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Mantra: the Short Path to Awakening · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

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Welcome to the Buddhisticious Tour Berlin podcast.
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Here we share talks and reflections from our Buddhist
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centre in Berlin. Exploring.
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Themes such as meditation. Ethics and the Path.
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Of awakening in everyday. Life.
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We are part of the Sri. Ratna Buddhist community.
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And our talks are offered freely.
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In a spirit of generosity, we hope this episode supports your
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practice. And your life.
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Yeah, we'll do something a little bit different in this
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session. So the theme that I'd like to
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talk about today is mantra or specifically Buddhist mantra,
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because mantra is used in all different kinds of traditions.
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But I want to talk specifically about Buddhist mantra.
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And the challenge for me is to not say so much that we don't
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have some time to actually chant some mantras.
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So my intention is that we'll have time to experience chanting
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based on what I've said and see what happens, what it does.
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Yeah. So I don't know how many of you
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are in the WhatsApp group for the Centre, the English speaking
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WhatsApp group, but I put a blurb in that earlier in the
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week and I'm just going to read out what I said or part of what
1:31
I said because I began by saying what Buddhist mantra is not.
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Yeah, So what Buddhist mantra is not.
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So first of all, it's not entertainment.
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So it might, it might feel good, but we're not doing it just to
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sort of have a good time. It's not entertainment, it's not
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singing. Lali Taranda told us a brilliant
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story this morning that he once heard a radio programme on the
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BBC and they were talking about Tibetan monks chanting.
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And one of them said, oh, the chanting of Tibetan monks is so
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fantastic. And the other one said, I
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disagree, they just Can't Sing. Because if you've heard Tibetan
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monks chanting, it's very deep and it is amazing, isn't it?
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It has a really powerful effect. And the other one said, no, they
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just Can't Sing. So they're slightly discordant,
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but that produces the effect. I'm not saying that to offend
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Tibetan monks who Can't Sing. I'm saying it to make the point
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that singing is something different.
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So when we sing, there's a certain pressure on us, isn't
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it? To sing well and to sing in tune
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with each other and to be in harmony with mantra?
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We don't have that kind of pressure.
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So it's not about singing. It's not even really about being
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in tune, although it's nice if things sound harmonious.
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But if there's a bit of discord, that's OK.
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In fact, it can make it even more beautiful, as Lalita Ratner
3:01
discovered last night at the Friday class with some
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discordant chanting. So no pressure.
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We're not singing. You don't have to do it.
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Well, it's not a performance then.
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I said mantra is not background music for making offerings.
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So if you've been around for a while, you'll know that often
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when we chant mantras, people come up to the shrine and they
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like candles and they like incense and they make offerings.
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But often what happens is once the last person has done that
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and sat back down, the mantra just stops, as if we were only
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doing it for people to go get up and make mantra, make offerings,
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and not have the awkwardness of doing it in silence.
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But it's not that either. So there's a reason that we
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could chant the mantra indefinitely in the course of a
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ritual, even after everybody has stopped making offerings.
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We could just carry on. The mantra is its own thing.
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Then I said, but this mantra is not prayer.
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It's not prayer. What I meant by that is that
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it's not that we are asking for some help from something outside
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of ourselves that is ultimately real and can do the work for us.
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So we're not giving up our own capacity and ability.
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It's difficult because there's something of that nature, and
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I'll say more about that later, but it's not prayer in that
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sense. It's not a means of manipulation
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to get things we want. It's not magic.
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There are two other things I said.
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So it's not that we are chanting mantra to get something for
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ourselves or to stop somebody else getting something.
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And mantra actually comes from an old magical tradition where
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you would use it for that reason.
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So you would chant certain things like spells to get
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something you want and to stop somebody else getting something
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or to lose something. But mantra we're not using in
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that kind of way. It's kind of the opposite of
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Buddhism. If we're just doing something to
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get something or doing something to bring I'll on somebody else,
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well, that's the opposite of Buddhism.
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So it's not magic in that sense. Then if we strip away the magic,
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we're in danger of reducing it to just something that's useful,
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like a tool or yeah, something utilitarian, some self
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enhancement technique. And mantra's not that either.
