94 Mantra Meditations - Part 2 Of 3

We explore the power of mantra content, vibration, and effects, and give examples. Seed Mantra meditation to open your chakras and centering prayer with your personal mantras. Mantras to replace negative self-talk, mantras to manifest, Toning for healing, Root mantras, etc. We discuss Ramana's suggestion for use of mantras and all spiritual practices. We'll practice some of these mantra-based meditations in the following podcasts. You pick which ones work best for you.

These podcasts are a compilation of what I have found to be the most helpful over the last 50 years on my path of awakening. They are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. They, also, all stand on their own. But if anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart.

Though I am a psychotherapist, these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful. They are not psychotherapy. Please reach out to a psychotherapist if ever needed.

Transcript

Hey everyone, This is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness. I trust you're doing well. In our last podcast, We talked about mantras in relationship to Transcendental Meditation and the Awakening Meditation. In this podcast, We're going to talk about mantras in many other ways. My friend Bob used to say, One of the first steps towards Awakening is to get out of the pounding surf. If you're tossed about and ground down into the sand under giant waves, You don't have much wherewithal or capacity to do much else but just simply try to survive, Much less devote time and attention towards Awakening. Mantras can be used to help get you out of the pounding surf. I remember when I was living in Austin a long time ago, I went to a talk by a guy that was a specialist in what he called self-talk. Perhaps you've heard of it. And what that is, Is often when we're separated from ourself, We have a lot of negative talk, A lot of talk to ourselves, Self-talk, In relationship to hurt, Fear, Or anger. We feel anxious and we say things to ourselves about how anxious we are or we feel hurt. We might be down on ourselves, We might despise ourselves, We might be angry with ourselves, We feel anger. So, His talk was about changing your inner talk, Self-talk. As we've talked about in other podcasts that we've done previously, Thoughts are lenses and we shine the purity of our clear awakened light, Which is active and always present in all of us. It's who we are, But we shine our light through the lens of our minds and our emotions. If our minds and emotions are negative lenses, What we get is a negative life. We get negative self-talk. That's a negative lens. When we go to a movie or read a book, What we like about these pastimes is that we can forget our life and we can identify with the hero or heroine of the movie or book. And although they go through a lot of ups and downs, It's much easier on us because it's not really our life. We're just transferring our life temporarily over to the hero or heroine. And in the end of the movie or the novel, Typically the hero or heroine triumphs and we feel good. That was a good book. That was a good movie. Now, If they don't triumph, We often say, Oh, That was depressing. We don't want to go see negative movies or read negative books generally, Because we already feel that way about our life. We're looking for an escape. When we listen to guided meditations, What happens? Close your eyes, Take a deep breath and begin to relax. Well, Already that's a good thing because typically we aren't relaxing in our life. And then we'll visualize the person guiding the meditation. We'll say, Imagine you're here in a beautiful park, Lying down right next to a wonderful stream. Listen to the sounds of the stream. They feel so relaxing. And imagine you put all your troubles on a log drifting down the stream and it just drifts away. And as you do, You feel better and better. Imagine that you get up feeling relieved and good. You see a path in front of you. You walk down the path through a beautiful forest. And as you go deeper and deeper into the forest, New wisdom comes to you, New delights. You feel lighter and lighter with every step. Anyway, You get the point. You're changing your current negative self-talk by participating in that guided meditation for the images and visualizations and experiences that you're being guided into. And you feel better and better and better. And you start to access some of your natural being, Some of your natural intuition, Some of your natural creativity starts to shine through because you're no longer shining through the negative lenses that you've created for your life, But rather you're shining your light through the lenses of the guided meditation. So your pure light now can be enjoyed by you. Often the problem with a movie, A book, A guided meditation, Or anything like that is once that experience is done, When it's finished, After the movie's over, You're back to your old life. Same with the book or often with the guided meditation. Although in any of these things, The book or the movie or the guided meditation, There may be embedded teachings. And so you may come out a step better than you were before you went in. My friend, Bob, The first step to awakening is to get out of the pounding surf. When you go to a good movie or listen to a good guided meditation or read a good book, You relax and your system can relax. And when you're relaxed, You can begin to move forward in your life. Other ways to get out of the pounding surf would be perhaps to get a better job or to get out of a relationship that's unhealthy, So on and so forth. Other ways to get out of the pounding surf are to use mantras because just like changing your self-talk, Your negative