Wholistic Fitness

pic;  feeble ilg Beginning Again and Again during a personal Practice of “Japa Mala” whereupon each bead of one’s Blessed Mala is fingered mindfully with an inner recitation of a syllable from one’s Blessed Mantra

Rarely can i peruse a paper or blog or scan through any form of social media these Kali Yuga days without reading or hearing the abuse of the sacred meditation technique known as Mantra.   The traditional and revered definition of mantra is from ancient Tibetan Buddhism and literally means;  “that which protects the mind.”   What is it protecting us from?   Essentially, the ahamara and manas – ego and lower mind, respectively.   Both ahamkara and manas produce self doubt, limits, habituated patterns, and negativity.  In a sense, Mantra protects us from our own mind!

There are two salient features about Mantra which separates it from affirmations (which really is what most non-Practictioners confuse with Mantra)

1) Mantra is meditation technique uniting the mind with a sacred seed sound (bija)  within a mantra.

2) Mantra must be Transmitted by a Teacher within ones spiritual lineage.
As Sogyal Rinpoche puts it,  “When you are nervous, disoriented, or emotionally fragile, inspired chanting or reciting of a mantra can change the state of your mind completely, by transforming its energy and atmosphere. How is this possible? Mantra is the essence of sound, the embodiment of the truth in the form of sound. Each syllable is impregnated with spiritual power, condenses a deep spiritual truth, and vibrates with the blessing of the speech of the buddhas. It is also said that the mind rides on the subtle energy of the breath, the prana, which moves through and purifies the subtle channels of the body. So when you chant a mantra, you are charging your breath and energy with the energy of the mantra, and so working directly on your mind and your subtle body.”

After 3.5 decades of meditation and formal study under my own Tibetan Teachers,   i am still only allowed to impart Transmission and Use of only one Mantra.   It is available for you, as well.   You can CLICK HERE to request a Mantra from myself.

I will say this much about Mantra…without it in my life and my sport performance?   My mind would have certainly been derailed by my various Dances this time around with extreme sports, drugs, alcohol, bankruptcies, great wealth, divorces, marriages, child caring, et. al…instead, through ALL the Dances within my own life,  Mantra has Served and Protected me in unspeakably miraculous myriad ways…and i’m still a Beginning Student in Mantra…