The Om Journal| Letters From The Self| Linda Heller

The Om Journal consists of fifty-eight questions I posed to my Higher Self about Om, the primordial sound and underlying force in our universe. I wrote these holy answers in a special journal and filled the adjacent pages with artwork inspired by the teachings I received. For a fuller explanation of my process please visit the section of this site titled How The Om Journal Came to Be.

What is the meaning of the symbol for Om?

Om is the carrier that charges through the universe, creating as it flies. It is the arrow shot by Shiva to Parvati so that she can create the world. The bow is the circle of light that rims the universe. It is the rim of the moon, the fire of the sun. The arrow is action and letting go, letting the arrow soar to where God has directed it without hindering it or trying to change its course. It is you as you sail toward God and knowledge. It is love as it flies toward the world and pierces the heart and allows limitless love to flow.

Transcribed and Illustrated by Linda Heller

Why is it beneficial to chant the word Om?

It is important for you to chant the word Om so that it can awaken the part of you that is asleep to the truth of your nature. Chant the word Om and it will revive the parts of you that have lost their way and need to be reminded of what is true. It is the sound of recognition, the holy sound that blazes forth from everything and says, “This is what I am and will be forever more. This is my magnificence and power. This is what I am capable of. This is why I’m alive.” Chant Om and the truth will rise from the depths and envelop you in its love and wisdom. Chant the sound Om and you will feel more and more alive.

How can I hear and feel Om inside me?

You can hear Om inside you if you focus on the beat of your heart, your many pulses, the sound of your breath coming in and going out. Om is the sound of life. It is the vibration of life, the string that all of life hangs from. Om sweeps through you and through all that exists in time. It is what keeps life alive. It is the holy pulse, the throb of life that is necessary if a thing is to live. It is found inside everything. Listen and you will hear it. It is the sound of life, the throb of existence.

Why does Om create the universe? Why did Om create me?

Om is the universe. It is potential realized. It is the urge to create and the creation as One. It is art and music and color as the holiest of urges and desires, the desire to make form where there was only space and empty love. It is love to spare and to expand into all that love breathed into being with an exalted breath and sound and silent roar that said One is now many. The One is now many forms of love and desire and the need to know what lies at the center of all that exists. Om created you so that you could hear its holy vibration and vibrate in kind with great laughter and triumph for what you are and are made of and will be again.

Chant Om and it will carry you home. Ride the sound to your true birthplace, to the infinite source that wanted you to seek it and find all that you sought.

Om is your parent. You are the creature Om wanted to see, exactly as you are at this moment and as you will be once you follow the sound that is inside you. It peals like the holiest bell in the temple of your heart that sounds the note that morning has come and the sky is alive with beauty and love. Every bird that chirps and sings to its companions sings out Om, although they don’t know it just as you don’t realize how holy you are and what you have come here to do and are capable of. Om is the sound of enchantment and promise and love at its fullest, most mature and unwavering form.

Sing out. Be a bird that chirps with joy at the sight of the rising cherry-red sun. Be as grateful and happy for the world that you live in. Sing out Om with the joy of a bird and an angel and a soul who knows she is rising toward ecstasy.

Is Om pleased with its creations?

Om is very sure of what it creates. It moves through the universe, it sways, it throbs, and its holy intentions come into being. Everything is just as it should be. It is exactly as it was intended. Om does not make mistakes or hesitate the way that people do. Om is certain and careful, meticulous in its actions. Om is action, creation, intention, perfection, and we are the result. We should feel honored and grateful and confident of what we are. We are the product of ceaseless holy effort. We are Om’s desire made concrete and alive.

Why did Om arise out of the stillness to make such a frenetic world?

Om arose from the stillness, from the great still void, from the calm that exists at the center of the universe, in order to create a world of doom and merriment, a world where joy can be found and also great pain. Om arose out of a great blue-black stillness, a void that laughs without making a sound, that ripples with merriment and utter contentment and a sense of fullness that few can imagine, a sense of joy and love and completeness that is the very picture and nature of what we crave so dearly while we are on this earth, this plain of freedom and hope and despair and reckoning. Om arose out of perfection to make a universe that is diverse and brilliant in its endless aspects and uniqueness.

