A saying from the Vedas claims that "Speech
is the essence of humanity." All of what humanity thinks and ultimately
becomes is determined by the expression of ideas and actions through speech
and its derivative, writing. Everything, the Vedas maintain, comes into being
through speech. Ideas remain unactualized until they are created through the
power of speech. Similarly, The New Testament, Gospel of John, starts "In
the beginning was The Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God..."
In mainstream Vedic practices, most Buddhist techniques and classical Hinduism,
mantra is viewed as a necessity for spiritual advancement and high attainment.
In The Kalachakra Tantra, by the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins, the Dalai Lama
states, "Therefore, without depending upon mantra...Buddhahood cannot be
attained."
Clearly, there is a reason why such widely divergent sources of religious wisdom
as the Vedas, the New Testament and the Dalai Lama speak in common ideas. Here
are some important ideas about mantra which will enable you to begin a practical
understanding of what mantra is and what it can do.
Definition # 1: Mantras are energy-based sounds.
Saying any word produces an actual physical vibration. Over time, if we know
what the effect of that vibration is, then the word may come to have meaning
associated with the effect of saying that vibration or word. This is one level
of energy basis for words.
Another level is intent. If the actual physical vibration is coupled with a
mental intention, the vibration then contains an additional mental component
which influences the result of saying it. The sound is the carrier wave and
the intent is overlaid upon the wave form, just as a colored gel influences
the appearance and effect of a white light.
In either instance, the word is based upon energy. Nowhere is this idea more
true than for Sanskrit mantra. For although there is a general meaning which
comes to be associated with mantras, the only lasting definition is the result
or effect of saying the mantra.
Definition #2: Mantras create thought-energy waves.
The human consciousness is really a collection of states of consciousness which
distributively exist throughout the physical and subtle bodies. Each organ has
a primitive consciousness of its own. That primitive consciousness allows it
to perform functions specific to it. Then come the various systems. The cardio-vascular
system, the reproductive system and other systems have various organs or body
parts working at slightly different stages of a single process. Like the organs,
there is a primitive consciousness also associated with each system. And these
are just within the physical body. Similar functions and states of consciousness
exist within the subtle body as well. So individual organ consciousness is overlaid
by system consciousness, overlaid again by subtle body counterparts and consciousness,
and so ad infinitum.
The ego with its self-defined "I" ness assumes a pre-eminent state
among the subtle din of random, semi-conscious thoughts which pulse through
our organism. And of course, our organism can "pick up" the vibration
of other organisms nearby. The result is that there are myriad vibrations riding
in and through the subconscious mind at any given time.
Mantras start a powerful vibration which corresponds to both a specific spiritual
energy frequency and a state of consciousness in seed form. Over time, the mantra
process begins to override all of the other smaller vibrations, which eventually
become absorbed by the mantra. After a length of time which varies from individual
to individual, the great wave of the mantra stills all other vibrations. Ultimately,
the mantra produces a state where the organism vibrates at the rate completely
in tune with the energy and spiritual state represented by and contained within
the mantra.
At this point, a change of state occurs in the organism. The organism becomes
subtly different. Just as a laser is light which is coherent in a new way, the
person who becomes one with the state produced by the mantra is also coherent
in a way which did not exist prior to the conscious undertaking of repetition
of the mantra.
Definition #3: Mantras are tools of power and tools for power.
They are formidable. They are ancient. They work. The word "mantra"
is derived from two Sanskrit words. The first is "manas" or "mind,"
which provides the "man" syllable. The second syllable is drawn from
the Sanskrit word "trai" meaning to "protect" or to "free
from." Therefore, the word mantra in its most literal sense means "to
free from the mind." Mantra is, at its core, a tool used by the mind which
eventually frees one from the vagaries of the mind.
But the journey from mantra to freedom is a wondrous one. The mind expands,
deepens and widens and eventually dips into the essence of cosmic existence.
On its journey, the mind comes to understand much about the essence of the vibration
of things. And knowledge, as we all know, is power. In the case of mantra, this
power is tangible and wieldable.