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So I say mantra's not a mere concentration exercise.
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There's more to it than that. And then I said it's not a way
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to feel all spiritual and show others how spiritual we are.
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I think I might have been a bit grumpy when I was writing this,
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but you know the point sometimes, and I've done this,
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so this is a confession. Sometimes we use spiritual
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practice to kind of build an alternative identity that's
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better than a non spiritual one that creeps in.
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Chogyam Trumper, a famous book cutting through spiritual
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materialism. It was all about that, how we
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turn spirituality into something that enhances our sense of ego
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basically. So mantra is not about that.
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We could say mantra is cutting through that.
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So what is it all about then? That was the question I posed in
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the blurb for the session today. And the the textbook answer, or
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the answer in the book, is that mantras are a series of
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syllables that come from Sanskrit, from the Sanskrit
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alphabet. And in in chanting them doesn't
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make sense in the way that a sentence of string of words
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might make sense. But it has an effect.
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It has a power. So most Buddhist mantras you'll
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have discovered, if you've heard them, they usually begin with
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the syllable on. Yeah.
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So om is like the cosmic sound. Yeah.
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If, if the cosmos made a sound, suddenly I have images now of
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the Artemis space crew and the photographs that I've seen in
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the week, maybe when they were up there, they could hear this
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really resonant om. I don't know.
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But om is like the, the cosmic sound.
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Reality itself. Yeah.
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How does one describe it other than by those means?
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So when we say on, it's like everything is vast and open and
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nothing defined, nothing pinned down, and then you get the name
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of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. So it could be the Buddha
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Shakyamuni who was the historical Buddha.
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It could be have a look at Eshvara who we have depicted on
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the shrine here. It could be Vajrapani, who I've
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just seen on Brita's screensaver.
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So on Vajrapani, let's say in this case, and then the last
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syllable is what's known as a bija or a seed syllable, the
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essence of whatever. Vajrapani is whatever.
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Have a look at Teshwara is whatever Shakyamuni is.
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The seed syllable at the end is the essence.
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So you have on the big vast indefinable, the Buddha or the
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Bodhisattva. And then if you like both of
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those together and realised so on Vajrapani Hung in that case,
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that's the book, that's the textbook answer.
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Now that's that's the kind of basic thing you need to know.
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But to explore a little bit further and look into how we
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might practically benefit from mantra, I'm going to return to
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the story of Avalo Kateshwara that I, if you've been coming
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over the last few weeks, I've mentioned this every time I've
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given a talk. You can see where my inspiration
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is at the moment. So it's in this story about the
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Bodhisattva, Avalo Kateshwara. And a Bodhisattva is a being, a
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sattva who is interested, if you like, only in Bodie or
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Enlightenment Awakening. So the story goes.
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And if you've heard this already, it's fine.
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I've heard it 1000 times and only now is it suddenly really
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in my mind all the time. So these stories have multiple
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layers. So just just hear it again.
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Listen again. So the story goes that have a
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look at Teshwara. He has this great wish to
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alleviate the suffering of all beings in the entire cosmos.
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It's a big wish, isn't it? But that's his wish.
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He wants to alleviate suffering wherever it might be, wherever
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it's found. So he makes a vow before his
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teacher, who is a Buddha called Amitabha, or Infinite light, the
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Buddha Infinite Light. So Avalokateshwar says, I want
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to liberate all beings in the cosmos from suffering.
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I will work tirelessly to achieve that and to make that
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happen. And he says this is the really
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tough part. He says if at any point I have
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even the slightest selfish thought and wish only for my own
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happiness rather than the happiness of others, at that
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point may my head break into 10 pieces like the Adzaka plant,
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which I googled and found nothing.
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But anyway, maybe it's a plant that has a tendency to explode,
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I don't know. So he wants his head to split
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into 10 pieces like the Adzaka plant, and his body to break
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into 1000 pieces like the scattered petals of a Lotus.
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So if he has the slightest selfish thought, that's what he
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wants to happen. So that's his vow.
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And then off he goes around the world, encountering the
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suffering of different living beings, responding and
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responding to them, helping them, teaching them, the
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Buddha's teaching through the mantra, Om Mani Padme hung.
