Breath · Hindu practice
So Ham
I am that
सोऽहम्
So'ham
A mantra carried on the breath rather than counted on beads — so as the breath comes in, ham as it goes out. The teaching is that this is already happening, some twenty-one thousand times a day, and the practice is only to notice it.
Source: Iśa and Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad usage; ajapā-japa in haṭha and tantric yoga
The count shown here is Japa's suggestion, not a rule of the tradition. Follow the form and number you were taught.
Free paced breathing
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5 in, 5 out — the ring grows as you breathe in and settles as you breathe out. It runs in your browser, saves nothing and stops when you leave the tab.
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Opens a preview of this practice, with an option to add it in Japa 1.6 or later. If you install the app, return here and open the link again.
A paced breathing exercise, offered as something to do — not a treatment, and not medical advice. Stop if it makes you lightheaded, and ask a clinician about anything to do with your health or your breathing.
What the words say
Saḥ is 'that' — the absolute, not named further. Aham is 'I'. So'ham is the two run together: I am that. Reversed it reads haṃsa, the swan, which is the same syllables heard the other way round; the yogic literature makes a good deal of the pair.
Where it comes from
The identification of self and absolute is the Upaniṣadic claim, and this is one of its compressed forms. As a breath practice it belongs to the haṭha and tantric literature, where it is called ajapā-japa — the recitation that is not recited, because the breath is doing it.
How it is practised
Not counted on a mala. Sit, and let the syllables ride the breath without forcing either. The count in this app gives a sitting a length; the tradition's instruction is closer to 'until you stop needing the syllables'.
References
- Haṃsa Upaniṣad
- Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra, verse 155, on breath and the two syllables
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