Meditation is quickly becoming a very popular activity and hobby for many people because the potential behind it is now being realized- the potential of it to transform the way you live your life. As such, people look to adopt various tools and methodologies using which they can further make their meditation experience immersive and amazing. Mala meditation mantras are one of them.
WHAT IS A MANTRA? Mantras are a piece of text- a simple syllable, a single word, or a very short phrase that is repeated again and again in order to meditate. It doesn't matter whether you consider yourself a Hindu or belonging to any other religion, or even if you consider yourself to either be a religious or a non religious person- mantra meditation has been used by anyone and everyone since the past 5000 years and continues be used even today. When chanting a mantra it is recommended to use a mala for meditation to help you count the number of mantras you count as well as to help keep your mind focused. ORIGIN OF MANTRAS As mentioned above, mantras have been used for thousands of years and their popularity only continues to grow even more. It is believed that mantra meditation arises from the Vedas, yogic scriptures that are written in Sanskrit. Buddhists used to use mantra meditation as a way to resound the attributes of their Buddha. This practice later transformed into Tantras, a way to communicate with and influence gods. Mantra meditation is not, however, only limited to the eastern part of the world. Mantras were kept a highly guarded secret for thousands of years because of the incredible potency and powers of the mantra meditations. WHY DO MANTRAS WORK? It is very commonly known that sound is not just a concept- it is an energy, a wave, a form that has actual, physical existence in our world. The idea that goes behind the concept of mantras is that words and sound hold power that has the ability to affect and modify the way we think, behave, and feel. That we can use sound as a means and tool to open and manipulate our chakras to achieve the optimum energy flow and become the best being we can possibly be. THE BENEFITS OF MANTRA MEDITATION Compassion and Intuition Not only do the vibrations from the sound of the mantra cleanse you from all of your pent up stress, but they also instill in you a sense of spirituality and a force of compassion. As your mind frees up and your chakras begin to flow in alignment, your intuition becomes tenfold as well. Health Benefits You nervous and chemical systems work in pristine coordination to help you retain and maintain the ideal body conditions and mechanisms for optimum functioning. By regulating your breathing and rhythm through mantra meditation, you set a rhythm for your body and its systems as well, encouraging the body’s immunity. Achieve Self Awareness The previous saints and great individuals have mastered the art of meditation through mantras and by practicing the same thing, you will be able to enter a similar trance that can give you the key to opening the door of higher self awareness and greater existence. Feel Relaxed Last, but not the least, it is extremely soothing and helps you to feel as relaxed as you can by allowing you to let go of what bothers you and focusing your energy on the soothing word that you are chanting from your lips.
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Consciousness arises dependent upon an object and sense organ, or mind and mind objects (feeling, perception, mental formation, volition). It cannot exist independently. Consciousness too is impermanent and constantly changing. Movement of mind or body creates oscillation of duality, and therefore the arising of consciousness. Hindrances ( desire, aversion, restlessness, sloth and doubts ) are various disturbance in the body and mind which causes their movement. Examples of some very subtle hindrances are: trying to understand things, inner chatter, getting sleepy and getting upset, doing, desire and craving.
According to the Buddha- in essence- meditation is all about overcoming the five hindrances- suppressing them, smashing them- to get to the jhanas, so that you can see the way things truly are. Meditation is suppressing the five hindrances, but what has mindfulness to do with the five hindrances? Another important thing is where you focus that mindfulness, where you direct it. Some people say you can be mindful of anything. you can be aware of sweeping, you can be aware of laying a brick, you can be aware of putting food into your mouth, but that is not where mindfulness should really be put. Where do the five hindrances live? Do they live in your body? Do they live in the food you eat? Do they live in the bricks you lay or in the broom or the leaves that you are sweeping? This is an important point not only to your success as a monastic and to your harmony with friends and other monks, but also to your progress in meditation. Those hindrances do not live in the broom, nor do they live in your citta. If you think the way to liberation is to put mindfulness on the objects of your senses or to put it on who's watching or what's watching, that will never get you anywhere. They don't look at the middle- in between them- at the hindrances themselves, at ' the doing', the ' controlling', ' the ill will', and the ' aversion'. For example, when Ajahn Sumedho was first in Wat Pah Pong he was having a hard time, and Ajahn Chah asked him, : Is Wat Pah Pong suffering? Is Wat Pah Pong dukkha, Sumedho?" If Wat Pah Pong is not suffering, so what is the suffering? Is the citta suffering? The suffering was at the point where Ajahn Sumedho was adding onto the experience ( the aggregate of feeling, metal formation and volition ). And if we don't put mindfulness in its right place then we miss that. We think it's Wat Pah Pong's fault, so we want to leave that monastery. Or we think it's our fault so we watn to destroy ourselves or get into a guilt trip. This is wrong mindfulness; we're putting it in the wrong place. It's not the monastery's fault, and it's not the fault of that monk who is upsetting you. You are putting mindfulness in the wrong place if you put all of your focus on the object and think that is the cause of suffering. We have to put the focus of our mindfulness on the space between the observer and the observed. That's where you find the play of greed and hatred, desires and aversions, wanting and disliking, and that's where you start to make something of this world which is no inherent in it. The Calming of Oscillation Through Awareness of Feeling/ Sensation, Perception, Mental Formation and Volition Physical and mental factors of experience worked together to produce personal experience ( that gives the illusion of a self) and personal choice) . For example: 1. Form -As you walk in the garden, your eyes come into contact with a visible object. 