RELAX!

I have taken up the practice of meditation. At the end of each stressful day of retirement, for about ten to fifteen minutes or so, I attempt to isolate myself from the world and descend into a sort of numb trance-like state, a little like taking a particularly strong opiate pain killer or an equally strong tranquiliser.
Whether this is doing me any good at all remains to be determined, but I have not felt more relaxed for a very long time.
At one time, at the end of each stressful day of retirement, I would just listen to the Archers. But no more!
There are dozens, if not hundreds of You tube videos teaching you how to meditate and telling you what meditation is supposed to do to you and how you should or could feel at the end of each session.

And dozens if not hundreds of You tube meditation music videos, including many strange chants that are designed to assist you in achieving the trance like state: Tibetan bowl music, Japanese flute music, Indian sitar music, native American flutes, deep cello music, electronically generated music, and no end of chants and chakras.. Most of the videos turn on the repeated chanting of “Ohm”

“Ohm” is said to be the noise the world made when it came into existence and the noise that it will make when it finally disappears.

I have some problem with the promoters of “Ohm”. It is all derived from the Buddhist faith, all chanted by men with deep bass voices. Oh, it can be quite pleasant, but in the end, I think it smacks of cultural appropriation, as does the tendency of some who practice meditation, to encourage you to become a vegan, to eat yogurt and to wear organic sandals.

So what has all this to do with a picture of a bottle of Irish whiskey? Well you may ask!
Uais whiskey is triple distilled, down in County Galway. And is stunning. Being a long time connoisseur of whisky/ whiskey, then I have little hesitation in blessing Uais as one of the best, if not the best, whiskeys currently produced in Ireland. Perhaps on a level with Pearce and Lyons 5 year old malt whiskey.

The name Uais is taken from the legends of an ancient Gaelic warrior chief, an Irish King of Kings, who’s portrait appears on the label and who once dominated the west of Ireland. Being Irish it is, in the tradition of many Irish names, such as Aoife, Siobhan, Caoimhe, Dearbhla, Tadhg, and Prioinsias, difficult to pronounce or to spell. But it comes from an age when all of Ireland spoke the Gaelic and to the English ear it was a foreign language. In todays Ireland, such names, favoured by the Celtic cappuccino class, are chosen for, amongst other reasons, to confuse Brits and get up their noses, but Uais is the real thing.

Uais is pronounced as Uooish. It sounds like, for me, the noise the world would make when it was first created and the noise it will make when it finally disappears!

So I have replaced “Ohm” with “Uooish” as a culturally acceptable meditation chant, which, surprisingly, has the same or similar effect as “Ohm”
And there is a natural bonus which “Ohm” can never match. At the end of each meditation session I can enjoy a small glass of Uais. Drink what you chant!

It might evenhelp me return to a bit of writing.

It’s a lot better, I can tell you, than listening to the Archers.