Today I’ll be leading a mantra meditation today live on Periscope {9am PST/12pm EST} as part of the #GlobalMeditationScope that Anita Wing Lee organized {and organized like a BOSS in less than 10 days}.
By the time you read this my meditation may have already happened in your part of the world but you can visit the replay through the Periscope app for 24 hours. I’m also going to get a copy to embed here permanently, so don’t worry if you miss it. You’ll be able to watch it down blow the post once it’s completed.
My meditation is focused on the mantra:
Om Mani Padme Hum
I love mantra meditation because it’s the best {IMO} for people with busy minds. If you’re Ego is talking {i.e. repeating the chant} you can’t think. It helps to keep your mind busy so your soul get ascend.
Mantra is a Sanskrit word that consists of two words:
Man – meaning mind
Tra – meaning vehicle
A mantra is a mind vehicle to help us go from one place to another. Maybe for you it’s going from stressed to calm or from unfocused to clarity. In the case of this mantra we’re going from suffering to compassion while connecting to Buddha consciousness.
The mantra Om Mani Padme Hum consists of six syllables that, when chanted, help to clear and release six realms of suffering. Suffering is unavoidable, as the Buddha taught, so rather than trying to avoid suffering we need to learn to release it. This manta helps us to do that.
OM – releases pride
Ma – releases jealousy
Ni – releases passion/desire
Pad – releases stupidity/prejudice
Me – releases poverty/materilism
Hum – releases aggression/hatred
OM helps us to connect to the consciousness of the Buddha. The OM that we know in Western culture is actually the secondary version or transformed version of the original AUM. This is the sound of creation and carries all sounds and vibrations within it. The letters represent birth, life and death.
A = {ahh} birth
U = {uhh or oo} transition
M = {mmm} unfolding into new form
This became OM because when the A and U are written together in Sanskrit they become O…hence AUM became OM.
Mani means jewel and symbolizes becoming enlightened, compassionate and embracing love.
Padme means lotus and symbolizes the process of growing from the mud up to the sun and unfolding into consciousness and enlightenment.
Hum means indivisibility and represents that interconnectedness between the wisdom and the practice, the fact that without the practice the wisdom or enlightenment cannot be attained.
The mantra and the practice of chanting it helps us to shed our Ego and release our suffering so that we may unfold our soul and expose the jewel within, allowing us to be a vessel for compassion and love for ourselves and the world.
The thing about this whole journey to enlightenment is it’s not a one shot and you’re done sort of thing. It’s very much a practice. We do it once, we may feel nothing. We do it a second time and might feel a twinge. We do it a third time and we get a quick flash of it. And so on and so on. The more trips we take in the vehicle the closer we get to the destination.
Once we start to get a sense of what that feeling of stepping out of our Ego is like and we can recreate that feeling of bliss and enlightenment we can call on it any time we need it. But it takes time and practice.
So if you get the chance, come hang out with me and do some chanting today or watch the replay down below {when it’s available}.
