Unlike Asana, Mantra is not a step-by-step instructional process

Hi all, just letting you know I am still doing yoga, but mainly with a mantra practice. I would say once I started exploring this practice, it grabbed me and directed me. Reflecting if I could “teach” this to someone, I would say it would be next to impossible. Everyone has a different constitution and that constitution is guided by the practice. Your practice could never be replicated by someone else with the same results.

Mantras give the practitioner a very deep inquiry guided by devatas. Repetition gives them fuel, or a battery charge if you will. Once the power is a certain capacity, things change dramatically. Once you have “been charged” with one mantra, others will find their way to you depending on what you need.

The one result of regular mantra practice is that it accelerates the burning of karma. This can be a painful process. You may lose things that you think you need, but don’t. Relationships may go into upheaval and even end. That is because you are changing.

You never notice the bad habits that get lopped off. You just lose the desire to do them. They are replaced by a feeling of santosha, or contentment. Santosha will radiate through the practitioner who becomes unbothered by worldly things, but maintains them more easily some how.

You become sensitive to the universe. It is painful for a while. Planet placements effect your core being. Then you notice how mantra practice somehow protects you from malefic astrology. You become immune to emotional hardship, and simply radiate contentment.

At least that has been my experience, and as I have read others, it seems to be a somewhat universal experience. Things may change, and I will update you. But for now I have found contentment and power.

I am posting a picture of my amaryllis that blooms once a year. This flower is a good metaphor. I water it regularly and take care of it with faith, and then it rewards me with its annual flowers. When one “waters” their practice with mantra, you too will bloom in a short while. Have faith.

Revisiting Mantra as a practice

About four years ago, I wrote a post on how to start a personal mantra practice. I noticed the date of the blog post, and it was right before a lot of things radically changed in my life: my mother and stepfather moved away, America got very strange with Trumpism, my father-in-law just passed away a few months prior. I wrote about how the pranava, or AUM (OM) can “dissolve” one completely, unless tempered with the assistance another deity. In many ways, after I started my mantra practice, my reality “dissolved” right before my very eyes.

Four years on, my practice has changed quite radically. I am not apt to do asana as much if at all. Almost as if that part of my practice has “dissolved.” The one constant is that I have a mantra practice. Every night I listen and chant silently. The practice has not only helped me cope with the Trump years, and has increased my sense of resiliency. Mantra feels like it is beyond prayers. When one prays, one is apt to ask for personal favors from the divine. Mantras align you with the vibration of the divine, and allow you to realize all you need is within, and you have far more than you can ever realize in this lifetime.

Mantras fall into the most of yoga’s categories, like Bhakti yoga (the yoga of devotion), Nada yoga (the yoga of sound), and Laya yoga (the yoga of absorption). On a broader level, it could be Karma yoga (yoga of action) and even Hatha yoga (as it can work with chakra sound forms). A few years ago when I started, I simply used “LAM” which activates the Muladhara (root chakra).

I am not trying to proselytize here, as everyone is different and will have different results from this practice. I am simply stating that mantras feel like they are working for me at this point in my practice. They are transcendent of all the physical aside from the ability to listen and speak.

Gandhi once said: “One must be completely absorbed in whatever mantra one selects. The mantra becomes one’s staff of life and carries one through every ordeal.” It was a mantra that gave him peace and inner power to face adversity and the greatest of challenges with equanimity.

I cannot tell you how many times in the past four years how many times I’ve faced my personal fears and was at my lowest emotional points, how much mantras have given me strength to face them and emerge victoriously.

If you want to start your own practice, I would recommend just setting time aside to listen to the Ganesh Mantra: Om Gam Ganapataye Namah. Here is a nice version of this chant. Ganesh, always comes first, as he is the breaker of obstacles. Even if one just uses this mantra, it is sufficient. I feel after a long practice with this mantra, others will reveal themselves to you as needed.

Many blessings on your practice.

Kinako turns one!

Our beloved Golden Retriever turned one this week! In Hawai’i, the first birthday for kids is a big deal and usually involve parties with scores of friends. My wife and I are those type of dorky dog parents who celebrate such occasions for our pet knowing we will get eye rolls. To celebrate, we dressed her up with a lei and a kids birthday hat. We bought the fancy treats at the fancy dog store and gave them away to all the dog park dogs during our nightly play outing. During her annual vet visit, at sixty pounds she has a clean bill of health. Looking back at the past few years, our family has had some tough breaks, and I can’t help to think that she was brought into our lives by some type of divine intervention.

When things were really bad, I would often practice the Narasimha mantra. I felt this mantra gave me protection and wisdom to solve impossible dilemmas. At a time when my health was declining and there was a lot of tension, this golden dog manifested out of seemingly nowhere and had encompassed almost all aspects of my family’s life. Shortly after her arrival, my health improved and the tension decreased. Even when she was non-potty trained puppy, she was still brought immense joy to us. Could this be a manifestation of Narasimha’s good will? Let’s just say I still practice the mantra daily.

