There are five warrior syllables - A, OM, HUNG, RAM, and DZA - and each syllable represents a quality of realization. They are called "warrior syllables" because of their ability to conquer the forces of negativity, eliminating obstacles, emotional blocks and mental obscurations that prevent us from recognizing our true nature and from being our authentic self. They are also referred to as "seed syllables" because they possess the essence of enlightenment. These five syllables represent the body, speech, mind, virtuous qualities, and actions of enlightenment, respectively. Together, they represent the true and fully expressed nature of our authentic self.

In the practice, we sound each warrior syllable in sequence, while focusing on a corresponding energy center, or chakra, in the body and connect with the quality that corresponds with that syllable. The sequence moves from the pure open space of being to the place of the manifestation of virtue in action. As you begin each practice session, you come as your ordinary self, bringing those conditions and patterns of your life that you are seeking to open, clear, and transform.

A chakra is an energetic location in the body, similar to a wheel or center where many energy pathways converge. These centers are not at the surface of the body but are within the body along the central channel, a channel of light that extends from below the navel straight up through the center of the body and opens at the crown.

By simply drawing our attention to a chakra location, subtle prana is activated. Prana is the Sanskrit word for "vital breath"; the Tibetan word is lung, while the Chinese us qi or chi, and the Japanese, ki. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche refers to a connection with this level of experience as the energetic dimension. Through the vibration of the sound of a particular syllable, we activate the possibility of dissipating physical, emotional or energetic, and mental disturbances that are held in the prana, or vital breath. As we bring mind, breath, and sound vibration together, we can begin to feel shifts and changes at the levels of our body, emotions, and mind. Through releasing blockages and then recognizing and resting in the space within us that clears and opens, we enter a higher state of consciousness.

Through the powerful combination of focus on a particular location, the vibration of the sound, and the awareness of light, we develop an increasingly clear and open presence, radiant with positive qualities. The qualities themselves, among them love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, become supports or entrances to an even deeper connection with Self, a deeper wisdom, the very space from which all of existence arises.

In the practice of the Five Warrior Syllables, we have a departing place, the place of conditions and dissatisfactions, a few doorways through which to enter, which are the charkas; and a final destination - our essential Being.