self-talk to a positive self-talk, Mantras do that as well. And mantras can work on many levels. They can work on the level of content that is positive imagery or positive vibrations. That's a physical level, Or they can release negativity in your body, Or they can actually produce better things in your environment. And I'm going to talk about all these things, Plus possibly a few others in this podcast. First, In relationship to negative self-talk, You can create your own mantra. I am courageous. I am peaceful. I am relaxed. I am calm. I feel well. I am well. I am creative. I am happy. I'm joyful. Now, At first you may not feel these things, But as you repeat them over and over and over, You're replacing the negative opaque lens, That shining negativity into your life with a positive lens. And after a time, Your energy of being won't be transmuted into a negative spin, But rather will shine through in a more happy way, In a way more aligned with you. So you'll just start to feel better by changing your thoughts, Changing your lenses. Sanskrit mantras often have that feature in them. I am that means I am the infinite. So hum, I am everything, Including the infinite. We'll talk about that in a little bit, But Om Namah Shivaya. I am what Shiva is me. I have become one with Shiva. I've let me go. And Shiva has become me. Sat Nam literally means I am truth. My name is truth or my being is truth. And by truth, They mean existence, Uh, The infinite all. And in India, Often you might say Sat Nam. That means you're affirming that you are the beautiful infinite, But the greeting is Sat Nam, Which is you're affirming in the, That the other person is that too. Everything around you is the infinite and beautiful Sat Nam Namaste, The infinite and me acknowledges and sees the infinite in you. Will you do this enough times, These kinds of mantras and you start to feel better because you're flowing with truth. When you name a truth, Even if you don't feel it, Even if you're blocked, Your being hears it, Your being flows through this new lens and truth flowing through a lens of truth creates more openings, More truth, More light, And you start to feel better. It's not awakening, But it's getting you out of the pounding surf. Another way to get out of the pounding surf is the vibrations of the mantras. I'm going to start with toning first, And we'll work our way through different kinds of vibrations. But toning is a way that you can let your body release, Pent up fear, Hurt, Trauma, Anger. Often what happens when an emotion continues to fester and thoughts continue to fester in our consciousness, It goes into our body and it goes into our muscles. And even if we change our thoughts and our emotions, Often our body will carry the trauma for years or decades and post-traumatic stress disorder, Much of our trauma is carried in our body. And they found that say in the natural world, Polar bears and other kinds of animals, Cats, Maybe all animals, When they're stressed, They'll just sort of naturally shake, Release the emotion that went into their body. And then they're fine. They're in the present moment. We don't do that. We interrupt it. We don't want to think about it. We tighten up, We eat ice cream, We eat cookies, We go for a jog, We do anything, But get in touch with our feelings. So they go into our body, We get locked up and we have post-traumatic stress syndrome, As well as other disorders, Some health disorders. So one way to release all this is what's called toning. And in toning, You just feel what's going on in your body. You feel a tension and you give it whatever sound wants to come out. You give it a tone. Ah, Ah, Ah, I don't know. Whatever sound feels like coming out. That's a vibration that is being released. And in the sense that it's a vibration, I'm going to let it get in under the umbrella of mantras. I don't know if it's technically a mantra, But maybe, But I want you to be aware of it. Toning can help get you out of the pounding surf because you don't have to know a whole lot. All you have to know is my stomach hurts and you give it a sound. Maybe be off by yourself. So you're not a self-conscious, But just give it a sound. Let it vibrate. Well, Mantras do vibrate. And in Sanskrit, The beauty of that language is the vibrations have an energy that helps you, That heals you. The sound, The word for tree has a vibration that feels like a tree. The in Sanskrit, It's not just a word label, Just a random sound. The vibration or word for sky has a vibration that is the vibration of the sky. And the other words include vibrations that are very profound and powerful. For instance, You could say, Om Namah Shivaya. That means Shiva has become me. Om is the infinite sound, The sound, The first sound of creation, The sound of creation happening Om Namah, My name is, Or I'm one with Shiva, Shivaya and Shiva is the infinite, Both unmanifested and manifested. Shiva is in all the world. So when you, In all of creation, So when you affirm Om Namah Shivaya from a content level, From a non negative self-talk level, You're proclaiming God has become me. And if you say that often enough, You begin to open up and you begin to discern the right way to go in life, The proper things to do, What is the good flow for you, The good direction, A power also comes through your body. So things begin to transform around you and flow in a good way. The actual vibration of the sound Om Namah Shivaya, Na is earth, Ma is water, Shi is fire, Va is air and Ya is ether. So it's including a vibration of all of creation. These mantras have been chanted by billions of people, 24 hours a day for thousands of years. When you make a vibration in the universe over and over and over billions of times by billions of