Mantras - Any Good ?

[MrDmitriiV]

I've stumbled upon "The Ancient Science of Mantras" by Om Swami, thinking of buying it.

Are mantras any good?

Why @Leo Gura does NOT mention them at all?

From what I saw, mantras can be done while walking, which may be good considering how much time we spend sitting.

 

[TheSomeBody]

it is just hypnotise you...
unless you are looking for vibreation so om (hoo, hum) is enough

[Salvijus]

Try this chant for 7min.and then sit silent for 3min. See what happens

It's best if you sit in cross-legged posture with your arms on thighs, palms facing upwards.

[non_nothing]

Btw he's prolly the most underrated channel ever

[PsiloPutty]

I use my mantra a lot in a day's time. The one I use is the classic (well, half of the classic anyway): Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.

During the day, whenever I feel my monkey mind kicking in and worrying/pondering something repetitively, I just start up my mantra and repeat it in my head for 5-10 minutes. Your mind can't concentrate intensely on more than one thing at a time, so the mantra overlaps the silly thoughts and they eventually give up and leave. It's like bringing your big brother with you when a bully is harassing you.   

I often leave the radio off on my drive home from work and do my mantra instead. You can still drive fine while doing this. I arrive home feeling a lot calmer. I did it for 90 mins on a bike ride a couple weeks ago. I was "Hare Krishna-ing" the entire time and it was a freaking great bike ride. Helps to keep me in the present moment.....noticed many things on that ride that I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Flowers, clouds, etc.

Try it. Pick a phrase and repeat it to yourself for 20 minutes as a seated meditation session. It's not something that you have to do for months to see it working. You'll see it the very first time you do it. 

[XYZ]

Yes I found chanting mantra to be the most direct way to personal transcendence, and lasting personal transformation thereafter. The bare minimum "spiritual work" I do every day is to passionately chant AUM several times long and deep.  A yogi form India once told me that Sanskrit is more than a language, but a sacred system of sounds that corresponds directly with the bodies energies. This explanation made a lot more sense than the new age woo woo about invoking angels or summoning the spirits of all who've ever sung such words.

Regardless, I don't think it matters what I believe about any specific mantra, if anything, and I dare say that mantra meditation is a stage turquoise experience. It is about merging with and becoming the sound itself, losing all sense of self-ness, entering a post-rational realm that transcends everything else that is normal human experience. Intensely vibrating sound currents like aum, or repeatedly chanting a mantra feels like it bypasses the thinking and sensing parts of the body, which is why it is so powerful.

Sometimes I chant a cappella , or along with a track, which has the added benefit of regulating breath patterns as part of the meditation. Never done much of silent meditation, so I can't compare the two, but I can assert that diving right into mantra chanting is the most accessible way for anyone to experience meditation immediately. Particularly useful if you want meditative experiences but lack the discipline, time or ability to stay seated for zazen style meditation. I find that I can change sitting positions and also alternate between standing up, kneeling and lying down with my knees up during mantra meditations and it doesn't detract from the soundwork. 

[MsNobody]

I'm glad you posted this, I've been so into mantras lately, Gayatri mantra is my favorite of all, it's like I'm giving the monkey mind a job and it leaves me alone, it's easier for me to reach deep states of meditation.

I also found this on the internet where Ram Dass talks about his experiences with mantras..

https://www.ramdass.org/mantras-2/

Mahatma Gandhi said, “The mantra becomes one’s staff of life, and carries one through every ordeal. It is no empty repetition. For each repetition has a new meaning, carrying you nearer and nearer to God.”

very interesting stuff

 

[MsNobody]

https://www.ramdass.org/mantras/

that's the actual link, sorry

[MrDmitriiV]

@MsNobody @XYZ @PsiloPutty @non_nothing @Salvijus  Thank You for sharing your thoughts! 

[MrDmitriiV]

@Artaemis thank you! May infinity bless you!

[PsiloPutty]

I like what Ram Dass said. Your mantra is like a bridge on which you stand, and watch your life passing in the water beneath you. 

