really it makes perfect sense when you think about it.  

Bob Marley understood positive vibration and often related the principals in his music.

This understanding is inherent in all of us. It just takes a moment to reconnect with it.

Life is energy.  

We know that when something dies, the energy is no longer present in the being that houses it.  In Ayurveda this energy is known as Prana, in Chinese medicine it is called Chi.  As humans, our energy "vibrates" at a certain frequency determined mostly by our state of mind, body and the connection between the two.  Positive thoughts and emotions send out positive and balancing vibrations in the body, and negative thoughts and emotions send out negative or imbalancing vibrations in the body.  Notice next time you are feeling fear, anger, worry or judgement how it translates in the body.  On the flip side, notice what happens in your body when you feel compassion or deep gratitude.  I find these emotions to be incredibly powerful and healing, so much so that I try to cultivate them consistently throughout my day.  

If all vibrations either create balance or imbalance in the body, then it is important to be able to control and stimulate our own vibration so we can keep ourselves healthy and happy.  Centuries ago the Ayurvedic sages discovered that we have energy centers in our body, called chakras, where our energy vibration meets up, making these points the most powerful areas of vibrational resonance in the body.  The chakras run in a line from the crown of the head to the base of the spine and each has a unique frequency of vibration.

Throughout our lives, these points can become imbalanced in many ways.  I find I am most out of balance when I hold tension in my mind, which immediately leads to tension in my body (and face) keeping my vibrational energy from flowing consistently and evenly.  Over time, if tension is regularly held in certain areas of the body, blockages are created that prevent this life energy from flowing to the areas being blocked.  A small area of blockage in the body will affect the corresponding energy center by creating an unhealthy, ill flowing vibration that doesn't resonate harmoniously in the body.  Furthermore, if steps aren't taken to re-balance that energy center, the ill vibration will travel (as vibration does) and imbalance the other energy centers in the body.  Ayurveda believes this is one of the main causes of disease.    

Luckily there are many ways to remove these blockages.  Physically, massage and yoga help to ease vibrational disruptions caused by tension and stress.  But another powerful way to effect and manipulate vibration is sound. 

  OM is like a tuning fork for the energetic body.  

When chanting this word I can feel its vibration resonate through my very being.  Try it now, if you haven't before.  Feel how you can send the vibration to different areas of your center by deepening your voice or closing your mouth.  The Om sound and vibration power blasts frantic vibes, settling them back into a harmonious rhythm. When I feel scattered or hectic in my body, taking a minute to breathe and 'Om' calms my energy immediately.

On a personal note - each time I visit a reiki practitioner I am told my throat chakra is imbalanced.  I am certain this is from the 2 years I spent in court battling for the custody of my son.  I had so much to say, the truth that needed to come out but I was not allowed to speak except for in brief intervals when I was only able to answer very specific questions that couldn't possibly tell my story.  I remember feeling a knot in my throat during the hours I would have to sit and listen to lies told about me and hear my character degraded again and again.  I knew the judge's opinion about me would determine the fate of my son.  I had so much to say in my defense and I wasn't allowed to speak.  I couldn't let it out.  Ayurveda says your throat chakra becomes imbalanced when you don't speak your truth.  I swallowed countless truths that were burning to come out.  2 years later, after countless reoccurring throat infections, I had to have my tonsils out.  One of the ways I was told to balance my throat chakra was to chant the word hum.  Wish I had known that then.

Because each chakra has a unique frequency of vibration it is possible to stimulate and balance each through different mantras.  I use Patty Ray Avalon's Chakra Tune - Up guided meditation which feels very balancing depending on how present and focused I am during the meditation. Here is a link for some other good suggestions.

In the Perfect Health meditation series, Deepak speaks of an old Vedic verse: "It is our duty to the rest of mankind to be healthy, because we are ripples in the ocean of consciousness, and if we are sick, even a little, we disrupt the cosmic harmony." 

Vibration is a force that cannot be contained by a body made of soft tissue.  

If we consider this concept then we cannot help but acknowledge that the energy we put out effects those around us and that we are all share and contribute to a collective vibration.  

We are all one.