Meditation Series

Meditation Series

Yin
Yoga

Kumbhaka
(breath-hold)

Emptiness

Mantra

Inner Sound

Sambhavi

Forgiveness

Thoughts

Breathing

Vipassana
(body scan)

Mantra Primer

Location : Nawa Saraan Healing Space, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Rediscovering Mantra
While I was researching on pranayama, I stumbled upon Sadhguru making a few statements about mantra that got my attention. Even though I've been chanting mantras with my meditation practice, I haven't really done much research on it. But now it excites me. Time to do more research and see how I can go deeper in my meditation through mantra.

chanting a mantra shuts-out the outside world and focuses within

What is Mantra?
Mantra is a sacred sound. It is also a pure sound - meaning it is not defined by words to describe it. Definitive words only confine mantra into a small box. The mantra's vibrational frequency is its own meaning.

Mantra can be used to create an atmosphere within and around you. They are evocative sounds and through their power of vibration have subtle, yet powerful and penetrating effects on the mind and body. Mantras create a vibration that moves the energy. Mantras may or may not have specific meanings but the vibrations which they create should reach every fiber of one's being.

When mantras are repeated loudly, clearly and with devotion, these mantras give the greatest possible benefits to those who utter them, either hastening the curing of an ailment, acquiring stability of mind and self-control, or dissolving tensions caused by modern living.

Awareness and Relaxation in Mantra
Awareness is an essential element of chanting mantras. Without awareness, beneficial results are reduced. Relaxation is necessary when chanting mantras. After a practice, the best method is savasana (corpse pose).

OM for the Dying
According to Sadhguru, he has witnessed terminal-case patients who brought themselves back to functionality by repeatedly chanting the mantra, OM (he did not say for how long and how frequent).

There are innumerable mantras. The sound patterns of a mantra will stimulate a certain effect on the mental and psychic nature of the individual. An excellent method of overcoming an impossible situation is to chant a mantra over and over again. A good mantra is OM / AUM, which should be chanted loudly and for as long as possible. If you do this with intensity, it has an almost incredible calming influence on the mind. It is so simple yet very effective.

Thinking vs. Feeling
A mantra turns the key that opens up a door to creation. What lies beyond that door? Honestly, I don't know. I have a vague sense of it, but to articulate in its defense? I cannot. Not yet. I speculate that opening that door through chanting mantra, lifts the veil that intellect drapes on reality. We use intelligence to create words that convey meaning to define and describe. What if you transcend this human construct and simply appreciate sound, not for the meaning we attach to it, but simply for the harmonious resonance it instills?

Worded Mantra
Mantras using actual words to describe their meaning belong to another category. Examples would be Gayatri Mantra or Sarva Mangala (video below). I believe it's the sound, meaning and intention that give power to such mantras. I simply cannot see how the sound of the individual syllables of these mantras, put together (without the meaning of their words) are the be-all and end-all of themselves.

Mantra meditation (aka Japa meditation) by the Ancient Yogis
Mantra meditation is the meditation of sound. A mantra is a combination of syllables, sounds or phrases, realized by ancient sages, which have been widely known in India for thousands of years. Most people are sadly oblivious to the power of sound, yet the ancient sages through personal experience realized that sound has incredible power to influence the mind and body as well as produce changes in the material world. The ancient yogis experimented with different combinations of sound and found that they could induce extraordinary changes within the mind - different sounds producing different effects. They called these special sounds mantras and they were handed down from generation to generation.

Mantra meditation utilizes the power of sound as a method of inducing introspection and subtle mental changes, and to evoke mental and psychic manifestations. A particular mantra is usually repeated over and over again either verbally or mentally, producing mental tranquillity, concentration and awareness of the inner processes of the mind. It is a powerful method of allowing meditational states to flower.

