Download Mantra - bwydiploma

Mantra
Theory and Practice
Sound is vibration
• What was the earliest
sound?
• Paleolithic, 10,000 BC
Changing Consciousness
• Sound changes
consciousness
• The type of sound
affects the mind in
different ways - ipod
• “Music is behind life
and rules life; from
music springs all life.
The whole of creation
exists in rhythmn”
Hazrat Inayet Khan
(Sufi mystic)
Meaning of the word Mantra
• Man = to think; manas – mind; manu –
wise
• Tra = instrumentality; or trana – saving
• Mantra is that which saves the mind from
itself, or which leads to salvation through
the concentration of the mind
George Feurstein
• A mantra is sacred utterance, numinous
sounds, or sound that is charged with
psychospiritual power. A mantra is sound
that empowers the mind, or that is
empowered by the mind. It is a vehicle of
meditative transformation of the human
body-mind and is thought to have magical
potency.
Ernest Wood
• Mantras are forms of sound prescribed for
repetition, calculated to link the yogi with
the divine by assisting them in their
emotional and mental aspirations. All good
poetry is something of a mantra, because
it conveys more than the common
meaning of its words
Abhinava Gupta (10th century)
• He said that a single mantra chanted
repeatedly was like the water flowing into
a water wheel. It moves many other parts
in the mill. In the yogi, the chant activates
the detities associated with the mantra
which become an auspicious force in the
transformation of the practitioner’s
consciousness
James Hewitt
• Mantras are incantatory and mystical
sounds….At its profoundest Mantra Yoga
explores the influence of sound vibrations
in a universe which science tells us is
made up of vibration. The Complete Yoga Book,
Leopard Book 1995, pg 442
Chanting Mantras is Japa
• Daily (nitya) –
morning and evening
• Circumstantial
(naimittika) eg for
festivals
• Forbidden (nishiddha)
• Penance
(prayaschitta)
• Voiced aloud
(vachika)
• Whispered (upanshu)
• Mental (manasa) –
meditation on
meaning of mantra
• Non-uttered (ajapa) said silently
• Uninterrupted
(akhanda) – can
continue for hours
Other traditions
• Buddhist
• Sufis perform dhikr which
means both repetition
and remembrance
• Shingon-shu in Japan
use mantra (shingon
mean mantra in
Japanese)
• Christian Monks, Taize,
Greek Orthodox Church
Transcendental Meditation TM
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi –
“the laughing yogi”
• Developed streamlined
form of mantra yoga for
busy westerners
• Non-religious and nondenominational
• Secret mantra chanted
silently
Vedas
• Sanskrit hymns often described as
mantras
• 15 different meters that demanded highly
skilled and disciplined recitation (requiring
breath control that may have been the
beginning of pranayama)
• When combined with ritual drafts of Soma,
they induced altered states
Upanishads
• Chandogya – is the
teachings of the vedic
chanters
• Chapter 3 on Gayatri
Mantra – “the morning
pressing of Soma is
carried out with the
Gayatri”
• Gayatri is from the
Rig Veda
Bhagavad Gita
• The Tamasic person offers up an empty
sacrifice “lacking even the proper mantras
or rituals with no faith whatsoever (17:13)
• Devotional chanting…is a purification of
speech that can contribute much to
spiritual progress
Famous Mantras
• Om Mane Padme Hum –
the jewel is in the lotus
(Buddhist)
• Hare Krishna (mantra for
world peace)
• Om Tat Sat – Brahman is
pure being
• Soham – mantra of the
breath “he is I”
• Maha Mrityonjaya Mantra
– Shiva mantra to
conquer the fear of death
Nada Yoga
• Detailed in the Siva
Samhita and Verse 67
onwards of Samadhi
section of Hathayoga
Pradipika
• Experiencing the inner
sound of Nada by sitting
with thumbs in ears
• Tinkling of bells, conch,
drums, vina, etc etc
• Only experienced in deep
states of meditation
Patanjali’s sutras
• 1:27-28 is about
chanting Om
Mantra Yoga
• Emerges as a distinct path in the Middle Ages
out of Tantra (like hatha yoga)
• Main text is Mantra-Mahodadhi – “Ocean of
Mantras” written by Mahidhara in late 19th
Century
• 16 Principles of Mantra Yoga: devotion,
purification, posture, five limbs, conduct,
concentration, divine space, breath ritual,
mudra, satisfaction, invocation, offering,
sacrifice, recitation, meditation, ecstacy
Summary
• Mantras as magic tools (to bring good
fortune or ward off ill fortune)
• Mantras to connect to the transcendental
(spiritual empowerment and altered states)
• Mantras to follow inner enquiry into the
true nature of the Self (and altered states)
• Traditional view is that mantras must be
given via initiation to have power
Chanting the Gayatri Mantra
• We meditate on the glory of the Creator;
Who has created the Universe;
Who is worthy of Worship;
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and
Light;
Who is the remover of all Sin and
Ignorance;
May He enlighten our Intellect.
• Swami Sivananda
Krishnamurti
• We meditate upon the radiant Divine Light
of that adorable Sun of Spiritual
Consciousness;
May it awaken our intuitional
consciousness.
Gayatri in Sanskrit
•
•
•
•
•
om
Bhur, bhuva, svaha
tat savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhîmahi
dhiyo yo nah prachodayât
Final thoughts
• Questions?
• Experiences?