Mantras - Any Good ?

[Charlie_B]

12 hours ago, Unwiring said:

Interesting post. I was reading an excerpt from the text and it placed a big emphasis on the religious side of the mantra, like the mantra had to be for some diety. I believe in God but not in the sense that mostly any religion talks about. Is this part necessary? Also, how often did you practice a day and how long were your sessions? I’ve been looking for a new meditation technique.

thank you

@Unwiring This book laid out in depth details about how to put mantras in practice. I read author's autobiography and this book could be his own experience as well, as the tantric practice seems to be his speciality. He enumerates the methods that probably would have worked for him. Please note that ancient mantras were built in sanskrit and might be associated with some deity. The sounds that helps to invoke a mantra are all in sanskrit. But I think one can instil any mantra without associating it to deities into the method that he laid out. And some of his revealings shocked me to the core - as using a partner, in some cases, corpse for tantric practice!

More over, mantras/practices were never been accessible to common people before as the knowledge stayed with some set of elites . I'm not really sure any of the books available in the market are authentic either. This is the first book I read which actually explained the detailed methods end-to-end. However, reading a book and putting it into practice are entirely different things. I myself not sure how far I can go. But I would like to try as it worked for me in someway. I'm just curious to know if there is a greater possibility. I haven't yet started the method play though. My practice was very immature and I didn't even know that it works. I used to repeat a mantra during my meditation for an hour twice a day. And unconsciously I used to repeat the mantra while commute, at work and whenever I notice that my mind slips into past.It somehow pulled me into present and gave me a new perspective. That's the main reason that I was drawn to this book.

If you want to know the methods that were used by ancient sages from India then go for this book. Or else you can also research for more westernised version of the concept of mantras.  At the end it doesn't really matter which method one follows - what matters is the journey whether we trusted enough / enjoyed enough / immersed enough / learned enough / experienced enough and ultimately lived enough!

P.S: The book is more like "Mantras for dummies" am sure there are more advanced details in ancient scriptures. But it can serve as a good start if you are really serious about mantras. The religious context that you see everywhere is just a package with different prints on it, the product lies inside. Don't judge the product by the package wrapped around it  

Good luck.