Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Happy Losar!

PalzangPalzang Veteran
edited April 2007 in Buddhism Today
Happy Losar everyone! Welcome to the year of the Fire Pig (also known as BBQ Pork Year.) Losar is the Tibetan New Year, and today, Feb. 18th, is the day. We celebrate it with a two week period when it is considered especially auspicious to practice. The merit generated by your practice is said to be increased 100,000 times during this period. Warning: negativity is also multiplied 100,000 times, so watch it! It's wrapped up on March 3 with a so-called 10 million day, one of the four major Tibetan holidays marking significant events in the life of the Buddha (in this case, his birth, enlightenment and parinirvana all rolled into one). It's called a 10 million day because on that day the virtue is said to be multiplied by 10 million times!

In honor of Losar this year, we're accumulating a million repetitions of the Mani mantra at our stupa here in Sedona dedicated to peace in Iraq and wherever there is war and strife. If anyone would like to join our effort, you can send me your accumulation totals over the next two weeks, and I'll add them to the totals. The Mani mantra, in case you don't know, is the mantra of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara, Quan Yin, Kannon), OM MANI PEME HUNG. It's an easy one to do, and even though you maybe don't have a stupa to magnify your effort, you're welcome to join in! Can you imagine what difference a million mantras of the bodhisattva of compassion might make in the world!?

Palzang

Comments

  • YogaMamaYogaMama
    edited February 2007
    I'll jion you! Thanks for letting me know about this. So, let me make sure I have this right. I just chant the mantra "OM MANI PEME HUNG" during the times you listed, and just let you know how many times that I chant it? Is that correct?
  • inthedharmainthedharma
    edited February 2007
    Very Cool! I will too....
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited February 2007
    Thanks, guys/girls. Be sure you let me know your totals by March 3rd at the latest so I can include them.

    Palzang
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited February 2007
    I have no experience with chanting so do I pronounce the mantra "OHM MANI PAY MAY HUNG" or am I a little off? Because I want to do it, too.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited February 2007
    Brigid wrote:
    I have no experience with chanting so do I pronounce the mantra "OHM MANI PAY MAY HUNG" or am I a little off? Because I want to do it, too.


    Yeah, that's good. It's pretty much pronounced like it looks (well, as close as us Westerners can get to correct anyway)!

    Palzang
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited February 2007
    Brigid wrote:
    I have no experience with chanting so do I pronounce the mantra "OHM MANI PAY MAY HUNG" or am I a little off? Because I want to do it, too.

    Brigid - this is for you...
    An old story speaks about a similar problem. A devoted meditator, after years concentrating on a particular mantra, had attained enough insight to begin teaching. The student's humility was far from perfect, but the teachers at the monastery were not worried.

    A few years of successful teaching left the meditator with no thoughts about learning from anyone; but upon hearing about a famous hermit living nearby, the opportunity was too exciting to be passed up.

    The hermit lived alone on an island at the middle of a lake, so the meditator hired a man with a boat to row across to the island. The meditator was very respectful of the old hermit. As they shared some tea made with herbs the meditator asked him about his spiritual practice. The old man said he had no spiritual practice, except for a mantra which he repeated all the time to himself. The meditator was pleased: the hermit was using the same mantra he used himself -- but when the hermit spoke the mantra aloud, the meditator was horrified!

    "What's wrong?" asked the hermit.

    "I don't know what to say. I'm afraid you've wasted your whole life! You are pronouncing the mantra incorrectly!"

    "Oh, Dear! That is terrible. How should I say it?"

    The meditator gave the correct pronunciation, and the old hermit was very grateful, asking to be left alone so he could get started right away. On the way back across the lake the meditator, now confirmed as an accomplished teacher, was pondering the sad fate of the hermit.

    "It's so fortunate that I came along. At least he will have a little time to practice correctly before he dies." Just then, the meditator noticed that the boatman was looking quite shocked, and turned to see the hermit standing respectfully on the water, next to the boat.

    "Excuse me, please. I hate to bother you, but I've forgotten the correct pronunciation again. Would you please repeat it for me?"

    "You obviously don't need it," stammered the meditator; but the old man persisted in his polite request until the meditator relented and told him again the way he thought the mantra should be pronounced.

    The old hermit was saying the mantra very carefully, slowly, over and over, as he walked across the surface of the water back to the island.

    -bf
  • YogaMamaYogaMama
    edited February 2007
    What a cute story, bf. :)
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited February 2007
    LOL! Great story! Thanks, BF.
  • inthedharmainthedharma
    edited February 2007
    Great story!!
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited March 2007
    So, anyone got any totals for me?

    Palzang
  • inthedharmainthedharma
    edited March 2007
    Sorry Palzang, I only have 1,400 for my total.....I didn't do so well......We got our newest puppy and I got side tracked.......Lesson learned.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Oh, no! I completely forgot!! How bad am I??? I'm SO sorry, Palzang. SO sorry! I'll have to find a way to make it up somehow.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited March 2007
    No, no, please don't fret. 1400 is much better than nothing, and you can still do them if you want, Brigid. We didn't get close to a million, so we're going to keep doing them until we do. It's never too late!

    Palzang
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Oh, thank goodness!!! I'm so glad! Okay, I'm starting tonight and I'll post my totals here for each day. Bless you, Palzang!!
  • inthedharmainthedharma
    edited March 2007
    Oh good, I'll do some more too Palzang............
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    I did 324 today. But I have a question. Do I count the guru bead as one? Because I think I have 107 regular beads, not counting spacers, and one guru bead.