Have you seen sea creatures with spiny combs and colors so exquisite that they rival the most magnificent flower? Have you heard the many cries and calls that are all around you in nature? Have you tunneled into the earth and seen the vibrant life that exists in the soft, cool loam of the earth’s rich soil? In the darkness, life abounds. It thrives in the water and high in the air. It is diversity as artistic brilliance and love and hope and effulgence. It is a bubbling up of life in countless forms and regalia.

Om rose up out of the blue-black void, the fullness, the ripple of contentment to create every color and shape and sound and scent that it held inside itself like a pregnant creature. It gave life to all living forms as a sign of its fullness and joy.

It darts about breathing life into this world of ours and into other worlds so diverse and strange to our human experience and point of view that we would be stunned and open-mouthed to see their particular splendor that is so foreign to what we know on earth. Om gave birth to it all, and it continues to do so minute by minute, hour by hour, lifetime by lifetime. Every moment is fresh and new and filled with the joy of creation, the love that a mother feels at the first sight of her fragile offspring.

Om blinks and a world comes into existence. Om blinks again and the old world disappears and a new world is formed. Worlds flicker and go out. New worlds are formed. Om is endlessly creative, endlessly moved to create anew and love anew and nourish anew.

Om is the mother, the father, the child, for Om is inside all of us. Om is all of us and we are Om in its joy of creation, its newest venture.

Chant Om and you will be part of the process, the holy sound that brought you into existence and waits to share its secrets with you.

Om is the holy flame of existence, the holy pulse, the holy breath. Om breathes fire into our souls. We are the fire of God’s love and urge that we come into existence. Om is the father uniting with the mother to create a child that will be you in all your fear and hope, your desire to know the source of it all, your wish to return to the source, to swim in the holy ocean of God’s love, to know God’s body as intimately as you know your own form.

You desire God, and God holds out His holy hand to you, His flame and His force, His love and desire that you come to know Him as completely and lovingly as God knows you.

Om is the flower, the butterfly, the robin, the ache in your arm, the fear in your heart, the hurt feelings and the desire to do good and to heal the wounds of this world. Om is all of these things because Om wants to experience every possible facet that can be experienced. Om is not shy or mild or timid about what can exist. Om is the power behind all that exists, the power that keeps all that exists alive. And so why would Om in all of its magnificent power hold back and only make a tepid part of what Om is capable of? Om is the creator, the destroyer and also the savior. Om has no fear for its creations because Om has the might to continue existence until each of Om’s creatures returns to its original blissful state.

Om inhales and Om’s creatures are drawn back from falling off the precipice. Om exhales and Om’s creatures take another bold step that increases their knowledge and strength and courage and zest. Om is not an overprotective parent. Om watches, proud of its creatures. Om delights in what it has made and has every faith that at the proper moment those who have gotten themselves into terrible tangles will undo what they have done and will open their eyes to the burning, light-filled truth and see what they truly are and what splendors await them.

Why does Om make the world so compelling and then charge us with the task of blocking it out and focusing within in order to know God?

Om wants you to look within and without. Om doesn’t want to turn you into a blind, deaf mute. Om creates beauty for eyes to see, music for ears to relish, scents for noses, thoughts for our brains to receive and contemplate. Om creates worlds for those who live in them. And then Om goes on to create inner worlds that excel on every level and reveal truths that are impossible to know if you simply exist on the surface of what you see, feel and hear.

Om wants you to know both worlds, the inner and the outer treasures. Om wants you to revel in both, to feel at ease and at home in both. The outer world is a puzzle for you to solve. How can you make this place holy and safe and loving for all who live in it? How can you rid yourself of those actions and qualities that harm our planet? How can you immerse yourself in the needs of others and work to bring good and peace and healing to them? How can you become a holy presence, a boon to all whom you come across in your daily existence? How can you temper your faults and expand your good qualities for the benefit of yourself and all you meet?