Mantra in Manifesting Form
Mantra is the vehicle of consciousness to manifest form (the things we see with our eyes). The mantra is the direct link with the beyond. The world we know is materialized and shaped through mantras, through sound at all levels and degrees of subtlety, generally way beyond one's usual perception of sound. (In String Theory, it is expressed that the building blocks of reality at the micro-quantum level, is a vibrating band of energy called strings. How they manifest as objects of reality is how they vibrate. This points to sound as a means of creating form. Following this logic, if we create powerful sounds through mantra, we create powerful vibrations that determine how these strings manifest as objective reality. If we put intention and gratitude into our mantra, we begin to manifest this intention. In this process, we architecture reality. We hold the power of creation through mantra.)

Receiving Mantra
Ideally, the mantra should be received directly from a guru or a person with elevated awareness, for as it says in the Kularnava Tantra,"Only the mantra which is received from the guru will release its power." If you have received a mantra through initiation in this manner, then you should use it in japa. (it is unlikely that we meet a guru anytime soon who'll be giving us a mantra, so best to rely on what's available and established out there...there are too many anyway - Aum, Kreem, Hreem, Shreem, Aim, Dum, Hum, Aum Namah Shivaya, Rama, Krishna, Durga, Aum Mani Padme Hum, etc.).

On other occasions, in a heightened state of awareness, a mantra can just flash into your mind. You don't conjure this with desire or imagination. It just happens and you'll know beyond a shadow of a doubt. Use this mantra henceforth.

In the absence of a mantra, use OM / AUM.

Types of Mantra

1. Baikhari Japa (aka: vachika) - this is an audible mantra chanted loudly usually by a group in ashrams. Beginners, people with disturbed minds and people who are depressed, angry or agitated benefit from this. Chanting in baikhari is a good start even for an experienced devotee. This transitions the mind into a calmer state before more subtle chanting follows. An example of this mantra is the maha mantra, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
2. Upanshu Japa - this mantra is usually chanted with lips moving but only audible to self. Practitioners of upanshu are usually those who chant for long periods of time - 10-12 hours/day for a number of days. This is more advanced than baikhari. (this is the mantra chanting I do - soft enough not to disturb anyone, but enough to create the physical vibration I could resonate with.)
3. Manasik Japa - this silent mantra is chanted inside the head when the mind is calm. This type of chanting is the most subtle and suitable for exploring the deeper realms of the mind. When the mind wanders too much, it's a good idea to shift into baikhari until the mind calms down, then shift back to manasik. (I've done this before, but I don't experience the physical vibration of the sound and focus drifts away. It felt incomplete to me.)

Anushthana
To fortify a mantra practice, some yogis subscribe to anushthana - a vow to finish the mantra within a time frame or within a specified number of repetitions. This could be chanting a mantra 11 hours/day for one month, or perhaps repeating a mantra 108 times daily. This vow commits you in continuing the practice - important, because the enthusiasm wavers over time. This also helps in hardening the resolve of the mind.

Guidelines (Dos and Donts)

1. when chanting, sit facing north or east
2. pronounce the words right. A story goes that an American woman recited Gayatri Mantra with wrong pronunciation. She lost her voice and took 10 years to gain it back. In mantra, the sound is important - not your definition or meaning to that sound.
3. when the mind wanders, don't fight it. Just remain a witness, observing that thought without being engaged by it. The thought will eventually lose traction and go away, in full compliance to the law of impermanence.
4. when the mind wanders, shift the chant into baikhari...verbal and audible. Then shift to upanshu and then to manasik...becoming more subtle.
5. if you have a private mantra, never disclose this to anyone
6. chant your mantra whenever there is free time...while waiting for a webpage to download, waiting for a bus, etc. This also develops awareness and being present.

A Mantra is Personal
Every person has to experience the power and meaning of the mantra for himself - it cannot be communicated or taught to him by anyone else. A person's experience of a mantra is always unique...as unique as the individual himself. For this to happen, the person has to reverberate with the vibrational frequency of the mantra itself until the mantra and the person can no longer be discerned - the mantra is fused within the person, they both become one.