people, By thousands of years, It develops a power to it. Perhaps you've been to a cathedral where people have been praying for hundreds of years. And even though nobody's in the cathedral, You just sit silently and you feel the infinite. I remember I was with my brother-in-law and his family, My sister and nephew, And we were in Theravada Namalai and we came across a carving of Ganesh and it was a rock. It was just a rock, But it was kind of shaped like the elephant Ganesh and they made a temple of it. And he could feel it. He was amazed. I remember saying, I've never felt the power of a rock before of Ganesh. He could feel it and it changed his life. He was stunned. Well, Lots of people have been praying over Ganesh. Ganesh removes obstacles. So if you want an obstacle removed, You pray to Ganesh. You say the Ganesh mantra, Which is Om Gam Ganapate Namaha. Basically you start with the vibration of the universe Om and Ganesh has become me. Namaha I am, I have become Ganesh Ganapateya. And Ganesh removes obstacles. That's what people have been seeing and visualizing Ganesh doing. And the story of Ganesh is overcoming infinite obstacles and he's very open-hearted and he helps others. So this has been going on billions of times for thousands of years. And when you are around a carving of Ganesh, Or you say the Ganesh mantra, You feel the vibrations. It opens obstacles. It removes obstacles in your life. So this is getting out of the pounding surf and there are so many of these mantras that actually have, Let's call it, I don't know, Powers to them. Let's call them powers. The word mantra actually means it's coming from a very high vibration. It's a sacred text and, Or it has powers that do things in the world. Another mantra is Sat Chit Ananda. Sat Chit Ananda. It's a very popular one. Sat means truth. It's the infinite. It's the deepest truth is where everything comes from. So it's the infinite. It's the feeling, The experience, The truth, Truthfulness of knowing and being everything. Chit is awareness that when you're meditating on some level, Intuitively you're one with everything. And therefore, You know, The truth you're aware of it. And Ananda Sat Chit Ananda. Ananda means bliss. And once you sit in your awareness long enough, We've talked about this in other podcasts, It starts off feeling like nothing because truth doesn't feel like a lot, Maybe nothing. Maybe nothing. When you're aware of something, Aware of your hand, There's no sensation in the awareness, But as you put your attention on the awareness long enough, You start to glow and you glow into bliss. And that's Ananda Sat Chit Ananda is a very powerful mantra. So you say that mantra over and over again, Truth, Awareness, Bliss, And that starts to vibrate through your being through your incarnation. And it becomes easier for you to realize these in your life, Especially since it's a true mantra. It represents really all the time. You are Sat Chit Ananda. Sat Chit Ananda. Your being is Sat Chit Ananda. A basic vibration. Om is the sound of the universe being created. It's, It's the universe coming into existence. It's that which is beyond existence coming into existence. And you can hear it as you become clear. You can hear it all the time. I hear it all the time. Funny story. I was walking down the beach years ago and I've been to Bhutan. I've been to India. I've been around a lot of Tibetan monks. I had one living with me. I've heard a lot of chanting, A lot of homes, Uh, And they have very beautiful home chanting. Well, I was walking down the beach and suddenly I heard what I thought was a group of monks chanting home. It sounded just like that. And now I was up at about five in the morning, Walking on the beach or six in the morning. So, And I'd never seen a monk on this beach. It's pretty deserted ever. In fact, I don't think I saw anybody on the beach, But yet I heard them chanting. So I turned around, I felt kind of cheapish, But I turned around looking cause I, I couldn't just keep walking. It sounded like a bunch of monks. I turned around, There were no monks. I was hearing the sound of the universe. That is the first time it broke through. I guess I just became clear enough that I started hearing it. Then I realized that people repeat these sounds that some people hear those that don't hear them, Repeat them to bring their consciousness, Their being their body out of the pounding surf and get it vibrating according to the truth of who they are. So even though they don't hear it, They mimic the sounds by chanting them. So that's the sound of OM. Another use of mantras is you can just listen to them. You can listen to somebody chanting those mantras. Often they will accompany the mantras with beautiful music and the vibrations and beauty of the music and the mantras can help you relax. They can settle your nervous system down. If you're locked up inside, It's hard to awaken. But if you start to open, Open, Open, Open, You're in a better position to eventually take further steps on your awakening process. Perhaps you can begin to open and really experience the power of a very good meditation. When you do a good meditation, Like the one I described that I call the awakening meditation, When you do it over a period of time, Things settle out, They relax those things that are blocking you dissolve and melt into their basic ingredients, Peace, Love, And well-being. They don't feel that way when they're all snarled up, But that's what they are. And as they melt back into your being, You become more clear. And as you become more clear, You become more radiant. And as you become more radiant, You awaken. You don't have to wait until you're perfect to awaken, But to fully awaken, You do. You, You awaken all through your