Om Namah Shivaya

The following is extract from Christine Sell an Anusara Certified Teacher's blog. This is very clear and inspiring. I would translate this into Chinese with the note I took from Jonas' immersion! :)
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Om Namah Shivaya:

Om- is the primordail sound, it is the "roar of consciousness" that is represented by the symbol we know as OM.

Namaha- to bow, to call upon, to invite, to merge with

Shivaya- Auspicious- continuous, expansive life enhancement… those things that exalt life, that exalt the most intimate and dep aspects of life nad support the deepest longings of the human heart…that which brings blessings so that that kind of life might be realized rather than dreamt about or only talked about. So the most auspicious person you could be would be your Highest Self. Shiva is not so much a Deity as it is an expression or a face of the Absolute that contact with which will facilitate the experience of yourself in the Highest.


Where do you connect with ultimacy? Where are you rooted? In what are your roots? In what do you re-charge yourself?

Guruve- we are always a student of something… from the mother’s womb, to its infancy and throughout its human development, a child is nourished and taught and encouraged to develop along certain lines. Even in the most natural of processes- what my teacher calls the Divine Path of Growing Old- we are invited to learn, to grow, and mature relative to circumstances and influences.

It is the auspicious force of Shiva that manifests in all levels of teachers we encounter, at every level of experience, at every level of reality so that this auspiciousness is what is actually teaching us. Even at the most trivial level, there is a voice that reminds you to turn off the lights, to remember your jacket, to take care of yourself and this, too, is the Guru, the very Voice of Protection.

Om Namah Shivaya is the invocation and recognition of the Absolute Source out of which everything arises. These traditions were about sitting in a direct relationship with this Source, not in a secondary relationship.