Ho

[C isa Kocher]

HU and HO in Islam and in Zen. I hope you all don't mind my being pedantic
but since the topic came up I felt I should share my little bit...

In tasawwuf (sufism), "HU" is both the essence of the divine and the
totality of the creation

the 'h' in Arabic is the sound created furthest back in the back of the
throat(there are several 'h' sounds in arabic but the 'h' in 'hu' is the one
below the larynx.)

'w' in Arabic is wau, the sound created by the two lips and is the sound
furthest away from hu (in English OOO with the lips relaxed and both voiced
or unvoiced)

In calligraphy, 'HU' is written often with two eyes, and the eyes are crying
bloody tears. Hu is chanted as a zikr(prayer of remembrance and a kind of
'yoga'), both silent zikr and vocal zikr, with breathing. Hu is also
indicated by its own musical notes and makam when zikr is musically
accompanied.

w through h then includes all the sounds it is possible for the human mouth
and throat to make and the Word Allah ends in "HU" 'al' means "the"; 'ilah'
means "god" small g; the "h" is the ending which includes "hu" except that
it drops off and only pops up again when it has something to follow it.
Translated literally Allah means al - ilah - hu : THE [one and only] GOD
Itself. Compare 'al-illah' the god (any of many gods). Basic statement of
faith: la illah ha ila'LLAH means "no god is but GOD (is)"

HU is also the name of G-D in the Pentateuch. Yahweh. Grammatically it
means, in old Hebrew, "he" (you might be able to think of it as if it were a
kind of verbalization of the third singular pronoun) but I don't remember
which transformation of the root. Arabic and Hebrew have the same system of
verbal transformations. Elohim in Hebrew is the plural of the word ilah, or
god small g, and is the exact same word in Arabic.

HU then is the "essence" of both Yahweh in Hebrew and Allah in Arabic. It is
a pure prayer and every living being on Earth does remembrance of that name
of Allah every time they breathe in or out.

in zazen:

Incidentally, "ho" is also part of standard zen practice. Between sittings
in a sesshin(a zen retreat which is 3 to 8 days). You sit zazen for 3 hours,
3 or four times a day, and every hour there is ten minutes of walking zen
during which there is ho chanting. After the ho chanting when you begin to
feel blood in your feet again, then you sit and silently "observe" your
practice for another hour. More or less, usually timed by an incense stick.

Between sittings, after lunch for example, there is work zen. Every day in
sesshin there are ceremonies sermons chantings, zazen, walking zen and
working zen. Eating is also done as a zen exercise. I don't know the
linguistic 




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