Personal Note from Debbie:
I will add to the message below in saying I have been meditating with my Bija mantra for 8 years now. It is such a deep part of me and my spiritual practice. I meditated for many years before receiving my personal bija mantra, but I could never stay with the daily practice and meditation was often a struggle. Since receiving my bija mantra, meditation is home, comfort, peace, healing, and an integral part of me.
If you are interested in receiving your bija mantra, please send me a message through this website or email:
Debbie.ccu14@yahoo.com
The below was written by an instructor I met at the Chopra Center many years ago, Tris Thorp.
What is a Mantra?
With spiritual practices like yoga and meditation becoming more popular, it seems like everyone is talking about mantras. But what exactly is a mantra and how are you supposed to use it?
In our westernized, modern-day spiritual practices the word “mantra” has become as mainstream as “intention.” But the two are actually quite different. The word mantra can be broken down into two parts: “man,” which means mind, and “tra,” which means transport or vehicle. In other words, a mantra is an instrument of the mind—a powerful sound or vibration that you can use to enter a deep state of meditation.
Like a seed planted with the intention of blossoming into a beautiful perennial, a mantra can be thought of as a seed for energizing an intention. Much in the same way you plant a flower seed, you plant mantras in the fertile soil of practice. You nurture them and over time they bear the fruit of your intention.
Mantra in Meditation: Stillness and Silence
At the Chopra, where Primordial Sound Meditation is the favored meditation technique, students are given a personalized mantra, their Bija, which is the sound vibration the Universe was making at the time of their birth. This mantra is repeated silently over and over during the meditation practice to assist the student in transcending the activity of the mind. The mantra is silent and has no meaning so that the mind isn’t focused on any particular quality or outcome. It is simply a vehicle that helps you access heightened levels of awareness.
Awareness, in this context, refers to the ability to pay attention to the choices you make in your everyday life, and recognize when something isn’t working so you can change it. Many people face a lot of stress day to day. You wake up, cook breakfast, feed the kids, get them to school, go to work, drink coffee for lunch, and burn through the day. By the end of it, you’re ready to crash. Then you repeat the cycle the next day.
Developing a daily meditation practice helps you to cultivate a more present, peaceful, and balanced lifestyle, which ripples out into every other aspect of your life. Mantras can help bring you back to that present state of mind.
Mantra: The Sacred Language of Sanskrit
Getting to the ancient root of it all, mantra, at its core, is the basis of all religious traditions, scriptures, and prayers. According to Pandit Vamadeva Shastri (Dr. David Frawley), when carefully chosen and used silently, mantras are said to have the ability to help alter your subconscious impulses, habits, and afflictions. Mantras, when spoken or chanted, direct the healing power of Prana (life force energy) and, in traditional Vedic practices, can be used to energize and access spiritual states of consciousness. Mantra as a spiritual practice should be done on a regular basis for several months for its desired effects to take place.
At the end of the day, the mantra is meant to bring you back to simplicity. We live in such a complex world that it’s easy to get lost in all the details. Mantras can help you circle back to the simplistic approach to life and focus on those things that inspire you and truly make you happy.
With love, peace, joy, and light – Namaste
Debbie
