What is your sensation after....

mantra0

What do you experience / feel / perceive after chanting (orally/mentally) deity mantra, such as Om Mani Padme Hum for 10 malas continuously?

Do you feel inner bliss, hear high pitch buzz, realizing something, or feel sensation between your eyebrow?

Anyways, you can loop this Om mani padme hum mantra continously (Download link)

http://ifile.it/sf7bu48

I do feel something after doing so and the next morning I feel some sort of change: calmer, more confident, more spiritual.
I feel like life is more smooth and less hurdle.

What's your own personal experience?
do you find it effective on turbulent mind/life?

thanks for sharing

unsui

I try to do this every morning as one of the first things I do after waking up, though I'm not always successful. I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks, though. So what I say may not mean much.

But since you asked...

I don't really feel anything when I'm done. While I'm doing it I feel something, but it's hard to describe. I guess one could say I feel "warmer," emotionally (not physically). But after a session I pretty much go about my business.

One thing I have noticed is that, while I still get annoyed and/or frustrated with things, I'm a little more aware of it and can usually catch it before it snowballs into something bigger. I don't hold onto those frustrations as long as I used to, or at least that's how it seems to me.

However, I have been trying to do breath-counting/following meditation for about 10-15 minutes a day for about a month now (I've made it to "4"!) as well as trying to be more mindful on a regular basis ("trying" being the operative word here), so I can't say what, if any, influence the mantra meditation has with regard to these "changes" I've noticed.

I will keep doing it, however, as I'm better able to focus on the mantra and visualization better than breath-counting/following. If I'm short on time, I prefer doing a few malas to sitting meditation.

Of course, if I do end up settling on a particular sect/school/teacher in the near future, I will consider the teacher's instruction and re-evaluate.

mantra0

Hi unsui. Thanks a lot for replying!

"Coincidently", I am now doing breath riding meditation like 15 minutes a day, every morning after I wake up
It helps a lot to make me aware and tames the monkey mind.

I usually do the mantra at night. If I have time, I do it in the morning.

For the mantra, normally I don't feel anything special until I complete at least 3 mala. Possibly the first few malas is like "warming up" or initial stage in purifying or transforming us. that is why when I do mala, I always do at least 5 malas. Standard - 10 malas. If I have time, 15 to 20 malas in a session. The sensation gets stronger and I think it reaches saturation around 10 malas.

I do mantra at night because I can feel the "after effect" while I sleep. Such as something throbbing in the third eye area. And when I wake up the next morning I feel myself transformed a bit in some substle way. Energetically and mentally.

It benefits me karmically as life events seem more mellow nowadays.

unsui

I have a very difficult time meditating at night. I'm usually very tired after work and it's rare when I'm able to meditate for more than a few minutes without yawning or tipping over (I meditate in a chair, so it's really bad if I tip over!). I figure meditating as soon as possible after waking up when my mind is fresh and more "malleable" would give me the best benefit.

TheJourney

what do you mean by mala?

Cloud

I believe he's referring to a way of counting mantra recitations use "mala beads", those prayer beads you see Tibetan monks with.

http://www.yogabasics.com/japamalabeads/japamala.html

RichardH

This isn't "Om Mani Padme Hum" in particular, but chanting is very powerful for me. When we meet for group practice, it is usually a group of 5 or 6 older men. It is in a very clean and precise little Zendo. We chant the Heart Sutra , the Great Dharani, and the Refuges coupled with prostrations. It takes about twenty minutes. The unity of voice and intention clears away everything and settles the mind. Then it is possible to sit solid.

I don't know if there is any inherent power of the words, but the shared intention, and vocal resonance is very powerful.


But... that isn't chanting "Om Mani Padme Hum"

TheJourney

Cloud wrote: »

I believe he's referring to a way of counting mantra recitations use "mala beads", those prayer beads you see Tibetan monks with.

http://www.yogabasics.com/japamalabeads/japamala.html

So he chants it 1,080 times!? :eek: not me i'm afraid...lol

Cloud

That's just that website's explanation/instructions. I'm sure it differs how they're used.

unsui

A mala has 108 beads, so one mala would be once around the mala. However, it only counts as 100 recitations because the extra 8 is to make up for any errors. 10 malas would be 1,080 recitations, but it would only count as 1,000.

I don't have any empowerments, so I just do the Avalokiteshvara practice as front generation (I think that's the term) where I visualize him in front of me while I chant. With practice you can actually recite it relatively quickly. I can usually do 10 malas in 20-25 minutes. When I started it would take me about 40 minutes. I find doing it quickly helps with my focus.

FYI, some practices require 1 million recitations. I'm only up to 20k now, at least that I've kept track of on my malas. I sometimes chant it mentally throughout the day, but I don't track those.

Oh, I don't think it was made clear in the other posts, but I believe this is a Tibetan Buddhist practice. I'm not sure if other schools practice anything similar.

I found this during my Internet research and is what inspired me to do this practice:

It is mentioned in the tantras that by reciting this mantra, you will achieve the four qualities of being born in the Amitabha Buddha pure land and other pure lands; at the time of death, seeing Buddhas and lights appearing in the sky; the devas making you offerings; and never being reborn in the hell, hungry ghost or animals realms. You will be reborn in the pure land of Buddha or as a happy transmigratory being. "When one who recites ten malas a day goes swimming, whether in a river, an ocean or some other body of water, the water that touches that person’s body gets blessed. It is said that up to seven generations of that person’s descendents won’t get reborn in the lower realms. The reason for this is that due to the power of mantra, the body is blessed by the person reciting the mantra and visualizing their body in form of the holy body of Chenrezig. Therefore, the body becomes so powerful, so blessed that this affects the consciousness up to seven generations and has the effect that if one dies with a non-virtuous thought, one is not reborn in a lower realm. Thus, when a person who has recited ten malas of om mani padme hum a day goes into a river or an ocean, the water that touches the person’s body gets blessed, and this blessed water then purifies all the billions and billions of sentient beings in the water. So it’s unbelievably beneficial; this person saves the animals in that water from the most unbelievable suffering of the lower realms. When such a person walks down a road and the wind touches his or her body and then goes on to touch insects, their negative karma gets purified and causes them to have a good rebirth. Similarly, when such a person does massage or otherwise touches others’ bodies, those people’s negative karma also gets purified. Such a person becomes meaningful to behold; being seen and touched becomes a means of liberating other sentient beings. This means that even the person’s breath touching the bodies of other sentient beings purifies their negative karma. Anybody who drinks the water in which such a person has swum gets purified." ~Lama Zopa Rinpoche~

http://www.garudashop.com/Tibetan_Malas_s/5.htm

TheJourney

Wouldn't it be more effective to chant slower less times?

unsui

This is just my personal opinion, but I think it depends on the individual. Some people need to do it slower to maintain focus. For me, reciting it slower makes it harder for me to focus. I think it's a familiarity issue. I started slowly to make sure I was doing it correctly, maintaining proper focus and intention, but as I got more familiar with it I just started reciting it quicker. I've seen video clips of Tibetan Buddhist monks chanting much faster than I do.

For me the counting and accumulation isn't the most important part, its the combination of using the mala, chanting, and visualization (body, speech, mind) that is beneficial. Like I said earlier, I don't always do 10 malas, even a few has some benefit. But the more I can do in a single session the more it seems to benefit me.