Download Mantra Notes from PowerPoint

Mantra Notes from PowerPoint
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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)
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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
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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. George Feursteing The Yoga Tradition
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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. Ernest Wood.
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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. Abhinava Gupta – 10th Century
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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. James Hewitt. The
Complete Yoga Book, Leopard Book 1995, pg 442.
Chanting Mantra 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 ™
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – “the laughing yogi”
• Developed streamlined form of mantra yoga for busy westerners
• Non-religious and non-denominational
• 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
Well Known Mantras you could practice with
• 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 – the study/experience of subtle inner sound
• 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
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)
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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
Gayatri Mantra
• om
• Bhur, bhuva, svaha
• tat savitur varenyam
• bhargo devasya dhîmahi
• dhiyo yo nah prachodayât
Translations of the Gayatri
• 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
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We meditate upon the radiant Divine Light
of that adorable Sun of Spiritual Consciousness;
May it awaken our intuitional consciousness.
Krishnamurti