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Mantras
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
hi all,
today while browsing internet, i came across the below video url
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IhskQJxIsIk
then watched the above video. so sharing this video with you all too.
it raised a query in my mind - what is the basis of mantras? we have mantras in Hinduism too. so what do the mantras actually do and how do mantras do what it is said that they do?
any ideas, please suggest. thanks in advance.
1
Comments
Hope you hear something useful ...
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/post/99488056164/mantra-rant
Check this site out
http://www.wildmind.org/mantras
Can't get this to work at all.
I think chanting mantra is not enough if you don't understand the meaning of it.
Thinking and believing are two very different things. Belief is not needed in order for a person to think, nor does a person's thinking always align with what he professes to believe. One can never comprehend "enough," for to comprehend something fully is to engulf it completely mentally; One can begin to understand, but we simply cannot know "the thing in itself and for itself."
Thanks for the link, misecmisc1! It has many other mantra links on the same YouTube page, when you're finished with the one you linked us to.
You ask, "What is the basis of mantras?"
My answer: Words and names, things without which we cannot manage. BUT all things are really holy; and chanting elevates our minds to this mystic knowledge that something eternal and mystical (outside time) exists in all things, if we were not so blinded by our own selfishness to see that beauty. The Mantra is both Seen and Heard, both Sunrise and Music... (To be very brief...)
Just for the sake of brevity, which, like cleanliness, is next to godliness, let me espouse for now the narrow view (yet not maintaining a broader view would be wrong, for comprehensive views of such things are simply not possible.)
In addressing this question, the first thought that comes to me is from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: Cassius says to Brutus, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." The power of the Mantra resides in our Faith in the Mantra and our Love for the Higher Reality. It is our ownership of the Mantra, something that nobody can take away from us, that empowers us in a special way to overcome (at least in some way) EVERY OBSTACLE we encounter. There is no fault line, unless it be in us. The Mantra is a kind of magical fuel and at once a sort of shield of protection. It is our dearest Friend.
As such, my Mantra is something in which I can rightly Believe. For, finding power in a Mantra can make all the difference in one's life.
Mantras.....( on a deeper mystical level ) Tis just the vibrations produced by the sound.....(on a more mundane level, calms the monkey mind, by giving it a task to perform)
Sorry to hear that. It was experimental. Here is my written mantra faqs page instead ...
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/post/57234975984/buddhist-mantra-faqs
Here's a theory....( a bit more detail than my last post
)
What I mean by this 'deep mystical level', is that certain words/tones/pitches produce certain vibrations, that are meant to vibrate out connecting with/and bringing harmony throughout the universe....
And on the mundane level, the vibrations of the karmic bundle of vibrating energy (called the self) begin to vibrate in harmony, hence the calming effect on body and mind ( experienced by some) that comes from chanting certain mantras...
From what I gather some Dharma teachers give individual students specific mantras to chant, according their energy flow...
However this is only a theory, so "I" could be wrong
if mantras are related to vibrations and if there are vibrations, then what seems to me is that the deep core teachings in Hinduism also makes some sense, because as per it, initially there was just Consciousness(also called Purusha or Shiva), which then manifested itself as vibration AUM and this vibration AUM lead to the creation of Matter(also called Prakriti or Shakti) - even the matter in different forms are vibrations with different frequencies (i saw a you tube video few years ago, if i remember correctly, in which they said that solid, liquid, gas are vibrations with different frequencies) - even Quantum Physics currently has M-theory, which states that the smallest indivisible part of an atom is a string, which is a 1-dimensional object and it is nothing but a mathematical equation and is a sort of vibrating energy - Heisenburg's theory of electron behaving as both particle and wave simultaneously, depending on if any conscious observer is watching, seems to indicate the fluidity of changing of energy, which a conscious observer solidifies in its experience.
also Tibetian Buddhism says about luminous continuity of existence, which has no origin and which has never died - so may be these are all indicating to a vibrant changing flow of energy, which is alive or aware - don't know what this means, but this came to my mind now, so just typed it out.
I must admit.... the vibrating bundle of energy theory sits more comfortably with me than any thing based around the supernatural ...but then I guess it depends how one defines super-natural ... "quantum physics" goes beyond the boundaries of normal physics .....
one analogy came to my mind - but it can be false, but somehow makes sense to me, don't know why. the analogy for our situation can be like this - we are like bubbles in a stream of water - our sense of separate I would resemble the bubble which has popped up in the water stream - that bubble of water is nothing but water - so we are thinking about ourselves as separate I or separate bubbles, but we may be the water or the Conscious or Alive luminosity - so something like the stream of water, there is a stream of vibration or alive luminous flux of energy everywhere (just like a fish which lives inside water cannot know water, as it is always inside it, so we and including everything - all matter and all space - may be alive luminous continuity of existence or Consciousness) - unless we break our idea of separate self (like the breaking of the bubble and its water going back in the stream of water), we would not realize that we are nothing separate, but connected to everything in this flux of alive luminous conscious energy or alive vibration or Consciousness - whatever that may be.
At it's root mantra recitation seems to be a repetitive palliative to normal mind and body activity (which can be a runaway three ring circus), a sort of self hypnosis aimed at cessation of suffering, temporarily at least. Amazing how the mind that mantra soothes then expounds on a functional process with theories of vibrational energy flow, creation of matter, visualization of divinity and deepened spiritual awareness. What's the mantra for mantra induced introspection?
Tee hee.
Mantras have a capacity of leaving as well as entering peacable trance states. It can be quite a discipline to learn one. Here for example is a set of Tibetan words I learned on a solo retreat. It calls on three mythical deities and one historical Bodhi.
The mantra ending mantra is
Nom, nom, nom ... wakey, wakey ... or similar ...
Starting or ending meditation with mantra and/or dedication and prostration is a good practice ...