The outer world is a world of actions and duties, a world that counts on you to make it a better place for all who live here. The world causes you to act upon it and upon yourself. It is filled with beauty and pain, hungers and challenges. Without this outer world there would be no growth, no true movement toward God and toward self-realization. The outer world gives you a push toward self-perfection, a push toward correction. It tempts you and teases you and raises your hopes only to leave you craving for more. The outer world is chock full of things that you hunger for. You feel sorry that you’ve missed the boat, so to speak, and are empty-handed and in that state of hunger and longing and self-rejection and self-abnegation you say, “How can I ever feel happy again?” This cry takes you, turns you, spins you toward God.

Om is cunning in its methods. Om is the flower luring the bee. Om is the nectar the hummingbird craves. Om is the magnet and the answer to every painful emotion, every cry in the night, every sob that is uttered at moments of sheer hopelessness. Om is the answer, the call in response, the sound that nourishes and saves the person who lies curled and weeping on the bathroom floor.

Om has planned it this way. Om has given you two worlds to inhabit, the outer world and the inner world and oh what a balm and a saving grace the inner world is! The inner world feeds you the food your soul needs to fight the battle in the outer plain. Om gives you peace and safety and light and hope in the inner world. Om arms you in the inner world so that you can go into the outer world and do what has to be done for you and others so that God’s light will shine brightly for all to see. Om gives you strength in the inner world to go out and light the lamps you pass as you travel in the darkness.

Om waits in the inner world. Om pulses in the inner world and darts through the outer world until all that you see is Om and all that you see is the same, inner and outer, darkness and light. They are one and soon you will see that. Very soon you will see the oneness you crave, the union, the bliss.

What is the most valuable thing for me to do today?

Chant Om. Worship Om. Know that it is the creator and the sustainer of the universe. Om is the sound that contains all sounds and feelings and thoughts in this world of ours. Om contains everything imaginable in a single breath, an impulse, a surge to move forward and create. You and Om are one and the same in the sense that Om has breathed life into you and you glow with Om’s breath. You sail upon it. It flows through your veins and inhabits each cell. Om is your parent. Om is your teacher. Listen to it. Repeat its sound in your own dear body just as Om replicates this sound to create its worlds. Create your own world with Om. Om will color your world with laughter and vigor. Om will brighten the darkness you fear and lift the despair that prevents you from knowing yourself and knowing Om.

Worship Om, bow to it, praise it. Repeat its holy sound all through your day. Let it cleanse you and strengthen you and turn you into the perfect vehicle that you are at your core.

Om loves and protects you. Om is the sound of the night as the sun appears over the rim of the horizon. Om is the daylight that warms the heart after a long and painful night. Om is darkness and light, but the light prevails. The darkness is just a temporary testing ground, a war zone where you can fight to rid yourself of that which keeps you from knowing your true holy bliss.

Bow down to Om. Let its holy sound echo throughout your body, throughout your world. See the sun as Om, the ocean’s roar as Om, your breath, your bones, your faith as Om. Om is the glue that holds you together. Om is the sound that will take you home. Chant it and love it as dearly as it loves you.

LETTERS FROM THE SELF

What is Om’s sense of itself? How does it differ from ours?

Om is pure majesty and fullness. Om is everything and everyone and knows no bounds. Om doesn’t think of itself as “I” the way we do. Om is fullness and completion and the urge to be still and the urge to create. Om is content. Om knows no desire in the way that we do. Om moves out of its magnificent glory and impetus to create, but it does not do so because it feels that something is missing. Nothing is missing. And the same is true for us if we penetrate our surface wants and desires, our notion of incompleteness and the feeling that things could be better, life could be better to a great extent. But is that really true?

Circumstances may seem difficult and painful to the eye. You might pass a child on the street who can barely walk and appears to be in pain, as does her mother because she wants happiness for her child and her child suffers. But in truth Om courses through their veins. Om sings to them and whispers the truth. They and Om are one. They and Om are complete and at peace in a part of them that they will soon know. Om has given them a particular task on this plain. We all have our tasks and some are harder than others, based on past actions and on what we need to progress. That child in her halting, painful, tentative steps is walking toward God. She is leading her mother to God. God is watching, pleased with their courage and growing strength. And inside them Om sings its great chant, its wish-fulfilling mantra, its cry of joy and of triumph, its lullaby, its marching song. Om sings a love song to them as they move down the street past others who appear to be so much luckier than they are in their state of better health and physical freedom. But what is the whole picture? What will happen in the long run? Who has been given the better part on earth, the better role in God’s drama?

