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azurikai
USA
17 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 02 2017 : 2:05:26 PM
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I am sometimes changing how I do this mantra and am still not 100% sure which feels the most comfortable or what is conducive to 'effective practice'.
In the past few years, I have always done a square breathing method I saw here:
http://visuals.autism.net/main.php?...rialNumber=4
And I found myself recently repeating 'I AM I AM' x 4 in rhythm with my heart. I on one heart beat, AM on the next.
Does such a quick rhythm satisfy the vibrational qualities sought with this matra?
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BlueRaincoat
United Kingdom
1734 Posts |
Posted - Apr 02 2017 : 6:31:39 PM
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Hi Azurikai
Yogani does not recommend imposing any particular structure to mantra repetition. If you do that, you are practising your own techniques, whose results we are not able to predict. In other words, your own experiment. Have a look at this post, in which Yogani is answering a similar question:
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....15385#130881
It is of course your choice if you practice the AYP system or an alternative one. If you decide to stick to AYP, the advice is to read the instruction in the lessons carefully and practice accordingly. Mixing and matching from different systems is not advisable, unless you are an advanced yogi.
All the best |
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azurikai
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2017 : 1:40:46 PM
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Initially I was not intentionally imposing this rhythm, it kind of just came up naturally due to the habitual past programming.
But now I am wondering how the mantra should be done, at what pace, naturally according to the instructions we are given? |
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azurikai
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2017 : 1:46:56 PM
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@BlueRaincoat,
thank you for the answer and the link to the other thread!I found the answer there at the top, where Christi mentions that the mantra 'I AM' should be repeated without pauses between. |
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BlueRaincoat
United Kingdom
1734 Posts |
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azurikai
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Apr 04 2017 : 12:56:46 PM
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Next time I shall do a search instead of opening my own :) But sometimes it is nice getting a personalised response and some direction  Thank you for your guidance |
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colours
Sweden
108 Posts |
Posted - Apr 09 2017 : 9:08:52 PM
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Hello all!
I sometimes find myself repeating the mantra with my breath. For example, in every out breath so to speak. It is not my intention though... If I understand it correctly, just leave the mantra as it is in DM. If there is intention in any direction, it isn't really meditation, is it? That is why you should pick up the mantra Easily without effort.
/colours |
Edited by - colours on Apr 09 2017 9:13:41 PM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Apr 10 2017 : 2:26:16 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by azurikai
@BlueRaincoat,
thank you for the answer and the link to the other thread!I found the answer there at the top, where Christi mentions that the mantra 'I AM' should be repeated without pauses between.
Hi Azurikai,
Beginning the practice, the mantra is repeated silently in the mind without putting any deliberate gaps in between. Once we have begun, we simply let it go as it will. There is no deliberate attempt made to synchronize the mantra with the breath, or with the heart beat or with any other natural rhythm in the body. There is also no deliberate attempt made to stop that from happening, if it is.
It is very much a process of letting go (of any imposed structure) and of easily favoring the mantra whatever is happening in the mind.
This is a quote from Yogani on the subject of repeating the mantra:
"Hi All:
Someone recently asked in email about returning to a "repetition of the mantra," versus just returning to "the mantra" during deep meditation. The latter is the more common instruction. The question was, "Why not advise practitioners to return to 'repetition' of the mantra?" Here is the response:
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Yes, it is repetition of the mantra. But the kind of repetition we use in deep meditation is a faint idea, an impulse, and in its finer states is not repetition at all in the conventional sense. It is just a very subtle vibration deep in the mind, and then ... transcendence...
Of course "repetition" is mentioned in the original instructions for deep meditation, and it is rarely mentioned after that. You'd be amazed how many questions I have received over the years on what "repetition" of the mantra is. The word itself immediately brings up questions about structure, timing, rhythm, etc, whereas, in fact, there is no set rhythm, as you recognize.
The whole point of deep meditation is moving beyond mental structure, and that is why the word "repetition" is rarely used, because to most it implies structure. All the practitioner needs to know is that meditation begins with repeating the mantra, and after that, it will go to less definition according to the unique factors in the person and the particular session. It is like that in easing back to the mantra as well -- it can be at any level of clarity or faintness in the mind. It is easy to find it once we let go of the need for structure, a place to be, or a rhythm to keep.
Analyzing the process can be inspiring and motivate more intention in practice. Any inspiration to practice is good, but increased intention during practice can be counterproductive. During practice, the last thing we want to be doing is looking for a "still point" between repetitions, a fixed rhythm, or whatever else the mind wants to do. That will make the process plural in the mind (the place where plural exists), instead of singular, which is going beyond the mind. So we just easily favor the mantra whenever we find we are off into anything else, including thinking about how we are going to manage the mantra. 
.... Yes, mantra is dynamic. It is for gently keeping the mind active without a set pattern or direction. Then the mind naturally goes wakefully into stillness, radiating, which is certainly not static. It is a natural ability of the mind we are utilizing.
There is no extra strategy we can devise to make the process of deep meditation work better. It works when the mind is gently focused on an object that provides a mental activity without a direction, 99% free of structural overlay (in time it becomes 99.99% free of structural overlay). That is what the mantra is. The word "repetition" introduces a structural imperative, one that has an unlimited number of interpretations, bringing up all sorts of questions. So we just say, "Easily favor the mantra," which covers all possibilities. It is whatever it is for the practitioner at a point in time. It will be something else later -- even less defined as we gradually find ourselves becoming the singularity of abiding inner silence, both inside and outside of deep meditation. " [Yogani] |
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Bodhi Tree
2972 Posts |
Posted - Apr 11 2017 : 01:25:51 AM
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It's a playful dynamic. The most flexible structure you can imagine.
"Don't get set into one form. Adapt it and build your own, and let it grow. Be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend." -- Bruce Lee
That's what easily favoring is like. Elemental. Watery, fiery, earthy, airy, ethereal. The mantra can adapt to all elements of the mind and body. The sound and the process are limitless in potential. |
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azurikai
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - Apr 13 2017 : 7:35:04 PM
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Thank you for the insights Christi and Bodhi Tree!
I think I have definitely been trying to hard with this mantra.
I have also been doing it unintentionally rather mechanically... I think this may have been holding me back, or even generating a bit of a deadening of my senses to bliss.
I will be more natural now with the mantra, letting it flow, drifting with it and letting it be however it wishes to express its self!
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kensbikes100
USA
192 Posts |
Posted - May 01 2017 : 10:02:52 PM
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I'm glad that you see that you should be easy and relaxed with the mantra - I beileve it's the right way. What we don't have is guidance on HOW to be easy. And that's also ok, because I don't believe any guidance is possible.
How would you know when in a particular meditation sitting you are "making progress?" How would you know when you are not? How would you know when a negative feeling or moment is not a part of progress? We are dealing with the most complex and mercurial "machine" known - the human mind and nervous system. It is capable of (in delusion) totally fooling you, and at the next moment showing you absolute raw truth.
I believe we have no choice in life but to allow the mind and nervous system to do what they need to do, and that all of that is purification in some sense. In meditation, that translates to simply knowing when you are not on the mantra, and gently returning to it when you recognize you are not on it. There isn't much more we can do.
And if you believe that meditation is good for you, you have to believe that everything that happens in it is a part of good purification. |
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