Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Concentration on 'Om'
Train one-pointed attention through a single inwardly-heard sound, holding the mind on ‘Om’ alone until nothing else exists for it.
Exercise No. 1A (with No. 1): after preparation, repeat ‘Om’ mentally or whispered, attention only on the inwardly-heard sound — nothing else exists. Time your best span, aim 3×, begin again on each lapse; master to a faultless 5-10 min. Later (No. 2A): count each ‘Om’, fill idle moments (commutes, waits), tally daily; past ~5,000/day let it become a background habit.
What it is
Exercise No. 1A is the auditory twin of the visual second-hand exercise — “concentration on sound.” You take “a simple, short sound, unconnected with any physical form,” for which Sadhu finds “the best result is usually obtained with the word ‘Om’,” and hold your “full attention exclusively directed to the sound inwardly heard.” It is run immediately after Exercise No.
1, or at the second daily session. Sadhu is careful to distinguish this from mantra-work in the occult sense: here ‘Om’ is purely an object of attention, a sound to keep the mind on, not a vibratory force. In its expanded form (No.
2A) he turns it into an all-day counted practice — “Om (one), Om (two).” — filling otherwise idle moments to keep the mind from “mental laziness.”
The Method
- Prepare and time. After the usual preparation (and the rhythmic breathing — “Red Pranayama” for 1A), “carefully note the time by your watch.”
- Repeat ‘Om’, attending to the sound. “Begin to repeat the word ‘Om’ mentally, or even whisper it if preferred. Your full attention should be exclusively directed to the sound inwardly heard. Apart from it, nothing dares to exist for you just now — only ‘Om, Om, Om’.”
- Measure and target. By the second-hand, check your best span before “your mind refuses to obey you and tricks you into another thought.” Multiply by three for your target, exactly as in Exercise No. 1. 4. Same “begin again” discipline. Each lapse means starting over; press toward the target across a 10-15 min session.
- Optional sense-exclusion. In the first weeks you may shut the eyes during 1A (as you might plug the ears during No. 1) to reduce distraction — a temporary aid.
- Master, then advance. Nos. 1 and 1A “must be continued until you are able to perform them faultlessly for five minutes” (later ten) before moving on.
- The counted, all-day form (No. 2A). Later, “after each separate ‘Om’, count its number.” Occupy “all your time free from professional and other necessary thinking” with it — “travel in a public conveyance is perhaps one of the best of times.” Note the figure when interrupted; total it before bed. “When you note that the figure passes the 5,000 mark per day,” you can drop it from the formal sessions and let ‘Om’ “belong exclusively to your everyday life.”
Source & Lineage
Chapter XVI (Exercise 1A) and Chapter XVII (Exercise 2A) of Concentration (Allen & Unwin, 1959). The choice of ‘Om’ echoes the syllable Sadhu offers as an alternative to counting in his Ch.
XV breathing, drawn from the Indian tradition he encountered through Ramana Maharshi and his own In Days of Great Peace; the graded “best × 3” structure is from his Western occult sources.
Mouni Sadhu (1897-1971). → (sadhu mouni).
Common refinements
Drifting into meaning or imagery. Attend to the sound, not to ideas about ‘Om’.
- Treating it as magic vibration. Sadhu deliberately does not; it is an attention object.
- Skipping the restart. As everywhere in his course, begin again on each lapse.
- Switching sounds. Keep to one; hunting for a “better” sound is itself distraction.
- Forcing the all-day count. The counted form is for genuinely idle moments, not for crowding out necessary thinking.