Theory from AYP – Start with i am and take it to more subtle or fuzzy levels. when you loose and come back, come to the most subtlest/fuzziest level where you left it.
My question here:
What exactly is meant by this “subtle” levels. I take it to be less clear pronunciation of “i am”. How do we go to more subtle levels in the first place? will it happen automatically or is there a way we can just ease into it?
Another question NOT related to subtle levels:
When i repeat i am there are two ways i can do it
a) listen to the sound of i am as if somebody is pronouncing it and i am hearing the sound.
b) i repeat “i am” mentally
Does it make a difference whichever way we do it?
Thanks,
Near
Nice post Melissa…
As for the I am, you would use the mantra as though you silently say it. Although that is an interesting twist that you would hear it as if someone else was saying it. Not sure what effect that would have ??
Paul
Hi Melissa & Lucid,
That definitely helps. I too experience such deeper levels in meditation and that happens automatically. I just wondered if theres a way that we purposefully take mantra to more subtle levels. Seems natural way is the way it goes.
Thanks,
Near
God might not always give you what you WANT, but he will always give you what you NEED
Hi Near,
Here is a great link on this very topic. See pages 34-35 under the heading Ajapa japa: http://www.swamij.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=7
The process of achieving deeper states with a mantra is nicely explained in this section.
Anthem11
Interesting you came to this one yourself. That’s one technique. Some schools teach it that way, or in a similar way, as ‘listening’ for the mantra. It can take you in rather rapidly.
Hi David,
Is the listening considered to be more effective than plain repeating? Today I was discussing the same thing with a friend of mine who is from ISCKON. He made an interesting comment. Since with listening we are involving more sense organs (the ear included), it will be more effective than plain repetition. But he was making that comment in defense to the HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA mantra that ISCKON devotees chant louder as they listen to it.
I dont know how it applies to our AYP.
Near
God might not always give you what you WANT, but he will always give you what you NEED
Hi Near,
some people find that that ‘listening’ technique pulls them in further, or faster. Honestly, I don’t know how the differences will play out over the population.
One of the nice things about the ‘listening’ thing is that you are probably less likely to keep yourself under the illusion of needing to ‘engage’ something to keep the mantra ‘going’ – you know what I mean?
Not everyone can approach this internal mantra practice in a ‘listening’ way. And indeed, in many cases, maybe what is needed is some time ‘saying’ the mantra, then, when there is some months or more experience in this ‘saying’ (or however long it takes), starting approaching it as listening. Because the experience ‘saying’ probably helps to make the mantra more automatic, after which we can approach it in a listening way.
This listening approach is very similar to the ajapa-japa business in the link Andrew provided above.
Have a good read of that, and perhaps interpret ajapa-japa somewhat in the light of listening for a mantra that is already there.
In my own case at this point, there would not be a difference between doing the ‘listening’ approach and not, since what I am ‘doing’ with the mantra is very like listening anyway.
By the way, I think ajapa-japa means ‘repeating without repeating’.
Best,
-D
It will happen by itself.
The key is not trying and just letting go. Eventually you will go from saying that mantra to it just being energy that is happening by itself.
So don’t try or if you are going to try to do anything it should be to relax and let go.
All the best,
Tom
I agree with Sey and Jonesboy.
That being said, in my case the “hearing approach” seems to bring me deeper than the “speaking approach”. But that feeling of going deeper could be just scenery, who knows…
Often after SBP I sit and wait for the mantra to start on its own (it always does at some point) and off I go. The line between saying and listening is no longer a line, it’s a vapor.
Yes, it is not me doing the practice, I’ll be practiced. Don’t do, just sit and listen…there it is, the mantra, is it a sound, a vibration, feel your breath, feel your heartbeat, feel shambavi mudra, all by itself.
Just sit, listen, feel [OM]
Well, for me it is quite simple.
I start saying it and when I reach a sufficient inner silence ‘level’, it becomes automatic and I can hear it repeating by itself.
Sometimes, it happens once again at the beginning of my Samyama session and I often tell myself : “where am I ?” “But am I not in the Samyama session ?!” "I should then go back to Samyama !.. "
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