Beginning with Mantra

The word mantra may suggest a special religious rite, or something mystical. In Tea Gong we take mantra in a practical, physically felt way: as a particular vibration that acts on body and mind.

Voice and sound are vibrations of air, and can be measured as waveforms. A louder sound has a larger amplitude and moves the air more strongly. A higher sound has a shorter period and a finer waveform. Sound, in short, can be observed quite clearly as a physical phenomenon.

Every object and every living thing has its own characteristic vibration. It is by attending to this that people have applied sound to human life and health — in what today is called sound therapy or vibrational medicine, and in the ancient Indian bija mantras and the Chinese Six Healing Sounds. Particular sounds have been held to act on body and mind.

The syllable OM, for instance, is reported to settle the rhythm of breath and heartbeat and to promote parasympathetic activity, which is why it is so often chanted at the beginning and end of yoga.

In Tea Gong too we set store by the way a particular sound resonates in a particular part of the body and feels like a gentle massage from within. Through this massage by sound, the breath deepens, the flow of qi settles, and the physical experience of tea may be amplified.

In Indian philosophy, each of the seven chakras has its corresponding seed syllable, or bija mantra. In the Chinese Six Healing Sounds, six sounds each correspond to an organ and are held to bring harmony. Practices that put the resonance of sound to work in daily life and in health are found in many cultural spheres besides, from Tibet to Iran.

The particular syllables differ from place to place. In some the vowels concentrate on A; in others U or O are used heavily. This is thought to reflect differences of climate, cultural background and history.

Feeling the direction of a sound

Sound your voice and you can feel the direction of it.

• “Uuuuu…” — the lips round, and the sound is muffled while spreading sideways.
• “Aaaaaa…” — the mouth opens vertically, and the sound rings upward, out through the crown of the head.

Combining consonants does not change the basic tendency: U shows lateral spread, A shows vertical passage. In Tea Gong we use this property and take U as lateral flow and A as vertical flow.

Space has depth as well as height and width.

• “Iiiii…” — the throat and mouth become like a narrow tube, and a high, sharp sound radiates outward.
• “Mmmmmm…” — the mouth closes, and the sound gathers in the nasal cavity and the skull, converging inward.

From this contrast, I can be regarded as a vibration that disperses outward, and M as one that converges inward.

The instrument you already have

The organs used in producing the voice are the diaphragm, the lungs, the vocal folds, the pharynx, the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. Together they act rather like a wind instrument — a horn, or a flute.

In addition to these, the stomach and intestines serve as a resonating chamber for the low register. The wide space of the abdomen supports the resonance of low tones and gives the voice thickness and depth.

Playing the inner instrument that is your own body skilfully, and so tuning yourself — this is wisdom that has been practised naturally since antiquity.

Mantra is not something special. It is the most immediate tool we have, built into the body.

Looking at your own voice as a waveform is an interesting exercise in itself. Say hai in Japanese and the waveform may in fact come out closer to ai or hei. Phone apps will show you the waveform in real time, and with music software such as Logic Pro for iPad you can analyse the characteristics of a recorded voice at leisure. Knowing the properties of your own voice is the first step in practising mantra.

In Tea Gong we introduce this power of sound as a practice for settling body and mind, taken into daily life and combined with breathing and with the experience of tea.

To begin with, simply try sounding A, U, I and M, and feel where and how each one resonates in your body.