 

 

 

 

Starting a personal mantra practice

IV.1 janmauṣadhi-mantra-tapaḥ-samādhi-jāḥ siddhayaḥ

“The mystic powers arise due to birth, herbs, mantras, the performance of austerity, and samādhi.”  Edwin F. Bryant translation from “The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali.”

After my last post, I have had overwhelming requests about instructions on how to start with a mantra practice. As a disclaimer, I am indeed a novice in this area and am still figuring it out on my own, but in my toils I would like to share some insights I have gathered about this practice.

Mantra-s fall under the Laya Yoga spectrum of all the yoga-s (Hatha, Raja, Kundalini, Bhakti, Jnana, etc.) Laya yoga is the yoga of absorption. Much like the big bang theory, it is said the universe began with the pranava, or “AUM” and will dissolve in “AUM.”

Traditionally, mantra-s are given from guru to shishya (teacher to student) in what is called diksha (initiation) and are kept in secret otherwise the potency of the mantra will vanish. As we live in an age where this tradition is vanishing, the guru-less aspirant has to find their own way.

That aside, there are many different types of mantras one can chant without diksha and still receive benefits. For those practicing Hathayoga, the bija mantras of the chakras can be uttered. This is how I started my mantra practice. Each chakra corresponds to an element, and each element has a mantra.

Just as one does not start to build a house with the roof or windows, all are useless without a solid foundation. Therefore, it is highly advisable to start with the Earth element. The Earth element is the mantra LAM pronounced LUM. That corresponds with the Muladhara Chakra known as the “root” chakra.

Before moving onto anything else, I would focus on that mantra. I did this mantra for about 4 months every morning for 108 times. Repeating the same mantra is called japa. This was at a time when I was in a stressful low paying job. It seemed that since I had began the practice, I received a sense of stability and eventually a higher paying job in an established company. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but it has led me into having faith in this practice. As a rule of thumb, one should never expect rewards for mantras as that is not the point. Just like when a child prays to God to get a toy, the likelihood of the child getting the toy will be low (and the best answer to that prayer is denying the toy, lest the child will get spoiled).

The second type of mantra is nama sadhana, or the names of God practice. For me these hold the most power. They require that one be a bhakta, or one who’s yoga is based of faith and devotion. Traditionally, all nama sadhana should begin with a mantra to Ganesh. There is so much lore behind these mantra-s, that I would take a whole encyclopedia to explain. You can research on your own why Ganesh should come first. His mantra is “AUM GAM GANAPATAYE NAMAH.”

Once you utter the Ganesh mantra, then you can utter others. BKS Iyengar, in Light On Pranayama offers the eight syllabled mantra “AUM NAMO NARAYANAYA,” the five syllabled “AUM NAMAH SIVAYA,” the 12 syllable “AUM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA,” or the 24 syllable Gayatri Mantra which I have blogged about in the past.

There are “masculine” mantras which usually correspond to Ganesh, Vishnu, Hanuman, and Siva (there are many many others), and there are “female” mantras which usually correspond to Durga, Saraswati, and Lakshmi (and many many others). It is said in most of the literature that the female mantras contain “shakti” which has tremendous power. Please use care when using these mantras.

On a final note, it is advisable not to utter “AUM” solely without using the multisyllabled mantras stated above. As said in the beginning, the universe began with “AUM” and will be dissolved in “AUM” and may just dissolve you with it.

Linked here is a tutorial on how to use a mala to count your mantra-s. Hope this is helpful and many blessings!

 

 

Tapasya

I’ve been a busy soul of late. My teachers are conducting a teacher training in Beijing and I have been subbing most of their classes. My normal schedule of teaching three classes per week has now mushroomed to eight. That wouldn’t be much if all I did was teach yoga. But in between teaching I have a full time job and caregiving duties.

On my sub days, I teach a 7 am class, go to appointments and hospitals all day, then return to the studio for a 5:15 pm and 6:45 pm class. I don’t get out until 9:00 pm.

As yoga teachers, we are sometimes called to summon great strength and fortitude. To cheerfully face a class of students after a full day of work is difficult. It is not something that is taught in teacher training. It is something that must be cultivated through practice.

I’m finding the hardest part isn’t so much teaching the classes, it’s maintaining my performance at my full time job which requires me to provide mental health services for needy people in the community.

One of my clients is homeless and stays in a bathroom for shelter. I met this client to fill out forms to get help from community resources. As I was leaving the appointment, the client asked me “do you have anything to eat?” I told the client to wait and scrambled to the nearest convenience store and bought a few Spam musubi-s (think sushi, except with Spam) which is a ubiquitous staple of Hawai’i. The client appeared grateful when I returned with the food.  I am finding that these moments give me the strength to carry on this crazy schedule.

Another interesting part of my practice now is I am using mantra-s to help give me energy, offer me protection, and give thanks for my blessings. As I am driving from appointment to appointment and class to class, I recite specific mantra-s. If I know I will be in a potentially dangerous situation, like an inpatient psychiatric hospital setting, I will recite a Durga mantra. For my long drives to the office, I will recite a Ganesh mantra or a Vishnu mantra. If I am feeling tired, I will chant a Hanuman mantra. All give me a special feeling depending what I need. And of course to express my devotion to the divine who has allowed this all to be possible.