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So he does that through mantra. He's responding to the suffering
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of the world through mantra. And in this case Om cosmic Mani
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Padme. So those words actually do mean
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something. So Mani is jewel, Padma Padme,
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in this case Lotus. So Om jewel Lotus essence hung.
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It's an on jewel Lotus hung. So that's what he does.
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He's teaching people through the mantra and then he stops and he
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goes deeply into meditation. And in the meditation, he has a
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vision of beings all around the world appearing like an ocean on
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fire. And he sees that despite all his
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work, there's still so much suffering in the world.
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And at that point he just begins to weep tears of sorrow.
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And the tears form a great pool. And on the pool a Lotus comes,
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and another bodhisattva appears called Tara, in female form,
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very beautiful. And she vows to help him in his
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efforts. And then off he goes again,
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responding to the suffering of living beings through the mantra
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on Mani Padme Hung. And then, after so long, he
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stops and he looks out again and he sees the same thing.
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It hasn't worked. Still, there's as much
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suffering, war, illness, sickness, famine, frustration,
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disappointment, sadness as there had been all along.
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And then it happens. Then he thinks to himself,
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what's the use? Like, what's the point in doing
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all this work, all this mantra, all this communication, all
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these responses, and it's not working.
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And then you know what happens? Because he's made his vow.
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His head shatters into 10 pieces, his body into 1000
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pieces, scattered, scattered like the petals of a Lotus, and
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he cries out in agony to his teacher, the Buddha Amitabha, to
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help him. And at that point?
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Amitabha appears, the Buddha Amitabha Infinite Light appears
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and have a look at Khateshwara is spiritually reborn, we could
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say into the form that we have on the shrine here this morning.
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So the thousand pieces are turned into 1000 arms.
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So I don't know if you can see it, but the Halo like thing
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around the body of the figure here, that's 1000 arms and each
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of the arms or each of the hands rather has a an eye in it.
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So there are 1000 eyes to really see the world and respond to the
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world more effectively. And often the hands have
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different things in them, different implements or tools
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that will help him cure or alleviate the sufferings of
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living beings. And then there's this whole
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stack of heads. So the 10 parts of his original
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head are fashioned into 10 different heads looking in all
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the different directions. And then right on the top,
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Amitabha places his own head. So you could say the head of
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infinite light is placed right at the top.
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And the symbolism here is that he's had this wish, this
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compassionate response to the suffering of the world.
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But the the reforming the wisdom eyes, the different faces they
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show that now it's infused with wisdom.
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So the compassionate action and response is conjoined with
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wisdom and real insight into how things are.
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And therefore have a look at Tetra is free to really continue
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his responding to the world's suffering in a in a different.
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Way. So let's just.
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Have a moment with this image or this story and the symbolism of
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the story and maybe what it's doing to you.
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And yeah, that's the third time you've heard it in a month.
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Maybe it's doing something different to the last time.
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So then the question is, what has that got to do with mantra?
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That's why we're here today to explore mantra more fully.
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So I'm just going to draw out a few points from the story that I
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think would help us appreciate what mantra is about and what
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kind of effect chanting mantras can have.
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Yeah. So it's.
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Interesting how the story begins.
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So have a look at Teshwara has a Wish.
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Yeah. He has a wish, and then in order
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to enact that wish in the world, he has a mantra.
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So I would say that we are all in that position.
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Yeah. So everybody here today, you've
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come here for some kind of reason.
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Whether that's because you want to respond to the suffering of
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the world, whether it's because you're suffering yourself and
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you want to explore how Buddhism can help that.
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Whether it's because you're interested in community and
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ethics, or you're interested in Buddhism and religion and
18:09
knowing more about that or ritual, whatever it is, you are
18:13
here because you have some kind of wish.
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There's a reason you're here and you're looking for something, I
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am assuming, but I think it's probably true, that there is a
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wish, individual wish in the room and you have mantra because
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the mantras are available on Mani Padme Hung.
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There you go, there's a mantra. So even if you've never heard a
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Buddhist mantra before, I've just told you one.
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So you have a wish and you have a mantra just like in the story.
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Have a look at Teshra has a wish and he has a mantra.
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So mantra is something that we can simply practice.
