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Experience of mantra practice
Tavs
Leeds Explorer
in Meditation
Is anyone is an experienced mantra practitioner? If so, how has your practice changed over time or your relationship with your practice?
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I’ve experimented with it, very casually. It struck me as being a kind of hypnotic technique, which is not at all a bad thing.
I hear in dharma talks often chanting before and after. Like an example people might have heard in the heart sutra "gate, gate, paragete, parasamgati,,,bodhisvaha". There is a meaning to that mantra. Sometimes I find myself spontaneously thinking of a mantra during my ordinary day
I use it everyday. It has changed from group aloud and gradually become silent internal. Some mantra over the centuries have been dropped. They are not effective. I also have modified mantra and make a great deal of use of a personalised mantra.
http://oaks.nvg.org/mantrayana.html
I didn't know that there are mantras from centuries ago that have been dropped. I think when you personalise your spirituality, it goes deeper.
Don't forget - you are supposed to snap your fingers at the "ha" in "svaha".
You can abbreviate the entire mantra by getting a had-held prayer wheel and using it. They have a number of mantras written on paper inside the wheel. Each turn of the wheel represents as many mantras as are written on the paper inside.
Thus have I experienced:
In practical terms, mantras and chants are used to clear mental clutter and then focus the mind.
When I used to attend Dharma talks, our Geshe came to the island once a month to teach. We always began and ended with a chant or mantra. The visits stopped a few years ago.
I start each meditation with a greeting to the universal wisdom and compassion the mind opens to, and I end with gratitude for the experience.