Stronger Than Caffeine

STRONGER THAN CAFFEINE

A hundred or more years ago, the people in Peking (present-day Beijing) must have known the exceptional health benefits of the n-ng rhyming sound and perhaps adopted it in their everyday speech. (Pekingese, I understand, is a designed dialect) Compare the Chinese yin-yang to the Sanskrit n-ng which also has a very pronounced y in front of the syllables. One has volumes of philosophy, and other an empowering sound that gurus whispered into the ears of their disciples. Interestingly, all the sacred mantras had to include the n-ng trilling sound. Many of us know that the word, mantra, is “tool for the mind,” and its original purpose is to “save the mind from itself.” Mind-blowing.

The original color of the yin-yang is red and black, the red was yang and thrusting. For the sound, n the tongue has to strike the area behind the top teeth and hump toward the back to make the sound ng. The syllables have a slightly nasal y, characteristic of Vedic chanting.

In chanting mantras, the magic was not in just the words and their meanings but the exact placement of the tongue. A healer would be able to tell from the irregular or collapsed facial features whether the tongue was lopsided and how to center it. And put together a personal mantra using a string of sounds.