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Maybe you have got some experience of practising with
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mantra, maybe not, but it's something we can do.
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And if you have been experimenting with mantra either
19:21
here or elsewhere, maybe you also have had a moment like we
19:27
have in the other Look at Teshpura story where you think
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to yourself, what's the point? It's kind of weird, isn't it,
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that we chant these mantras that are thousands of years of
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thousands of years old coming from a culture that's different
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to the one that we find ourselves in, kind of Germany,
19:52
Western culture. And this is coming from ancient
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India and the Sanskrit alphabet. So it's kind of, it can be
20:01
strange. So maybe we ask ourselves that
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question, why am I doing this again?
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I certainly do. Yeah, or.
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I ask myself, is it really working?
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What's the point? Is it really working?
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Is it having an effect? I have to confess, sometimes I
20:24
just get a bit bored as well, or I, I, I am guilty of this, the
20:31
background music making. It's like, oh, come on, can we
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just carry on with the offerings or do the offerings faster so
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that we can stop the mantra and carry on and then get an earlier
20:44
night or something like that. I have to confess that so that
20:49
can happen. We can question, we can doubt
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whether the mantra works. Yeah.
20:56
Or why are we doing it in the first place?
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Is it an adequate expression of our wish?
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Yeah. But what we learn from the Avalo
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Kateshwar story is that we can have a wish, we can have a
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mantra, we can have doubt. But then in order it to, in
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order for it to be really effective and not just
21:21
degenerate into some form of singing, entertainment,
21:25
background music, all those things, I said mantra is not
21:29
something has to break. Yeah.
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So it might be that for mantra to become effective, something
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has to break. So what has to break?
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Yeah, I'm just going to list off like 5, maybe 6 ideas that I've
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had in the week about what needs to break in order for mantra and
21:54
its real effectiveness to come through.
21:59
And it might be that chanting mantra helps us to break certain
22:03
obstacles down also. Yeah.
22:07
So the first thing that mantra can help us to break, I would
22:12
say, is the domination of rational thinking, the
22:19
domination of the rational mind. Yeah.
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So a few nods in the room. So that's not news that often,
22:28
particularly in our culture here in the Western world, there is a
22:33
strong tendency towards privileging the thinking mind,
22:39
the rational mind. Yeah, there's that really big
22:45
book that everyone always recommends, and I've never got
22:47
around to reading The Master and His Emissary by Ian Mcgilchrist.
22:52
And his argument is that the it's called the master and his
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emissary of master and his servant.
22:59
Because in in western culture, the left brain, the thinking
23:05
rational part of the brain has elevated itself to the position
23:09
of master when actually it should be the other way round.
23:13
And the right brain, the more creative, non rational side of
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the brain is actually should be the master served by reason and
23:25
thinking of rational thought. Like I say, I've never read the
23:29
book, but I like the model. So mantra can help to break that
23:34
because it doesn't make sense really.
23:39
I gave that little introduction and explanation at the
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beginning, but actually we're chanting these syllables.
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It might have an effect, but we can't really say how it's
23:49
working. There have been attempts to
23:52
scientifically prove how mantra works and the vibrations, but I
23:56
don't think the studies have ever got anywhere, so we can't
24:00
explain it rationally. So you're chanting A mantra and
24:04
you're thinking what the hell am I doing?
24:07
But maybe that's a useful challenge.
24:10
Or maybe we have to ask the question which part of me is
24:14
doubting this? Yeah, and what?
24:16
Else is there so mantra can begin to break down the
24:21
dominance of the rational mind. Yeah.
24:26
Second thing that mantra can break down, I would say is a
24:31
kind of neck up Buddhism. Yeah, or an emphasis on, again,
24:37
cognitive Buddhism or just mental Buddhism.
24:41
So the great thing about mantra is as soon as you start to
24:45
chant, the voice is involved. So it's not just mind, it's also
24:51
speech. And in order to produce the
24:54
sound of a mantra, that means our whole body is engaged.
25:00
You can't chant mantra without your body.
25:03
And that sounds really obvious. It is an embodied practice.
25:08
So it breaks us out of thinking that Buddhism is just about mind
25:14
and mental activity. It's also about speech, it's
25:18
also about body, and that means it's the whole of us.