Statements About Mantra
1. Mantras have close, approximate one-to-one direct language-based translation.
If we warn a young child that it should not touch a hot stove, we try to explain
that it will burn the child. However, language is insufficient to convey the
experience. Only the act of touching the stove and being burned will adequately
define the words "hot" and "burn" in the context of "stove."
Essentially, there is no real direct translation of the experience of being
burned.
Similarly, there is no word which is the exact equivalent of the experience
of sticking one's finger into an electrical socket. When we stick our hand into
the socket, only then do we have a context for the word "shock." But
shock is really a definition of the result of the action of sticking our hand
into the socket.
It is the same with mantras. The only true definition is the experience which
it ultimately creates in the sayer. Over thousands of years, many sayers have
had common experiences and passed them on to the next generation. Through this
tradition, a context of experiential definition has been created.
2. Definitions of mantras are oriented toward either the results of repeating
the mantra or of the intentions of the original framers and testers of the mantra.
In Sanskrit, sounds which have no direct translation but which contain great
power which can be "grown" from it are called "seed mantras."
Seed in Sanskrit is called "Bijam" in the singular and "Bija"
in the plural form. Please refer to the pronunciation guide on page 126 for
more information on pronunciation of mantras.
Let's take an example. The mantra "Shrim" or Shreem is the seed sound
for the principle of abundance (Lakshmi, in the Hindu Pantheon.) If one says
"shrim" a hundred times, a certain increase in the potentiality of
the sayer to accumulate abundance is achieved. If one says "shrim"
a thousand times or a million, the result is correspondingly greater.
But abundance can take many forms. There is prosperity, to be sure, but there
is also peace as abundance, health as wealth, friends as wealth, enough food
to eat as wealth, and a host of other kinds and types of abundance which may
vary from individual to individual and culture to culture. It is at this point
that the intention of the sayer begins to influence the degree of the kind of
capacity for accumulating wealth which may accrue.
3. Mantras have been tested and/or verified by their original framers or users.
Each mantra is associated with an actual sage or historical person who once
lived. Although the oral tradition predates written speech by centuries, those
earliest oral records annotated on palm leaves discussed earlier clearly designate
a specific sage as the "seer" of the mantra. This means that the mantra
was probably arrived at through some form of meditation or intuition and subsequently
tested by the person who first encountered it.
4. Sanskrit mantras are composed of letters which correspond to certain petals
or spokes of chakras in the subtle body.
As discussed in Chapter 2, there is a direct relationship between the mantra
sound, either vocalized or subvocalized, and the chakras located throughout
the body.
5. Mantras are energy which can be likened to fire.
You can use fire either to cook your lunch or to burn down the forest. It is
the same fire. Similarly, mantra can bring a positive and beneficial result,
or it can produce an energy meltdown when misused or practiced without some
guidance. There are certain mantra formulas which are so exact, so specific
and so powerful that they must be learned and practiced under careful supervision
by a qualified teacher.
Fortunately, most of the mantras widely used in the West and certainly those
contained in this volume are perfectly safe to use on a daily basis, even with
some intensity.
6. Mantra energizes prana.
"Prana" is a Sanskrit term for a form of life energy which can be
transferred from individual to individual. Prana may or may not produce an instant
dramatic effect upon transfer. There can be heat or coolness as a result of
the transfer.
Some healers operate through transfer of prana. A massage therapist can transfer
prana with beneficial effect. Even self-healing can be accomplished by concentrating
prana in certain organs, the result of which can be a clearing of the difficulty
or condition. For instance, by saying a certain mantra while visualizing an
internal organ bathed in light, the specific power of the mantra can become
concentrated there with great beneficial effect.
7. Mantras eventually quiet the mind.
At a deep level, subconscious mind is a collective consciousness of all the
forms of primitive consciousnesses which exist throughout the physical and subtle
bodies. The dedicated use of mantra can dig into subconscious crystallized thoughts
stored in the organs and glands and transform these bodily parts into repositories
of peace.