I repeat Mantras - these are Vedic names of the Divine. It can be done out loud, silently or repeated mentally. The first stage is to say it out loud. I say different Mantras, but some say you should stick to just one. Others again say you need to receive a special personal Mantra from a Guru. But that's not my own experience. Among those I say are the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare - and others. These Mantras are said by the Vedic scriptures to be possesed of special powers - they encapsulate a transcendental spiritual vibration. The term for this type of meditation is Japa. Sometimes, a string of 108 beads called a mala is used - the Mantra is repeated once on each bead, and so on.... Here is a link to a good introductory article http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/japayoga.htm
i supposively have a problem with my eyes flickering but i never a around to notice. i don't chant, i just imagine. i heard chating a lover's name can work really well.
Mantras are vibrations. Everything is one spectrum of the universal energy. Sound and light make form without which there is no object. So also thought and speech are a spectrum of universal energy, more quantum in scale, but nonetheless important for life, in fact, the current of energy is life itself. So we take the mantras to enlarge on the inner life and engage the quantum spontaneous manifesting nature of existance, but on the level of thought and speech, and the wavelengths of the sounds and tenor of our thoughts reflects back karmically, based on the energy we sample.
Usually it goes hand in hand that one also chucks their negativities and trusts in the Deity. My experience is that the Deity does respond. I usually go for 125,000 japs of the beads for the basic mantra, especially if long. Like from Ashley-Ferrands, "Healing Mantras" book, for Saraswati - Eim Hrim Srim Klim Sauh Klim Hrim Eim Blum Strim Nilatari Saraswati Dram Drim Klim Blum Sah Eim Hrim Srim Klim Sauh Sauh Hrim Swaha I just write it down on a papaer, and by a couple malas one remembers all the syllables. For these mostly Shakti bija syllable mantras all strung together the exact sound is not important. Because the basic predominance of sound still matches the profile. So don't worry about not knowing Sanskrit. The above is a full action mantra which effects every sphere of existance and is said particularly to reveal all knowledge. So good for students, and also for musicians.
I haven't meditated in a while, but I find myself scribbleing 'Om Mani Padme Hom' in Tibeten all over papers at school. I find it very relaxing just to write it out.
According to 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead' by W.Y.Evans-Wentz, it is the Mantra associated with Chenrazee, a form of Amithaba Buddha. He renders the meaning as:'Hail! the jewel in the lotus', but I can tell you no more than that. I suspect that Tantric Buddhists would know more.
During the most peaceful moments of meditation, a usually sldie into the nirvana shatakam (also known as atma shatakam) composed byt he great Sri Adi Shankaracharya which is one of the most effective medciation chants, constantly negating all false identifications withbody, mind, occupation, wealth, philosophy, religion and constantly affirming the only true identification, with the supreme conciousness, pure, auspicious. chidanandarupa shivoham shivoham.
I like Sri Shankara very much so, both His Holiness, as well as Mahadev/i. Bhaskar, perhaps you would like my favorite Buddhist philosopher the Omniscient Longchenpa - Longchen Rabjam. For instance this quote (Thanks Dean Pielstick) Tashi delek ... In this post, Longchenpa cites from The All-Creating Monarch, one of the classic Dzogchen texts: O great and courageous one, desiring something great, one makes efforts in meditation and other spiritual practice, but this greatness will not be achieved through such effort. This greatness occurs naturally; it is forever great. If one meditates, one contrives the intent of buddhahood. Those who contrive the intent of buddhahood will not encounter their own nature for eons. O great and courageous one, do not cultivate meditative absorption with ordinary mind. Do not think of timeless awareness as some object. There is no need to repeat invocations and essence mantras aloud. There is no need to perform ritual hand gestures. Do not use the mind to complicate or simplify its nature. The absence of wavering is spontaneously ensured by abiding in the natural state. In abiding naturally, there is nothing for anyone to contrive. Abiding on this level just as it is, without effort, reveals this to be the most sublime of activities--that nothing needs be done. Having come to understand the ultimate meaning of this, do not act; in not acting, abide in suchness. Whoever abides in suchness ensures that there is no error or contrivance. "That" refers to the unerring and uncontrived nature; "ness" applies this unerring quality to the essence itself. There is no "buddhahood," only suchness. This quote does have something do do with the subject.
While I was a youngster hanging around in the ashram where my dad lived,they used to chant something which I picked up and later used to chant with my guitar...It went something like "Jay u sat u nanda",which I later learnt meant something like "Joy truth reality"...,but I'm still not sure how to spell it in English or what it really means.Do you know Chodpa?