25:22
So when we chant mantra, we do that with the whole of
25:25
ourselves. Third thing, mantra can help
25:32
break us out of what is known as propancha, your mental
25:37
proliferation. So you all know this one.
25:41
We hear a sound, we think it's an ambulance going past.
25:48
Oh, maybe the person was in a car accident.
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I remember when I was in a car accident and it was my fault.
25:58
And I feel really guilty about it.
26:00
And I've always been stupid and forgetful and unmindful.
26:04
And so we go from a simple sensory impression to creating a
26:09
whole world of thought in which we get lost.
26:15
Yeah. So these thought worlds that we
26:18
get lost in mantra is a, an attack on that or a way of
26:23
breaking us out of that. And I would say potentially a
26:27
more effective way or a more accessible way for a lot of
26:31
people than meditation. So when we sit and we meditate,
26:37
maybe we close our eyes, we go inward.
26:41
That can make it easier to get lost in the thought worlds.
26:45
If you're chanting A mantra, it will still happen, like you
26:50
still drift off and think about something else.
26:53
But usually people don't stop chanting.
26:56
So even if your mind has gone somewhere else, your body and
27:00
your speech are still here and they're still engaging with the
27:03
mantra. So we we go off, we get lost,
27:07
but then we come back and the chanting is still going on.
27:12
Yeah. So, so the mantra, the power of
27:15
the mantra is it can really breakthrough that mental
27:18
proliferation. And then maybe more clarity
27:22
arises, or more calm arises if we were to chant for 10-15
27:26
minutes. Yeah.
27:28
Try it. So what else did I have?
27:33
What else does mantra break? Oh, yeah.
27:38
Another thing is those those three things are about our own
27:43
experience. So mantra can help us to what
27:48
did I say? Yeah, break the dominance of
27:50
rational thinking. Drop out of the body and into
27:54
speech and into drop out of the mind into speech and into body.
27:59
And gosh, I'm slow this morning and break.
28:05
Yeah, thank you. Breaking us out of
28:07
proliferation, but they're all to do with our experience.
28:11
I think the other thing mantra can do is break us into a more
28:17
communal experience. So often we chant mantra
28:22
together. Yeah, you can do it on your own,
28:24
but often it's done as a communal practice.
28:29
And that's always interesting because when you're chanting A
28:31
mantra with other people, you can either drown, get drowned
28:38
out by other people, or drown other people out.
28:43
So there's something that you have to do to equalise your
28:46
volume with the collective volume so that you can hear
28:51
yourself, but you can also hear other people.
28:55
So just by chanting the mantra, you have to be aware of others
28:59
and you have to be aware of the collective sound experience as
29:05
well as what's happening for you and the sound that you are
29:09
producing yourself. So that's, that's just a quick
29:13
one. It breaks us out of this is me
29:16
and my practice. Even I'm in a room full of
29:18
people, which again, meditation, sometimes we can slip into that.
29:23
It's not the case, but it's easy to think that that's the case.
29:29
All right. And then the last one before we
29:31
do some chanting, but this is a more subtle 1.
29:36
So I, I think all those things that I've said, they can break
29:39
us out of certain unhelpful habits.
29:42
They can break us out of just just being with ourselves and
29:48
into being with others. I think the other thing that
29:51
mantra can break for us, and this is where we pick up again
29:56
on the story, is it can help to break down the centrality of our
30:03
own self identification. So if you're remembering the
30:07
story, what happens for have a look at Tetra is he has a
30:10
selfish thought. Maybe it's better if I just
30:13
worry about my own suffering and happiness and forget everybody
30:17
else and that's when he breaks. Yeah.
30:21
So you could say all Buddhist practice is trying to loosen, if
30:27
not break, that centrality of our self identity, that sense
30:33
that we're at the centre of things, which, let's be honest,
30:36
we all have. But can we loosen that?
30:40
Can we even breakthrough that? And if we can, what the story is
30:45
suggesting is that something else can emerge, something else
30:49
can come through that is greater than our limited idea of
30:56
ourselves and expression of ourselves.