Om flies through the universe. Om creates worlds at a time. Millions of souls come into existence when Om throbs a single time, and still Om is careful and never makes a mistake or causes undo hardship or neglects a single creature that Om has fashioned with Om’s

magnificent sound.

Om swims through the universe like a graceful fish darts through the water, unimpeded by gravity, stumbling blocks or fear. Om glides past us and through us. Om sings to us and healing occurs on plains too numerous to list. Om creates. Om destroys. But Om’s goodness remains as do we in our original, eternal form. And that is who you saw in the street. You saw Om. You saw the unstruck sound. You saw God in God’s glory and love and fullness and compassion. And so do not despair, not for you or for the valiant mother and the even more valiant child who one day will reap great rewards for the role she took on in this short lifetime of hers. She takes halting steps now. She fears she will fall. Her body is in pain, but soon she will soar as Om sings its mighty song into her eternal ear

How can I feel Om’s love?

The way to feel Om’s love is to know that you are that love, that you are made from love for the purpose of loving others and yourself. Love yourself in all of your aspects, in your strengths and your weaknesses, so to speak, because all of that is just a passing matter, a means of growth and of no more importance than the passing rain on a particularly stormy afternoon, and then the sun comes out as it will inside you. The squalls blow away. There’s a break in the clouds, and all that exists is sheer majesty. The sun at its most glorious and compelling moment, the sun that emits countless rays and sunbeams, that is the king of the sky, the supreme lord and master of all that it touches, is nothing compared to the glorious light that shines within you. And yet you do not see it or feel its warmth. You slink about with great apology for the space you take up and for the bother you cause a salesperson when you enter a store.

Why do that when you are worth your weight in love and in the greatest form of gold that exists, the golden stream of light at our core, the godly stream that is the God inside you? Let that light shine through all of your pores. Let it radiate from your cells and from your glorious, God-given godly heart. Let that light be your calling card when you walk about in your city taking in the splendors that God has put there for you to enjoy. See yourself for who you and the salesperson whom you speak to truly are. Om rejoices in the beautiful way that you and she and everyone else is made. Om adores its creations. Love them in kind. Open your heart to all you see. Let others peer into your heart. Let it be a mighty exhibit of God’s love on earth. Let others view it and marvel at what is possible if they take the time to speculate about God and their own true nature and then take steps to see the true picture.

Om is just a breath away from pouring out its love to you. Listen, breathe with it. Let your breath synchronize with Om’s movement through the universe. Chant Om. Praise Om. Love Om, and the rest will fall into place. Om will shine through you. Om will sing in your heart. And Om’s tender words will stream from your mouth and heal others who in turn will come to know Om and to praise it and what God has given them. Om loves you. Do not doubt it. Love Om. Praise Om. Chant Om, and life will open up to you.

Where is the inner world that we enter during meditation?

Om creates endless worlds. Some are solid, so to speak, although nothing is truly solid and everything vibrates at a certain pitch. Om creates worlds that seem hard to the touch or smooth as a petal or hot or cold. And Om creates worlds that are not of any tangible substance and still they are powerful places to roam. These airy abodes are filled with truths that are necessary to know if we are to truly know Om. These worlds come and go like wisps of fog, like drizzle on a cool May day. They float here and there or they burn red hot and are like fiery coals. These worlds are lessons turned into landscapes. They are filled with creatures that have paid a price or reaped a reward for their past behaviors. And visitors to these airy realms see the result of those creatures’ actions and what might happen if they live as those who dwell there do.

Other worlds are an unfolding of a different truth, the truth of Om’s glory and greatness, the truth of Om’s visionary creative power. These worlds are a joy to behold, a pleasure that is beyond anything that can be obtained on earth. The earth has one purpose, these worlds have another. They are unbridled beauty, splendor that needs no restraint because these worlds exist unto themselves and are not a training ground. They are simply beauty as beauty, love as love, joy as joy, splendor as splendor.

