In sutra 1.29 it is said that the repetition of mantras prevents all the obstacles(antarayas). Chanting is a beautiful tool and practice that activates the Vagus Nerve which is connected with the parasympathetic system, the vagus nerve branches out to smaller nerves located in the brain, the tongue, the heart, the lunges and the stomach. In moments of stress or discomfort where asana or meditation don’t work, chanting can help you overcome these situations.
In the beginning you practice mechanically by emphasising at the vibration of the syllabus, after that you start to meditate on the meaning and not on translating the words, that’s why is better not to practice chanting on your language. This practice crystallizes the meaning in your brain and cultivates understanding. As each chant has it’s own meaning there will be different effects & knowledge that will be gained.
Om
Puurnnam adah
Puurnnam idam
Puurnaat purnnam udachyate
Puurnnashya puurnnam aadaaya
Purnam eva avashishyate
Om shaantih, shaantih, shaantih
That is whole(Purna).
This is also whole.
From wholeness emerges wholeness.
Taking wholeness from wholeness,
wholeness indeed remains.
That = Outer World, Purna = Full with Divine Consciousness/Whole, This = Inner World, Shantih = Peace
This mantra is from the oldest Upanishads and it allows you to experience the Ananda(Ecstasy) Samhadi (5th), the experience is like you get in and out of cosmos where there is no end and everything is whole.
The ecstatic experience of seeing the entire cosmos as a manifestation of divine law and divine love, of which we are a small but integral and responsible part, will encourage us to reintegrate into the larger framework of nature and the cosmos.
The Ecstasy(Ananda) experienced here has a distinctly raucous character, akin more to the ecstatic dances and drums of shamanic and tribal cultures than the politically correct and upper-class yogic bliss. Psychiatrist Stanislaf Grof divided ecstasies into those with oceanic and those with volcanic characteristics. This ecstasy we talk about here is of the volcanic type.
To assist you in the process of learning how to pronounce this chant you can try listening to the following video while chanting and to repeat the sentences loudly. After a while it is recommended that you drop the video and chant on your own using as a pronunciation feedback only the vibrations in your head (you should feel each word in your whole brain). Once you have a basic idea of the vibrations & you can remember the chant without any props you can go on to the final step and meditate on the meaning while chanting it.
From a western point of view this chant refers to the Mandelbrot Model, which shows that by zooming in a structure the same pattern appears each time after a few iterations e.g. if you zoom in a snowflake, you will always see the same shape no matter how deep you go. This is also a model/theory for the structure of the universe & the parallel universe model. The following video shows the current record zoom which our technology allows us to go, which is 750 million iterations.
Namaste
Marianna Thimiaki & Anthony Charalampous
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- The Story of the Buddha & the Discovery of Mindfulness - November 18, 2018
