Purpose of Mantra?

[JustARandomPanda]

I was under the impression Mantra was one method available to quiet the mind yet recently have seen some TTBs insist this is not its purpose. If Mantra is not a tool to aid in quieting the mind then what exactly IS its purpose and why do so many different spiritual traditions around the world use it?

[Cheshire Cat]

A mantra could have a double purpose:

 

1- to still the mind with his rithmic elements (try Om Coca-Cola Om Coca-cola Pepsi Hum to believe)

A real master could help you with this by temporary stilling your mind for you with the power of his internal mantralization (Sufi master usually did this)

 

2- to invoke certain supernatural powers related to that particular mantra (this is why sometimes you hear people saying that a particular mantra could be dangerous. etc..).

[thelerner]

A mantra could have a double purpose:

 

1- to still the mind with his rithmic elements (try Om Coca-Cola Om Coca-cola Pepsi Hum to believe)

hmmn, that works well, but leaves me thirsty

 

I'd also add like a hand mudra, repeatedly doing a mantra has a Pavlovian effect. By repeatedly doing it in a meditative state, it throws you into that state quicker. I've been doing some mantra meditations lately and it seems to repress thoughts quicker then most emptiness style meditations.

 

Also if you follow systems of 'kotodama'- sacred sounds, beyond religious significance the vowels effect different areas of your body for release or accentuating. For example, hAAAaah is a universal heart sound in many traditions, EEeeeeee pretty clearly resonates in the throat, etc.,

Edited September 10, 2012 by thelerner

[eye_of_the_storm]

I use to say OM AH HUM BENZA GURU PEMA SIDDI HUM a few hundred times +

 

I found mostly to 1- to still the mind with his rhythmic elements / it would seem to exhaust the mind and the mantra would eventually fade into pure silence

 

Though I try a number different things.... I really need to stay with just a few techniques and push them to the nth degree

 

Only 23 - just browsing until I find something that really strikes a cord!

 

STRUM!

 

Harmonious resonance

 

[Everything]

I was under the impression Mantra was one method available to quiet the mind yet recently have seen some TTBs insist this is not its purpose. If Mantra is not a tool to aid in quieting the mind then what exactly IS its purpose and why do so many different spiritual traditions around the world use it?

People love to pretend to not know how to go about doing certain things. They love to denie themselves, like their mind. So they invented this idea for people who pretend to not control their own mind and be seperate from it. The idea is that your teacher pretende to agree with your notion, that you are seperate from your mind, and that you are still "allowed" control by this "technique" which is an act of denial of your own power and control over your mind in a SUPER OBVIOUS way but indirect. So that you are given the greatest opportunity to change direction in your life. The masters hoped that one day as people were using their mantra's over and over again, thinking it would quit the mind, that they would just stand up and say: "I'm not going to think that anymore!" simply because they don't want to anymore. A preffered thought is much like a mantra. Their is no reason for you to repeat it over and over again. Letting go is the key. That is all the "technique" you want. Making life more complicated then it is, is done by you thinking a thought over and over again lik "complex is better, simple is useless..." Allowing life to be simple, as it has always been, is also done by you. Allowance is effortless, you do it all the time, just as you have allowed life to be complicated, you can allow it to become simple aswell.

 

First allow it to be that way, then the thoughts of simplicity will naturally follow. You don't require effort to think that life is complicated. Just as this negative thought, you will not require effort to think thoughts of its simplicity when you allow life to be that way. Just as you find complexity without effort, will you be able to find simplicity without effort.

 

By seeking techniques, you just denie more of yourself. Thus, a technique such as a "mantra" is usually the best way to wake you up to the pointlessness of your quest in finding techniques. You don't need a technique in order to allow yourself to be who you want to be, UNLESS YOU INSIST THAT YOU NEED A TECHNIQUE, in which case you will need it. It is effortless to insist on a technique of allowing yourself to be who you want to be. It is also effortless to not insist a technique of allowing yourself to be who you want to be. Just like when you die, you don't insist on a technique to let go of life. You can also die to any given unpreffered state of being, without a single effort. By simply letting go. It does not require a technique. Infact, if anything would require a tehnique, it would be the "holding on" to something that would require a technique. When you lift your own bodies weight above your head, you also don't need a technique in order to let go of this weight. You simply move out of your own way. You are the only person capable of contradicting you in this.