31:00
So mantra, I would say, is a way of breaking down that centrality
31:05
of self identification and opening up to something greater
31:11
than just ourselves. And if you think about it, what
31:17
we're doing, as I said at the beginning on immediately, is
31:22
saying it's not just you, there's the whole cosmos.
31:27
Yeah. And what is that other than a
31:30
complete mystery to us, really? So om we're already breaking out
31:35
of self identity, then we're saying the name of a Buddha or
31:39
Bodhisattva who has gone beyond self identification and is the
31:45
expression in the world of what we call enlightenment with all
31:49
its manifest qualities. So have a look at Teshwara's
31:53
name translates as something like the Lord who looks down,
31:58
looks down, not not judge mentally, but looks down with
32:02
compassion, with a motherly quality or a parental kind of
32:08
quality. So he's known as the Lord of
32:11
Compassion. Vajrapani, I mentioned earlier,
32:16
the enlightened quality of energy.
32:19
If you have a look at Britain's screensaver, he's blue and on
32:23
fire. Yeah.
32:25
So there's a high energy, wrathful kind of energy, the
32:31
quality of Manjushree, or we don't have Manjushree anywhere
32:35
in here. But is Wisdom the bodhisattva of
32:38
wisdom, Tara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, fearless compassion.
32:44
So when we say the names of these Buddhas or bodhisattvas,
32:48
we're evoking a certain quality. Yeah, this incredible quality of
32:55
wisdom and compassion. And then we have the seed
32:59
syllable, the essence. May that be realized also within
33:04
me. So every time we say the mantra,
33:08
if you were to say it 100 * 1000 * 100,000 times, you're bringing
33:14
that quality into the world or you are evoking that quality in
33:20
the world. In the old magic tradition, they
33:22
said if you say the name of something, it appears.
33:27
So if you say Avalo Kateshwara's name, Avalo Kateshwara, whatever
33:32
he or it is this great compassion conjoined with
33:38
wisdom, it's there. So it's breaking us out of this
33:46
self identification and evoking these enlightened qualities.
33:51
Yeah, OK. So there you go.
33:58
I think now we'll do some chanting and just try see what
34:03
some of all of those ideas and yeah, things have done.
34:13
So it's interesting how as soon as I say that, everybody starts
34:17
getting into position, which is really good, isn't it?
34:21
Because, you know, OK, mantra is something embodied, and it would
34:27
be a good idea if I adopt A certain posture for it.
34:32
You don't have to have a special posture.
34:35
But yeah, just remember that what we're about to do is we're
34:39
using our body as an instrument here.
34:42
Not that it has to be perfectly tuned, but we are using the body
34:48
as an instrument and a little tip.
34:52
So when it when we chant mantra repetitively, one thing we can
34:59
look into is are we holding in the body or is the body free to
35:04
chant? And the area where often we we
35:07
get a lot of holding is in the neck.
35:10
Yeah, particularly where the head and the spine meet.
35:14
So just just allow your neck to be free and your head to be
35:18
balancing on top of the spine. So as soon as we start using the
35:21
voice, the habit is to stick the chin out.
35:25
See see if you can do it with that.
35:29
And we're going to chant the Have a look at Teshra mantra on
35:32
Mani Padme Hung. If you've never done this
35:36
before, just give it a go and see what it's like.
35:40
And the first time we do it, I will just invite you to bear in
35:44
mind the first few things I said so that, OK, you might drift
35:49
off, you might think about things, but at some point you
35:52
will come back and the mantra will still be going.
35:56
So just notice what goes on in your own mind as you're chanting
36:01
the mantra. And at some point, I'll ring a
36:04
bell to bring the mantra to a close.
36:10
And the first time, let me do it twice.
36:13
On Money Padme hung. On money Padme hung.
36:15
And then you can all join in and I'm just going to grab the bell.
36:32
And as some of you know, we sometimes have melodic chanting.
36:36
This is going to be a monotonous chant just so we can strip back
36:42
the whole thing of it being singing and having to be nice.
36:45
It doesn't. We're just making a sound here.
36:47
Yeah. So just a moment to settle for
36:53
me to settle. Oh Manny Padme home.
37:14
Oh Manny Padme home. Oh Manny Padme home.