    So 108 X 3= 324

    or

    107 X 3= 321
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited March 2007
    For every mala of 108 beads, you count 100. That's the way it works. The other 8 are for any mistakes you may have made. So really you should only count 300.

    Palzang
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Ahhh! I see! Thanks, Palzang. Okay, 300 for Monday and I'll post my next total tonight.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    300 for Tuesday, total = 600 so far. More tomorrow.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Thanks, Bridge, keep up the good work!

    Palzang
  • inthedharmainthedharma
    edited March 2007
    Palzang..........add another 200 to my 1,400 = 1,600 for my total.

    Ill add more later today.........or in the morning.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    400 more for a total of 1,000.

    More to come...
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Everytime I see this thead, I keep thinking Pally is calling me a loser.

    -bf
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited March 2007
    You're right, it really is all about you!

    Palzang
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Dear Palzang,

    I'm still doing them but not recording them on here (because I keep forgetting to). Do you still want me to?
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Sure!

    Palzang
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited March 2007
    Okay. Add another 500 so the total to date is 1,500 and counting!
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2007
    Another 1,000 from yesterday= 2,500.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited April 2007
    Great! See, after a while they start getting easier, right?

    Palzang
  • not1not2not1not2 Veteran
    edited April 2007
    I'm not keeping track or anything, but apparently my recitation of OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADME SIDDHI HUM, has picked itself up again. Maybe it's time to break my Mala back out.

    metta
    _/\_
  • not1not2not1not2 Veteran
    edited April 2007
    This question is mainly posed at Palzang, since I imagine he is most familiar with mantra recitation, but it seems to me that when we really get into a mantra, it is almost as if we are abiding there. It seems akin to a literal form of refuge. Is it proper to regard it as a refuge?

    Anyway, as my mantra practice has worked it's way back into my mindstream spontaneously as of last wednesday or thursday I was noticing the qualities of mind associated with this practice. It seems as though when I am really engaged in the mantra my unskillful qualities of mind get cut off & even my physical sensations seem to take on a new character. Almost as if my actions are being done by themselves. Anyway, mantra seems like a gateway into the first Jhana (state of absorption):

    "There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities — enters and remains in the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal.

    "Just as if a skilled bathman or bathman's apprentice would pour bath powder into a brass basin and knead it together, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that his ball of bath powder — saturated, moisture-laden, permeated within and without — would nevertheless not drip; even so, the monk permeates, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal...

    Now, I haven't really gotten to this stage of rapture, but I definitely see my discursive thought being cut off as I become more & more engaged in the mantra. I imagine if I could find a place of no distraction & really devote all my energy to it, that mantra could definitely bring me to the first Jhana.

    Any thoughts on this are welcome.

    metta
    _/\_
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited April 2007
    Interesting observation, not1. One of the reasons mantra is so powerful is that it does involve body, speech and mind, the three doors - which is why you always do them aloud, at least loud enough for a bug on your shoulder to hear (if it could). Of course, it is also referred to as Secret Mantra because it involves every aspect of our being. On a secret level, it resonates in the winds and channels to align them, which makes enlightenment possible. So it is a powerful technique.

    Palzang
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2007
    Palzang wrote:
    Great! See, after a while they start getting easier, right?

    Palzang
    Yes, absolutely. They're becoming automatic and it doesn't take long for me to get right back into the same zone when I finish 100 and start over again. My cat Tom, the big orange one, loves it too. He's been lying beside me, sort of half on and half off me, when I do them and although he doesn't fall asleep he gets very relaxed and heavy.

    Not 1,

    Yes, I see what you're saying. I haven't actually done any analysis yet on my state when I really get rolling except to note that my concentration becomes effortless. But there is something else going on that I can't put my finger on. Both you and Palzang described it quite well. You said when we're chanting it's almost as if we're abiding there and Palzang said it resonated with the winds and channels to align them and both of these descriptions fit what I'm experiencing.

    It kind of crept up on me slowly but now the experience is really quite profound. If it had happened as soon as I started doing them I would have been astonished.

    Thank you so much for giving me the push I needed to do them, Palzang. This is a practice I really love and it goes so deeply that I feel I'm actually doing something that will change me, or the energy that's me right now, or...well, you know what I mean.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited April 2007
    :thumbsup:

    Palzang
  • inthedharmainthedharma
    edited April 2007
    I do understand what you guys are saying.......It takes me a little to get started but once I am it just starts to roll......Kind of a really good energy thing around you. Not sure how to explain it.......
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited April 2007
    Silly wench that I am....
    I have been reciting the Tara mantra....!
    But with the same objective, because she is the Feminine of Chenrezig...
    Would that still count?
    I have reached 2,592......

    Or I can start again on OM MANI PEDME HUNG........


    Are we actually still counting?
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited April 2007
    Well, we're not totalling up the Tara mantra, but that doesn't mean it's not good to do! We are still counting Mani mantra and will continue to do so, at least until we hit a million.

    Palzang
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited April 2007
    Ok, cool. I have made a note of the total Tara mantras recited, and will now start on the Six-syllabub sweet lotus-root mantra..... :winkc:

    I'll be in touch.....:thumbsup:
Sign In or Register to comment.