Mantra and the Divine
Mantra is shakti (power). It is a direct link to the divine. Therefore, when chanting mantra, feel the personal connection to your divine essence. Fill your heart with love and let it welling-up of feeling expand. At some point, the heart will spontaneously chant the mantra. You don't need to chant the mantra - the mantra chants itself.

Chanting OM
OM is a pure sound...a mantra. Its meaning and definition is already present in its vibrational frequency as you chant it. It's one of the most powerful sounds that ever existed. It is the only sound you can utter without using your tongue. Terminally ill patients who have already been refused by hospitals have regained their full functionality and lived a full life by taking refuge in OM.

OM is chanted into 3 but linked sounds - A-U-M.

A is chanted from the Manipuraka Chakra (navel). Feel it reverberate there and expand throughout the body. As you chant the A, slowly round your mouth and you begin to chant the U. Feel the U in your Anahata Chakra (heart) and resonate with it. Lift your focus up to your Vishudhi Chakra (throat) as you slowly close your mouth, chanting the M. Feel the vibration of the M spread inside your head.

The 60-Minute Class

1. introduction -
2. warm-up - surya namaskars + squat variations
3. OM chanting
   
   
   1. "A" with slightly parted lips, seven times while feeling the reverberation throughout the body emanating from the navel
   2. "U" with rounded lips, seven times while feeling the reverberation throughout the body emanating from the heart
   3. "M" with lips together, seven times while feeling the reverberation throughout the body emanating from the head
4. Mantra and Chakra - The 7 major chakras have their own mantras. While doing pranayama, focus on these chakras. On the inhale, visualize the energy being funneled to the chakra. Hold for 1 count. On the exhale, chant the mantra and feel the reverberation of the chakra. Meditating on the chakras activates their energy and restores the body to optimum functionality.
   
   
   1. LAM - for the Muladhara Chakra
   2. VAM - Svadhisthana Chakra
   3. RAM - for the Manipuraka Chakra
   4. YAM - for the Anahata Chakra
   5. HAM - for the Visuddhi Chakra
   6. OM - for the Ajna Chakra and the Sahasrara Chakra

Ending Thoughts
Mantra is pure sound and sound is powerful. You can talk to a tree or bird, and they won't understand you. But chant a mantra, sing a melodic song, give it intention, and tests have proven that animate beings respond to it. Sound is not to be discounted - it has influence on everything. With mantra, you bridge the chasm between the fictitious reality we make, and the construent essence of reality.

By reverberating with the sound, the body is relaxed, the mind is stilled, and the emotion is soothed. Through repeated practice, this dissolves the physical solidity of the body until subtle vibrations are felt, until unseen lights are visible and silent sounds are heard.

Abstract? Of course, it is. This is not reality as we perceive it. But then again, reality has many layers to it. A good example would be the electromagnetic spectrum (the entire range of light that exists). Our visual perception only allows us to see the visible white light (which is a collective of all the colors we see, as diffracted through a prism). We think that is the sum total of our reality. But within the electromagnetic spectrum, white light is a mere section. Before that are low-frequency waves - radio waves, microwaves and infra-red. Higher frequencies beyond the white light are ultraviolet rays, x-rays and gamma rays. We just don't see them so we normally think they never existed until we found ways to detect and measure them.

With this realization of how powerful sounds are, I can no longer unhear and be moved by nature's own mantra - the rustling of the leaves, the deafening roar of a thunderclap, the shattering sound of lightning, the sound of a waterfall hitting a plunge pool, etc. Glorious sound is everywhere, serenading us...if only we stop for a moment and listen.

--- Gigit (TheLoneRider)
YOGA by Gigit | Learn English | Travel like a Nomad | Donation Bank

Sources:

1. Yoga Makaranda 1 by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
2. Yoga Makaranda II by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
3. Yoga and Kriya: A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques by Swami Satyananda Saraswati
4. Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

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IMPORTANT PLACES
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