body, Maybe not perfectly, But awakened enough that you can really experience it. Another mantra is Sata Nama. That's a good one to sing or chant Sata Nama. Sata Nama. Sat means, Sa means infinity. Ta is birth. That's, Or coming into creation, The infinite, The infinity manifesting into creation. Remember that which is beyond creation and creation are all two sides of the same coin. They're actually the same thing, But from different perspectives. So Sa and Ta are very tied together. Na is death. And that is the same as transformation. If you have a pain, It has to dissolve and eventually disappear. Therefore you could say die for it to transform into peace and love and wellbeing. It's a necessary flow and Ma is rebirth. So that pain is, It dissolves Na then is reborn Ma into a higher vibration, Which is peace, Love, And wellbeing. Sata Nama. So when you know these mantras, You can chant them and they have a very powerful effect on you. The mantra I mentioned Om Nama Shavaya. They also say it's so powerful. You're manifesting in this world, In your incarnation, A free flow of the infinite becoming you, That you even overcome the negative effects of other things around you all the way up to planetary influences. In India, People are chanting mantras 24 hours. You are hearing people chanting mantras all the time, Like it or not, You are saturated in mantras. It's so much a part of the culture, At least down South where I go. As far as meditation is concerned, You can use mantras to open up your seven energy centers called chakras. You can sit down, Close your eyes and put your attention on your root chakra. That's at the base of your spine and vibrate the mantra long seven times. That's L A N G. Then you move your attention to your genital area and you say the mantra V A N G. Then attention up to your solar plexus, Wherever you feel the energy in that area. And again, Seven times for each chakra, R A N G. And then up to your heart area, Wherever you feel the energy there and Y A N G seven times. And then up to your throat chakra, H A N G seven times to your third eye, O M seven times. O M. And then to the top of your head, You're just silent. You feel the infinite and that opens up your seven main energy centers, Your chakras. You do that each day if you'd like. There's another kind of meditation that I haven't mentioned in this mantra series yet, And it's called Centering Prayer. It was developed by Father Keating, A Catholic monk. I met him in Austin and it's performed just like you do Transcendental Meditation. You sit in a relaxed position, You close your eyes, You breathe normally, And then you chant your mantra inside of you. The difference here from Transcendental Meditation is Transcendental Meditation gives you a meaningless sound for a mantra that's done so that you don't activate your mind thinking about aspects of your mantra. Like if your mantra was peace, You might be wondering what, What does peace mean? What kind of peace? How come I don't feel peace? When you have something you can understand, Then you can think about it and the mantra itself is a thought. So TM sidesteps that by giving you a sound that doesn't mean anything. We talked about that in the podcast before. Centering Prayer rather takes quite a different approach. They say, Yes, No, Actually pick out a mantra that does mean something to you. Peace or wellbeing or Jesus or Buddha or Shiva, Whatever means something to you. So let's say our mantra is peace. We sit in a relaxed position, Close our eyes, Breathe normally, Chant peace, And then just relax. And if our mind wanders, We bring our attention back to the mantra peace. And if another thought comes up, We go peace and we let both of them go. We let the mantra peace drift off along with the thought that was coming up. So we're not getting involved in the thought and we're not really getting involved in the mantra peace. We're just letting them both go. We do that for whatever time period is comfortable for us. Often they start with five minutes and over time you work yourself up to a 20 minute meditation or possibly longer. You're consistent and it's best to do your meditation every day as it is with all meditations. The advantage to the Centering Prayer meditation is it does begin to get you out of the pounding surf, Something that you can understand peace and something that you do want in your life. Peace, Peace. And although you're not getting involved in that word or that mantra peace, It does have an effect on you. You know what that word means. And it has an effect, Just a vibration, A vibration of understanding and it calls forth in you the peace that you are. So it serves two purposes. You focus on the word peace instead of getting involved in your thoughts and you have the benefit of the positive self-talk or the positive vibration of peace rather than the negative self-talk that's been going on. So you interrupt the negative self-talk, Which is probably actually the thoughts that were wanting to come up or the emotions that were wanting to come up. So this is an excellent way to start your awakening path to use the Centering Prayer meditation or the Transcendental Meditation. And then when you feel comfortable, Transition into the Awakening Meditation. And we did talk about the Transcendental Meditation and the Awakening Meditation in the last podcast. Plus the other podcasts that have preceded this, We've talked tons about awakening. So if you haven't listened to those, I would just start with number one and work your way forward. If it's something you feel you'd like to do. I started off this podcast saying that the actual meaning of mantras, One aspect of it is they invoke power, Which is manifestation and creation in this world. So