[de_paradise]

I've heard most of the typical explanations of mantra, and probably you have too. Since I can actually feel pretty clearly what particular energy flows are doing while I do (silent) mantra and not doing mantra, over several years of "sample set data" I use it now as a kind of default or "holding pattern" type of between meditation meditation. For example your primary mediation is stillness, but at some point maybe its not working so well because you lose concentration, but instead of breaking, just change to doing mantra for a while, while you get settled down again.

 

Sometimes I will deliberately stick in intervals of mantra because it changes the energy somewhat and can help deblock some bits ready to be deblocked yet somehow the primary medtation energy is not getting there. This sounds confusing, but its like using a brush instead of a rag when cleaning. We know a rag is going to get more dirt because the surface area is larger and its more elegant, but a brush (mantra) can immediately get some big bits (knots, impurieties). So mantra for me is simply a tool, nothing woo woo or religious or fancy. Generally I use om man padme hum because its short and sweet.

 

Let me add, mantra definitely "works". Its also a type of thing that can be done in a slipshod way, or well, and can be done in deeper and deeper levels of consciousness, delicately, pointing toward the same direction as any other meditation. In the same way, a person can worship a crucifix statue of Jesus and its not very impressive, but another person(saint) can worship in a deep consciousness way and their skin starts to mimic the same injuries as Jesus on the cross, and start to bleed.

Edited September 10, 2012 by de_paradise

[thetaoiseasy]

mantras have 4 main effects. powerful mantras contain all 4 effects. some only have one

 

1. the sound of the mantra itself causes an energy response. For example, ong tends to resonate at the upper dan tien.

2. the meaning of the mantra causes a mental projection that causes a energy response. ie. you say the name of a deity that you highly respect for being holy, and that mental ideal of holiness causes an energy response.

3. the mantra, repeated over and over again, escapes the intellectual and conceptual realm (ie. words) and lets you enter emptiness better.

4. more debate-able is that you attract entities that respond to certain mantras they used in their past cultivation, and they guide you in your advancement.

[XieJia]

be mindful of your mind when you used them and you will know the benefits;

for example for what feelings or thoughts does "I Love You", "God", "War", "Hunger" invokes.

 

Words have its power, man's mind is operates in such ways that we can't think without words or form.

Mantras are words that have been arrange to invokes a fruitful feeling/thoughts in different cultivation practices

 

Think of it as a sandpaper or a whetstone,

In the end of the day, they works wonders when practitioners understands their real meanings when they disappears.

 

It is also useful to roughly know the meaning of what you are using or in some case knows what effect they have on your mind/body.

[eye_of_the_storm]

People love to pretend to not know how to go about doing certain things. They love to denie themselves, like their mind. So they invented this idea for people who pretend to not control their own mind and be seperate from it. The idea is that your teacher pretende to agree with your notion, that you are seperate from your mind, and that you are still "allowed" control by this "technique" which is an act of denial of your own power and control over your mind in a SUPER OBVIOUS way but indirect. So that you are given the greatest opportunity to change direction in your life. The masters hoped that one day as people were using their mantra's over and over again, thinking it would quit the mind, that they would just stand up and say: "I'm not going to think that anymore!" simply because they don't want to anymore. A preffered thought is much like a mantra. Their is no reason for you to repeat it over and over again. Letting go is the key. That is all the "technique" you want. Making life more complicated then it is, is done by you thinking a thought over and over again lik "complex is better, simple is useless..." Allowing life to be simple, as it has always been, is also done by you. Allowance is effortless, you do it all the time, just as you have allowed life to be complicated, you can allow it to become simple aswell.

 

First allow it to be that way, then the thoughts of simplicity will naturally follow. You don't require effort to think that life is complicated. Just as this negative thought, you will not require effort to think thoughts of its simplicity when you allow life to be that way. Just as you find complexity without effort, will you be able to find simplicity without effort.

 

By seeking techniques, you just denie more of yourself. Thus, a technique such as a "mantra" is usually the best way to wake you up to the pointlessness of your quest in finding techniques. You don't need a technique in order to allow yourself to be who you want to be, UNLESS YOU INSIST THAT YOU NEED A TECHNIQUE, in which case you will need it. It is effortless to insist on a technique of allowing yourself to be who you want to be. It is also effortless to not insist a technique of allowing yourself to be who you want to be. Just like when you die, you don't insist on a technique to let go of life. You can also die to any given unpreffered state of being, without a single effort. By simply letting go. It does not require a technique. Infact, if anything would require a tehnique, it would be the "holding on" to something that would require a technique. When you lift your own bodies weight above your head, you also don't need a technique in order to let go of this weight. You simply move out of your own way. You are the only person capable of contradicting you in this.

