Why "Silent Syllable"?
- Lindsay Perkin
- Dec 10, 2023
- 2 min read
Silent Syllable Yoga is an exploration of consciousness through yoga asana and meditation. The fourth syllable of Aum is silent and represents the ultimate state of consciousness called Turya.
What is meditation?
Meditation is a collective name for processes that aim to quiet the mind and connect us with our true Self. If you imagine what meditation looks like, you might be picturing a person sitting upright and cross-legged with their eyes closed on a cushion. While this is one common way to practice meditation, there are others, such as walking, certain styles of yoga asana, and candle gazing. Meditation might be silent or guided, alone or in a group, still or in motion. The intention to quiet and connect ties these processes together as “mediation.”
What are the benefits?
Meditation is a powerful tool that helps people with a variety of unpleasantries, including stress, anxiety, memory loss, and even addiction, while improving sleep, self-awareness, and emotional health. [¹]
How does it work?
These benefits can occur automatically as an outcome of the meditation process, which aims to connect us with our true Selves, the source of all knowledge, intelligence, creativity, and all natural laws that govern existence by reaching beyond the mind to the deepest level of the inner Self. [²]
What does this have to do with yoga?
Ancient Vedic texts describe the purpose of yoga asana (the physical practice of yoga) as preparation for meditation. The yoga that has become so popular in Western cultures can serve as an excellent gateway to meditation and deeper states of consciousness.
What is Om (Aum)?
Aum is a sacred sound and spiritual symbol in dharmic religions, first found in the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism. The Aum symbol, ॐ, represents three letters in the Sanskrit alphabet and is expressed as four syllables.
The Four Syllables of Aum
Bernie Clark explains the four syllables of Aum beautifully. [³]
“The four syllables are symbolic: we can consider them as referring to the past (A), to the present (U), to the future (M), and to that place where time cannot flow (the silence) – the place before time began..."
He continues,
In the Mandukya Upanishad the four syllables are pointers towards understanding truth. “A” represents the waking state of consciousness; “U” the state of dream consciousness; “M” the state of deep sleep consciousness; finally, the silence – the place beyond all definitions of consciousness; a place that can’t properly be named, but must be given a name so that we can converse; so this nameless state is simply called turiya: the fourth.”
Silent Syllable Yoga
And so, all this about meditation, yoga asana, and Aum describes that this tiny sliver of the internet earned its name, Silent Syllable Yoga, to represent this ultimate state of consciousness - Turiya.
References
Healthline. “12 Benefits of Meditation,” May 11, 2023. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation.
Sharma H. (2015). Meditation: Process and effects. Ayu, 36(3), 233–237. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895748/.
Yin Yoga. “Om in Four Syllables.” Accessed December 10, 2023. https://yinyoga.com/om-in-four-syllables/.