JAPA MANTRA MEDITATION - SWAMI DAYANANDA

+++ Japa ;Mantra ;Meditation Part 2 +++


PART ONE POSTED ON THE 24 TH DEC

LEARNING ABOUT THE MIND

We really do not have a method to learn about our minds. We only know that we are subjected to a particular type of thinking. For example, we get into a reverie until something arrests our attention and only then do we come back. Is there anything that we have in our thought life - which is our life - that helps us understand our ways of thinking? What do we have to help us learn how to direct our thinking for a given length of time and have the mind at our disposal? We have no directed technique. If we were lucky, we had some intellectual discipline in school which has given us a capacity for logical thinking. In the process, we may have discovered some discipline, but we do not know it is a technique; nor do we use it as one.

JAPA AS A TECHNIQUE

Exercising one's choice is very important in japa. If I choose to mentally chant a word or sentence for a length of time, then I have a technique in hand and can see what happens in my mind. In japa, I know exactly what is to come next. If something else pops up, I know this is not what is expected and I bring back the chosen thought. In the process I learn how to dismiss unwanted thoughts and retain the one I have chosen. This is one important result of japa as a technique. As a technique, any word will work. You do not require the Lord's name or a "spiritual " mantra. Anything can be a mantra, like gring… gring… gring… gring… gring… gring… gring. If you keep on repeating this sound, it will work. An extraneous thought will eventually come, like " What makes this kind of noise? " " A bagpipe, " may be the response. Then you may ask, " What does a bagpipe have to do with my japa?" By returning to the sound, the bagpipe thought is dismissed. In this way, japa works as a technique for gaining some mental discipline. However, japa, is something more than the mere chanting of a sound. In repeating a given chant, you give yourself an occasion to see the ways of your own thinking. This repetition becomes a technique for keeping your mind directed for a length of time - and it can also help the mind gain a certain depth.

THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THOUGHTS

The advantage of repetition is that we can appreciate the interval between two successive occupations of the mind. In " BMW thinking, " listless thinking with no direction, the mind simply moves from one thought to another. This type of thinking is like picking up noodles. If you try to pick up one noodle, you find it coming along with a few others. Similarly, the whole occupation of thinking becomes " as though " a single thought; even though there are many thoughts. Between two thoughts there is an interval. BMW is the name of a vehicle and Germany is the name of a country. Because there is a connection between the two, the interval between them is missed. Repeating a given chant eliminates or avoids the connections between two thoughts because, between one chant and another, there is no connection. Each chant is a complete unit in itself and one thought unit is not connected to the second thought unit since both are the same. Thus, between two chants, there is a period : chant… period… chant… period. There is no comma, only a period, a full stop. Therefore, each chant is complete and, between chants, the interval is available for you to recognize.

PEACE IN THE MIND

What is it that obtains in the interval between chants? Between one thought with a certain form and sound and the next thought, there is no given thought. There is only an interval with no form or shape. This is what we call peace or silence. Because this silence has no particular thought form, there is no thinking as we know it. We always think that peace is something we have to acquire. People even ask for it : " Swamiji, I have everything except peace of mind. How can I gain this peace? " Because the mind is restless, we think that peace is something new that we have to acquire, an attribute with which we have to embellish the mind. Is peace something we have to acquire or is it natural? I once went to a swami, Yogi Ramayya, who was originally a yogi and then became a disciple of Ramana Maharshi. I could sense that he was a person who was at peace with himself. I had committed myself to Vedanta but, at the same time, I had a lot of conflicts in my pursuit. I went to this swami in an attempt to resolve them. He never talked much, but he said one thing to me that really hit home : " FOR RESTLESSNESS, YOU HAVE TO WORK A LOT. FOR PEACE, WHAT IS THERE TO DO? " Having asked this question, he became silent, which I found to be very effective.PART 3 WILL FOLLOW LATER THIS WEEK