Other worlds are a mix of the two, of our world and those that are completely sublime and free of pain and struggle. These worlds are halfway houses, steps up the ladder of fulfillment and self-realization. They are advanced worlds for the graduates who’ve done well on earth and are now ready to take the next step.

All worlds exist in Om’s heart, in God’s heart, because Om and God are one, because everything actually is One: the good, the bad, the easy, and the difficult things that we encounter in life. But Om is larger than life, larger than a string of universes that bubble up and dissolve and lose their light. Om is triumphant. Om is beyond measurement and cannot be captured in any form of measurement, the arc of a sound, the spectrum of light and so on.

Om is everlasting and the basis of all there is. Om will be here after life goes out on earth and a new one replaces the world we’ve come to love. Om opens its holy mouth; Om breathes; Om emits its holy breath and a new world arises as easily as a bubble floats away from a wand that was dipped into soapy water. Om’s worlds float through the ether like iridescent bubbles float through the sky on a summer afternoon.

Om opens its mouth and raging worlds come into existence, and their red-hot flames heat the sky until the air explodes. Om opens its mouth and molten lava pours down from the heavens, or white feathers appear on a small, sweet bird that lives on a diet of tiny flowers and twigs. Om cannot be reined in or imagined in its most powerful state. Om can only be guessed at in our lives. Om must wait until we have progressed on our spiritual path, until we can even begin to glimpse its glories. At present we see just the smallest hint of what Om creates, just as we see only the smallest piece of our own holy worth.

Love Om, bow down to Om, and Om will reveal a bit more of itself to you. Chant Om. Become Om. Breathe in Om. Exhale Om. Dance with Om. Sing to Om. Pray to Om, and you will know more about the holy presence that allows you to live.

Is each Om the creation, manifestation and sustainment of the universe?

Om is the manifestation of life on earth. It is the alpha and omega and all that lies between. It is the span between a baby’s first breath and a dying man’s gasp.

Om is larger than the universe. It is the mouth that encloses the universe inside it and breathes it out in a slow, steady stream. Om is the mouth and the tongue and the words that string across God’s holy universe to form this universe. Om is the parent. Om is the holy release of God’s might and grace.

Is Om unending?

Om is the sound of the universe. It is the sound of creation and dissolution and rebirth. It is a constant vibration, a constant hum that breathes life into all matter. It is triumphant. It is the king of all sounds; the hum that penetrates all there is and keeps it alive. Om is the sound in your ear, the hush inside a shell, the roar of the ocean, the silence at dawn. It is the sound that lies at the core of all sounds. It gives birth to sound with its holy roar.

Is Om loving? Can I connect to it?

Om is the sound of the universe as it expands and contracts. It is love at its fullest and most vibrant urge. It is the intention to create a universe filled with creatures great and small. It is the desire to attend to and relish those creatures, to embrace them as they are formed by the primordial sound. It is love at its purest most intense form. It is nothing but love. It is love moving through the universe to create more and more love.

Why is it important for me to focus on Om?

Om surges through you. It is the sound you know best, the inner hum beneath the other sounds you hear. Focus on Om and the rest will make way for it. They will bow to it, and Om will be ascendant. It is always ascendant. It is more you than your DNA is. Focus on Om and you focus on the most significant sound in the world, the sound that creates the world and everything in it. Go back to that pure source, go back to the beginning, the sound of life as it comes into being. Go back and witness holy creation as it occurs time and again.

Om seems too distant, self-sufficient and powerful to love. Help me to love Om.

Love Om because it brought you into existence and sustains your every breath. It breathes life into you moment by moment. It is the holy furnace that blazes inside you and makes your cells golden and vibrant and eager for life. Love Om because it is your father and mother, your home and your heart. Love Om and you will know what love is.

What is Om?

Om is the sound inside of us. It is the unstruck chord which courses through us and keeps us alive. It is the vibration of the universe, the hum of the universe, the string that vibrates and creates our world. Honor the sound as you honor God. The sound is God. God and Om are one and the same. Repeat the sound and see where it takes you, to realms far and near, inhabited and stark in their empty beauty and lyrical joy.

Click here for questions 18-22

THE OM JOURNAL

LETTERS FROM THE SELF