 

I would say techniques allow you to better recognize who you are, with the expanding of ones awareness / know thyself

 

I would say no technique but simple mindfulness (is that a technique?) also helps to ^

 

Or even just the desire/ true desire... things will come

 

Sometimes we don't really get a chance to figure out who we are and what we want until we have put some time away for that contemplation.... thanks for the reminder haha

 

Though my contemplation of Who am I?... generally results in... I don't know. haha

 

Everything and No thing?

 

Unless we go deeper somehow and gain experiential knowledge / knowing / wisdom

 

Which is behind mind?

 

I am unsure

 

I am trying to find the Alan Watts videos where he says... come off it Shiva.. haha

Edited September 11, 2012 by White Wolf Running On Air

[eye_of_the_storm]

Not quite the one I was after... though

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqmkRrFYO1w&feature=BFa&list=WL4C774A4ADEA0897D

[Maddie]

I thought I would revive this thread and just ask about people's experiences with mantras. Does anybody ever have negative experiences with certain mantras? There are a few mantras that after I do I don't feel well for a while and I was wondering if anybody had this experience as well? Any mantras that make anyone feel really good?

 

As a side note I was also curious if anybody has any experience riding mantras down as opposed to speaking them and if so what has been your experience with this?

[Vajra Fist]

Simply put, a mantra - especially one from the vajrayana tradition - is a prayer. In reality it's more like an invocation. To chant without proper respect toward the deity associated with the practice would be somewhat disrespectful and you might not get an ideal result. At the very least, read the related sutras to know what a mantra is doing for you. Perhaps later you might want to perform prostrations, or dedication of merit produced from the practice to all sentient beings. 

 

I have had a medical clairvoyant test many, many mantras and they all work on the body in different ways.

 

By far the most powerful is Om Amitabha Hrih. You can also find an amazingly beautiful guided meditation in the book 'Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth' by Tulku Thondup.

 

Best of luck with your journey 

[Maddie]

Lately I have been working with Hindu mantras. I have worked with various Buddhist ones in the past as well. One mantra I specifically had in mind as causing me woe was the "Kleem" mantra. I was using it to attract things to myself, but I realized that since this mantra's energy is red and my predominate aura color is indigo this was not resonating well with me, as it was too far on the opposite end of the spectrum. Also even though one of my reasons for using it was to get a certain job, I also feel that another motive for using it was ego based and that does not tend to go well for me either. Anyhow I had noticed that was would feel very bad for a while after chanting it and this was a fairly consistent experience for me.

  On the other hand I have been enjoying the Hare Krishna mantra and having good experiences with it. It also seems to offset the bad effects of the Kleem mantra. I feel like it makes me very happy and just love everyone a lot. A couple other mantras I've used as of late are Om which I found I shouldn't do much when driving as it makes me loopy lol, and the Ganesh mantra for the same purpose of getting that job, but can't say if that one made me feel bad.

   In the past I had used the Zhunti mantra extensively and had both good and bad experiences with it, but the rapid fruition of karma, specifically the bad stuff makes me hesitant to use it now. 

  Is the "Om Amitabha Hrih" a variation of the Amitofu mantra from Pureland Buddhism? I would be interested to hear of your experiences with it. 

[Maddie]

One other thing I forgot to elaborate on was written mantras. Lately I feel that I am becoming aware of their potential power whether it be Taoist, Buddhist, Sanskrit, or even Islamic calligraphy. Some of them seem to have a certain power emanating from them. I don't know much about this topic but would like to learn more.

[C T]

visiblemantra.org is a good resource. 

 

and this: https://www.wildmind.org/mantras/method

[doc benway]

Mantra and prayer are different for me. In prayer we ask, in mantra we transform. If there is negativity, it is likely a pain of transformation or a karmic rub. Specific mantras work with specific needs and proclivities so always best to have knowledgeable guidance. 

[ljazztrumpet]

On 9/10/2012 at 11:37 AM, Everything said:

People love to pretend to not know how to go about doing certain things. They love to denie themselves, like their mind. So they invented this idea for people who pretend to not control their own mind and be seperate from it. The idea is that your teacher pretende to agree with your notion, that you are seperate from your mind, and that you are still "allowed" control by this "technique" which is an act of denial of your own power and control over your mind in a SUPER OBVIOUS way but indirect. So that you are given the greatest opportunity to change direction in your life. The masters hoped that one day as people were using their mantra's over and over again, thinking it would quit the mind, that they would just stand up and say: "I'm not going to think that anymore!" simply because they don't want to anymore. A preffered thought is much like a mantra. Their is no reason for you to repeat it over and over again. Letting go is the key. That is all the "technique" you want. Making life more complicated then it is, is done by you thinking a thought over and over again lik "complex is better, simple is useless..." Allowing life to be simple, as it has always been, is also done by you. Allowance is effortless, you do it all the time, just as you have allowed life to be complicated, you can allow it to become simple aswell.