there are mantras that when you say them and you visualize what it is that you want, A power is generated to create that thing. For instance, You could say, Ohm and visualize what it is that you want or Om Namah Shivaaya and visualize what it is that you want or Om Gam Ganapati Namaha. And you could visualize what you want and just know that Ganesha is removing anything that would block you. We've talked about the vibratory qualities of mantras and visualizing and creating, But there's also a connection in invoking a being. For instance, You could ask Jesus for something. You could say Jesus and picture Jesus. I would like such and such and picture that. That's called a prayer. The way that we were taught in India to manifest something is you have a strong intent, A strong desire, A real energy for something. And you picture the outcome as if it's already happened. You already received what it was that you were putting out into the universe. You work towards it. You can invoke a deity to help you if you'd like and or picture grace rushing in to help you. So mantras can do that. You are invoking Shiva or you are invoking Ganesh or any one of the other thousand representations or arms of God. In the Christian world, You can invoke Mary or Jesus or the Holy Spirit or God. You can have a prayer. You could call those mantras or you could call them prayers. But there is the aspect when you invoke, When you say a mantra, For instance, A mantra could be Jesus. That could be your mantra, Jesus. When you say the name of Jesus, You are invoking Jesus and perhaps you are connecting to Jesus. So he's in your life or Archangel Michael or Mary. So there's that aspect to mantras as well. There's a lot going on with mantras. Now, Most of what we've said in this podcast is centered around opening up your nervous system or manifesting things or becoming healthier. These are things that occur in creation. They're not really fully awakening. However, They are steps on the path to awakening. You have to get out of the pounding surf in order to be centered enough to awaken. Often it's not absolutely necessary, But it often is helpful. I say all of that to say that at some point mantras like training wheels, You let go of them. And also you let go of grasping, Let's call it in this creation, Because you're realizing yourself. And once you realize yourself, You don't need mantras to try to get things because you are everything. You don't need mantras to get love because you are love. You don't need mantras to get peace because you experience yourself as peace. So mantras are a very good first step, But eventually you are in this world, But not of it. So you don't have to grasp things. I say this because sometimes people get hooked on all sorts of addictions and even spiritual paths and processes can become addictions. We can become addicted to mantras. Wow, These are powerful. I'm experiencing great power or addicted to running or certain foods or anything in this world. We can be addicted to drugs, Anything, Alcohol, Anything. The idea is anything that serves you is helpful, But it's like training wheels. And once you learn to ride your bike, Once you realize yourself, You let these things go. You let mantras go. Ramana said his observation was any spiritual path, Any process is a good one. And if it helps you, You should do it. But as you do it, If it is helping you, You should be opening, Opening, Opening. And as you open, Open, Open, You let go of that practice a bit and then a bit more and a bit more. For instance, With mantras, You start off chanting them aloud. And then over some months, Maybe you chant them quietly aloud. And then after some months, When you actually realize that you're opening, Opening, Opening, You just chant them silently in your head, Not out loud. And then as you notice your opening, Opening, Opening, Perhaps months later, You just very silently, Barely every so often chant your mantra. And then when you're just about awakened, You just simply feel the mantra and then you become the mantra. And then there's no saying of the mantra. So you're letting these things go bit by bit by bit. Same with breath work or any kind of tool that you're using. Most of you probably know plenty about mantras. If somehow you don't, You can always Google mantras and the internet will pull up tons of things about mantras. They're very interesting and instructive. I would go to live demonstrations. There are plenty of podcasts where people are chanting and talking about mantras. I would listen to those. The only thing I would caution you about is don't get lost in the world of mantras. They are beautiful. There's a lot to be said for them, But if your path is to awaken, Don't get lost in any world. Buddha said, Don't even get trapped in heaven because that is a world itself. And if you get trapped in heaven, As beautiful as that is, You're in a different world and you're not awakened. You're just with other people. They've got wings on, They're angels or something. So don't get trapped anywhere. Not even in mantras. Of course, Once you're awake, You are the mantra. You're in this world, But not of it. And you can do whatever you want. You're here to play and to enjoy and to express your infinite being. So you enjoy whatever you'd like. Okay, I look forward to talking to you next time. Take care. Have a great week. Bye.

Reviews

I liked learning about all the various Indian and Sanskrit mantras and what they can be used for. Thank you!

Thank you! This was such a lovely talk and the depth of your knowledge is astounding!

Such an upbeat inspiring talk! I appreciate your eclectic approach in explaining mantras.

Fantastic Again! Thank You 🙏 William. As always, looking forward to more.
~ Jennifer Lea