When a mantra is repeated mentally it’s called japa, which translates from the Sanskrit as “muttering.” Practicing mantra meditation can awaken inside you a deeper spiritual awareness and allow you to make that awareness part of your daily life. There are lots of sorts of meditation and within each type there are individual interpretations. For some, it’s following the breath and for others it’s quiet reflection or self-awareness.
The chant works as an ‘instrument ‘ of the mind, targeting it, creating in it a space or stillness, which becomes the source of well-being, peace and unconditioned joy. As you begin exploring the practice of mantra meditation you will, at first, find it to be a bit mechanical or repetitious, but as your practice evolves you'll learn your meditations to be anything apart from boring or boring. Over a period of time your mantra will become a part of you, it'll flow naturally and steadily. You'll start to notice that it changes as you practice, it may grow louder or softer, faster or slower, the rhythm may change and follow the breath or instead it may follow a pattern of its own. The pronunciation may become misleading and it can even begin to sound as if you're hearing it instead of repeating it. When you reach this easy repetition, you have reached a level known to the adept yogis as ajapa japa.
To reach this state needs practice and arises only after some substantial experience with a mantra. And with each meditation you see your life as it unfolds and as it does a deeper spiritual awareness grows. The chant provides the mind with ‘something to do ‘ and keeps it from becoming distracted, it acts as a centering device making a space for the common-or-garden mind to rest in. One of my fave analogies is music. In the same way that a beautiful musical piece can so engage the mind that you become part of the music, the mantra can so engage your intelligence that you slip in to pure awareness.
There are meditative practices where a teacher will give you a personal mantra, but there are plenty of traditional mantras, also. One of the most well liked mantras from the Vedic tradition is the Gayatri mantra (“May my mind be led by divine light”). One of the benefits of employing a mantra that is gibberish is there's less likely hood of the mind getting distracted and keep our attention at the level of the mind. There are often 3 phases you can progress thru when developing a mantra practice.
The first is linking the sound to the breath (which is among the reasons I appreciate the so hum mantra, because it's completely natural to copy ‘so ‘ on the in breath and ‘hum ‘ on the out breath). The connection of the breath and the mantra deepens your concentration which helps keep the mind from rambling. In the second phase your start to let go of the attachment to the breath and begin to work on the sound alone. Once this begins to occur you will notice that the rhythm of the mantra will flow at its own speed. Your breath may continue to be even but your awareness will be on the chant.
This is a more subtle form of the chant process, you have let go of the support of the breath and start to rest completely within yourself. In the final stage, as the mantra becomes a part of you, it'll start to generally flow quicker and the articulation of the syllables may become twisted and unrecognizable, yet, you remain fully aware and present to it. At last it'll be as if you're listening to it, not psychologically repeating and it will fade into silence, the one thing left is you as pure awareness. There are other tools we can use to help further our efforts in placating the mind. An alternative way to deepen your concentration is to attach the sound of one mantra to the next, eliminating the spans between the sounds. This can leave only a little opining for the thoughts to slip in. As with all sort of meditation, there'll be ‘puppy coaching ‘ phase where you are going to need to continually keep returning to the mantra as the ‘puppy ‘ mind wanders off. This would be very tedious if it was not for the plain fact, that even in the earliest stages of the practice, the results are genuine feelings of peace.
The pleasant news is that with repeated practice the pace of the mantra will increase and you'll see a deepening of your concentration and best of all of the process will be effortless. Over the passage of time you will additionally spot that your mantra will arise inside you at suddenly. Mantra meditation isn't a means to instant enlightenment. However, you will have to face the advantages of this meditation right from the start. At the end, your mantra will become even more than a practice, it'll awaken you to your true nature, the real you, which is whole, loving, peaceful, creative and filled with joy and purpose.