 

First allow it to be that way, then the thoughts of simplicity will naturally follow. You don't require effort to think that life is complicated. Just as this negative thought, you will not require effort to think thoughts of its simplicity when you allow life to be that way. Just as you find complexity without effort, will you be able to find simplicity without effort.

 

By seeking techniques, you just denie more of yourself. Thus, a technique such as a "mantra" is usually the best way to wake you up to the pointlessness of your quest in finding techniques. You don't need a technique in order to allow yourself to be who you want to be, UNLESS YOU INSIST THAT YOU NEED A TECHNIQUE, in which case you will need it. It is effortless to insist on a technique of allowing yourself to be who you want to be. It is also effortless to not insist a technique of allowing yourself to be who you want to be. Just like when you die, you don't insist on a technique to let go of life. You can also die to any given unpreffered state of being, without a single effort. By simply letting go. It does not require a technique. Infact, if anything would require a tehnique, it would be the "holding on" to something that would require a technique. When you lift your own bodies weight above your head, you also don't need a technique in order to let go of this weight. You simply move out of your own way. You are the only person capable of contradicting you in this.

I like what you're saying here Everything. About the focus on simplicity and letting go. But I wonder about your feelings of the few truly powerful spiritual healers who have talked about focusing on love. Now it's my current theory that, as we let go of our egoic fears/attachments that, perhaps, what is left over is a loving, kind, compassionate nature. Perhaps, without egoic fears/insecurities, we are naturally that way. But I wonder if the recommendation to focus on loving Life, ourselves, and others is a way to drop those egoic fears. So a type of 'relaxed focus' as we go about our day and interactions on this type of love. 

 

An online friend in this group and I were talking about this in regards to mantra the other day - He was saying he focuses his mantra practice on it benefitting all beings.

 

So even when just allowing, I think we still feel we are making choices and decisions on where we focus our attention. I hope you see what I am driving at here. It's kind of hard to put into words, but it's been something I've been working with for the last couple of years. A kind of 'relaxed, focus' on things - in my case, raising my love consciousness being very interested in spiritual healing, but in a very relaxed, simple way. Because I do also believe, when we start to make things complicated, at least in the areas we are speaking of, they tend to lose their power. Every moment of our lives can be an opportunity for our spiritual 'practice'/development imo. 

[thelerner]

After years, an old mantra is like an old friend.  I can't imagine showering without one.  The acoustics give another dimension to the meaning, rhythm and sacred sound.  

Edited July 20, 2018 by thelerner

[dwai]

The sanskrit verse that describes a Mantra goes such --

 

Quote

Mananat trayate iti Mantrah

It means - "By contemplation on which one is protected". What is one protected from? It could be many things. It could be from the cycle of birth and death itself. 

 

 

[C T]

In a state of conscious stillness, or undistracted silence, a gentle humming sound prevails even when thoughts have subsided. It is believed this humming or audible vibratory sound is the 'music' of primordiality, and this is the exact same sound that reverberates in one who has reached a state of unbroken contemplation (sahaja samadhi i believe). It is a sound that is not only heard by the sense of hearing, but is at the same time experienced by all the other senses, where vibrations appear in different frequencies... Like how some experienced meditators 'feel' light and hear 'silence', and some even 'taste' music. But for the everyday mind, a mind that is not exposed to sublime knowledge, either these heightened sense of experiencing subtle vibrations are absent due to simple ignorance, or they are only known fleetingly. Those who manage the odd time to get a taste of this 'magical vibrational feeling' that permeates the being as if surpassing the grosser levels of consciousness are those who say they have 'found' inspiration, 'used' it to achieve a result, and then 'lost' it. Through various means people try to access this inspirational state of being - music, meditation, art, yoga, qigong, etc are various approaches that are common to this quest. So is chanting. 

 

Mantra recitation is the perfect expedient to connect with this vibrational spectrum. Over time, this connection will gradually become more pervasive, and the state of remaining in contemplation becomes more permanent. It is important to know what particular mantras are suitable to the individual though. The most effective way to know is thru association with a master in a lineage that practices with mantras. 

Edited December 19, 2017 by C T