2. Consciousness - As your attention focuses on that visible object, your consciousness becomes aware of visible object as yet indeterminate (Note: Stopping the intake of sensory enjoyment through the five-senses, to give Citta a rest. Renounciation/ Withdrawal) 3. Perception( labeling, association,judgement, pre-conceived notions) - the mind figures out what the object is. Your aggregate of perception will identify that visible object as, let us say, a snake (Note: Centering on one object only to gives this aggregate a rest) 4.Sensation/ Emotion ( Pleasant, Unpleasant, Neutral) . Once that happens, you will respond to that visible object with the aggregate sensation/ feeling of displeasure, or more specifically that of fear. 5. Samskara- (Volition & Mental Formation) * Mental Formation is a collection of impressions created by previous actions and the habit energy stored up from countless former lives, engraved conditioned response or tendencies. It is the subconscious layer of your mind. * Volition is the action/ reaction . When VOLITION is mixed with MENTAL FORMATION, and influenced by FEELING, what you usually get is a conditioned response or a habitual action. As we know, habitual actions can sometimes be good for you, sometimes bad for you. - Finally, you will react to that visible object with the aggregate of mental formation or volition, with the intentional action of perhaps running away or perhaps picking up a stone. Note: The khandhas of perception, feeling (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral) and samskaras (conditioned response, habitual action) is the space in which we must watch, according to Ajahn Brahm. Because these are the places where it becomes a personal experience that creates desire, aversion, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness, doubts ( From form to conscious awareness of the object it has not becomes a personal experience yet) . Being witness or infusing mindfulness into this unconscious zone then this unconscious zone also rests. In all our daily activities, we can see how all the five aggregates work together to produce personal experience.When the aggregates of consciousness, perception, Feeling, and Samsakara rest, all your samskaras disappear. They are burnt away, and you start witnessing , your awareness happen, and you realize everything is a dream, and you are unaffected by the dream.
Sloth and torpor always come because you have been controlling so much. You've been doing so much your mind is actually tired, and worn out. It wants to rest; it wants to turn off because it has no energy left. So if sloth and torpor is in front of me I just put peace between myself and the sloth and torpor. I do not put one of the first two hindrances between me and the sloth and torpor, I don't put desire, ill will, or fear there, and I have no sense of shame because I'm tired. It's just the body that's all. It's just the mind that's all. It's the five aggregates doing their thing, nothing to do with me. So I never feel any sense of self with the sloth and torpor that comes up from time to time.
Make peace with it, allow it to be, and let it go. Don't fight it, and by not fighting it, you're not cultivating the first two hindrances. Because Im not cultivating the first two hindrances, mindfulness starts to grow in intensity. And because I am not feeding this doer, the mindfulness gets all the energy, the knower gets all the energy. The knower is mindfulness, and Im energizing mindfulness. Do your best to practice your meditation without any goal or destination to be fully in the present moment. A mindful breathing practice can also be an easy way to make peace with and overcome feelings of sloth and torpor. Sloth and torpor don't last very long these days, I work so hard and sometimes can't find time to sleep. I should be the monk nodding most in this monastery due to the amount of work I do, but I find I can go on retreats and sit in front of hundreds of people meditating and I feel awake. The reason I can do that is because I don't feed the defilements. Mindfulness is right there, not on the sloth and torpor, not on the knower, but on what I am doing with the sloth and torpor. Am I reacting with controlling? Am I just being one of the allies of Mara, the great controller? I don't do that; I put my mindfulness between the sloth and torpor and the observer, making sure I m being kind to the sloth and torpor. Kindness overcomes the ill will. Too often when you have sloth and torpor it is aversion that feeds it. It is the thought , "I don't want it", that actually feed sloth and torpor and makes it last longer, because it is taking the energy away from knowing. Check out the below video on a dharma talk on on how to deal with listlessness and drowsiness when they arise during meditation. Someone who is graceful has a flowing quality about them, as though they had harmonized with the environment around them by embodying and amplifying its special qualities. There is grace in the flutter of the butterfly, just as there is in a swan on a lake. A state of grace is one step beyond, wherein the individual will (and thus identity) is merged seamlessly with a Higher one.
In the tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism, the higher consciousness is embodied in the storehouse of spiritual energy called the Kundalini. The Kundalini energy is present, but dormant in each and every one of us. There is a subtle and gentle process by which the teachers in this tradition awaken the Kundalini energy in the aspirant. The resulting meditation achieved is completely dependant on the degree to which we are surrendered to this selfless flow of the teacher's grace. We have evolved ancient Kundalini meditation practices so they can be applied in both a formal class setting and our everyday lives. The classes offer personalized and in-depth instruction designed to give the student a real experience of the subtle Kundalini energy. Kundalini meditation transforms us and fills us with peace, energy and an increased awareness of and joy in the very act of living. |
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