Meditation 6 week Series
With Marie Jean
Mantra
In the years Iv been teaching, nothing has amazed me more than the vibrational connection of class when chanting OM. To me it feels like 20 people have instantly become one. It also seems students often crave this chant, and I watch the simplicity transform their hearts and minds instantaneously.
Meditation classically involves the use of Mantra or sound. The word “Mantra” means “instrument or vehicle of the mind”. These vibrations, used for thousands of years go beyond beginning and end, quiet mental activity, are pleasing, sounds that do not have specific meanings to keep the mind active.
The mind stays active through the process of association. Introducing mantra temporarily interrupts the association process that keeps the mind active. Mantras break the cycle and allow you to glimpse the space between thoughts. This starts the transformation of you identity from mind to spirit.
Meditation Exercise:
When chanting OM, remember that the AAUUU of the Om resonated in the navel, the OOOOO of the OM pulls upward and vibrates in the heart, and the MMMMMMM of the OM resonated in the third eye center. Chant starting at one minute, then to three, then to eleven, and as long as you like.
- Chakra Mantra Meditation
1. First Center/Root Chakra mantra Lam
2. Second Center/Creativity Chakra mantra Vam
3. Third Chakra/Energy mantra Ram
4. Fourth Center/Heart Chakra mantra Yum
5. Fifth Center/Expression Chakra mantra Hum
6. Sixth Center/Intuition Chakra mantra Sham
7. Seventh Center/Consciousness Chakra Mantra Aum
Homework: Attention and Intention Meditation.
A Place of Worship exercise
Go to two different places of worship (church, temples, ect). Do it on the same day or different days. First attend a service at a place of worship different from the one you were raised in, then go to one you went to as a child (if you did). Participate as fully as you can in the service, finding a shared space while at the same time maintains a witness.
Watch the ways you hold back from participating, the way you judge the congregation and clergy, and so on. Open your heart to the prayers, hymns, fellow beings, images, sense of presence.
This exercise allows you to share an intimate space with those you probably are otherwise unlikely to be with. Witness the ways in which this special context changes your perceptions (projections) of other participants (fellow pilgrims on the path) and allows a sense of either communion or separation to manifest. See if the form of structured worship allows you to surrender to the Divine—through prayer or singing or merely being in the presence of group worship. Enter whatever you learn from the experience in your journal.
Recommended Reading: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga By: Deepak Chopra