I have some shit going on in my life right now, and woke up a bunch in the night. Ordinarily I would have spun my wheels, unproductively thinking the same negative thoughts over and over until I fell back asleep, which would probably give me a bad dream, but instead I used my mantra every time I woke up last night. Probably said it 500 times during the night, and I feel fairly chipper and ready to tackle the day now. This stuff should be taught in kindergarten as a way to mitigate negative thinking, and I wish I had known about it years ago. Oh well, I'm happy to have found it now.

[Charlie_B]

On 8/14/2018 at 4:04 AM, MrDmitriiV said:

I've stumbled upon "The Ancient Science of Mantras" by Om Swami, thinking of buying it.

Are mantras any good?

Why @Leo Gura does NOT mention them at all?

From what I saw, mantras can be done while walking, which may be good considering how much time we spend sitting.

 

Hi @MrDmitriiV. I read this book recently and found it very fascinating. Do mantras work? Well, there's only one way to know  Practice. I recently started shedding all my christian beliefs and practicing a mantra many times a day knowingly or unknowingly. I started this practice to avoid/come out of the  mental trauma I have been through after a painful break-up. After everything I tried for two years to help myself, just practicing a mantra in a couple of months impacted my thought process entirely. The tangible result I can see clearly is the sense of lightness in me and my widening openness to life and world around me. I didn't know the process of initiation or any subtleties regarding mantras before, but after reading this book I wanted to restart my mantra as per author's guidelines and would like to see where it leads me. 

why Leo doesn't mention it? I wonder  May be he doesn't know everything. But I bet that Leo always encourage us to explore and grow. I hope you are not waiting for Leo's reference or approval  

P.S: This book is definitely fascinating and invokes your sense of endeavour. But sticking to the practice is by no means is an easy task, though it was described with great simplicity in the book.

Good Luck.

[mkrksms]

Mantras can be very powerful. Many times I’ve completely lost the sense of I, body, space/time and sometimes even awareness, only by doing this short tuning in/out that is commonly done in the beginning and end of some yoga/meditation classes - hands togheter in anjali mudra, chanting three deep and long Aum (inhaling/exhaling fully each time), followed by one deep inhale and then holding the breath until the body automatically exhales.

Edited September 15, 2018 by mkrksms

[Ingit]

@PsiloPutty ??Hare Krishna

[Nevon]

Last night i experience psychedelic with avalokitesvara mantra(aum mani padme hum) for the first time, i felt my 7 chakra activate and line up and immediat my consciousness switch into something else,i was in pure bliss for 30minute

[Nevon]

18 minutes ago, Unwiring said:

Did you recite mantra out loud or mentally?

No, i put on my headphone and listen on youtube and meditate.

[Zweistein]

@MrDmitriiV

I love mantras, too! Check out those I posted in "my" journal in the other forum section.

[Consilience]

Mantra meditation has been really effective for me as well. I use "sunflower" - As I breath in "sun" and as I breath out "flower." It really helps silent the mind for one. Two, I've also found it to have "metta" properties. When I enter into a deep focus of repeating that mantra love, gratitude, compassion, and feelings of connectedness arise very easily.

[PsiloPutty]

@Consilience  Interesting. Did you come up with sunflower yourself? How long have you been doing it?

[Consilience]

3 hours ago, PsiloPutty said:

@Consilience  Interesting. Did you come up with sunflower yourself? How long have you been doing it?

No actually. I originally got the idea from a podcast called "Future Thinkers." Long story short, there was a guy on the podcast explaining how Sunflower was the mantra he used and I just kinda started using it ever since haha. 

I've been using it for around 9 months now as a basic concentration technique, but only about 1 month ago has the mantra sort of transformed into more of a metta approach towards meditation. It was like... holy shit the mantra is more than just a sound. It's a bridge towards compassion, and consciousness which are ultimately tightly linked. I think the fact that Sunflower is a relative calm word has helped in this regard.