37:23
Oh, Manny Padme home. So just sitting quietly for a
41:07
moment and noticing the effect of that on your mind, but also
41:13
the body and also the effect on your relationship to the space
41:27
and the room and the other people in the room with us.
41:54
OK, so for myself, there's a very obvious difference.
42:00
I don't know how it is for all of you, but my internal energy,
42:05
let's say, and sensations in the body are different.
42:10
My experience of the room is different.
42:13
The atmosphere in the room feels to have changed through doing
42:17
that. So interesting.
42:22
I hope it's interesting. So we're going to chant again,
42:26
and this time we'll do it slightly differently.
42:29
So just looking at the Buddha at the front of the room, if you
42:35
are on this side of the Buddha, your team won, let's say.
42:41
And if you're on this, actually you're Manny.
42:45
And if you're on that side of the Buddha, you're Padme.
42:48
OK. If you're roughly in line with
42:51
the Buddha and not sure which side you're on, just just choose
42:55
one or the other. Manny or Padme.
42:57
Yeah. And when?
42:59
We do it this time we'll start, I'll start twice and then third
43:03
time is Manny's turn, 4th time is Padme.
43:07
And then you will both alternate one side after to the other.
43:13
And the reason we're doing it like this is because, like I
43:17
said, we're we're tuning in with others.
43:19
So there's our chanting. This is giving us more of a
43:22
chance to also hear the mantra. But traditionally it's often
43:27
said that mantra is more about listening and being receptive.
43:32
So we think it's active because we're doing the mantra, but
43:36
actually the quality what that we want as we're doing that is
43:40
to be listening and receptive to the mantra.
43:43
So this just makes that more explicit because we will chant
43:47
and then we will receive the mantra from the other side.
43:52
And also we can think of this quality of compassion that we're
43:56
evoking through chanting Avalo Kateshwar's mantra.
44:00
That's not something we're doing or putting out there.
44:04
It's something we're tuning into and opening to and receiving.
44:09
Yeah, OK, so ready. A bit more shuffling.
44:20
So twice I do it twice, then money on this side and then
44:26
fourth time this side and then backwards and forth.
44:35
Oh, Manny Padme home. Oh, Manny Padme home.
47:23
The. So again, just sitting and
47:58
noticing the. Effect.
48:06
I'm just. Staying with that listening
48:07
quality, so the mantra is not sounding anymore, but maybe we
48:12
just keep listening. So listening externally, but
48:23
also listening internally for echoes of the mantra.
48:54
OK. So obviously that that was a
48:58
different way of doing it and will have been a different
49:00
experience for myself, I have to say, I found listening to the
49:05
mantra is more challenging and being receptive and staying with
49:11
other people chanting while I listen more challenging.
49:15
Maybe that was a common experience.
49:16
Maybe that says something about me that I need to reflect on.
49:22
So yeah, I just, we were doing it in that way to bring out this
49:26
quality of listening so that, yes, it's something active, we
49:29
feel it in the body, but also it's something that we're
49:32
opening to and listening. To we've.
49:37
Got a few minutes left so I'm just going to invite us to do
49:40
one more round. This time we'll all chant
49:43
together at the same time and we will do the chanting with one of
49:48
the melodies that you might be familiar with from other rituals
49:52
at the Buddhist centre. So just just bring everything
49:56
we've explored and what I've said into doing it in this more
50:00
typical way, the more usual way, and the introduction of the
50:05
melody it I think it's not a degradation.
50:10
So that can bring out a certain quality.
50:13
You know, we have these melodies for a reason.
50:18
Where they've come from, I'm not sure.
50:20
It could have been from somebody's personal practice.
50:24
It could have been they've been picked up from other traditions,
50:27
but presumably they give expression to different people's
50:31
responses to, in this case, have a look at Teshwara.
50:35
So what would the Lord of compassion, what would the
50:39
Buddha's compassionate mind sound like?
50:44
Yeah. So what it looks like, we've got
50:46
these stylized Buddha figures. Compassion looks like a figure
50:51
with 1000 arms and 11 heads from the Indo Tibetan imagination.
50:57
So what? What would compassion sound
51:00
like? And that's what the mantra
51:02
represents, what it would sound like in the world.
51:06
So maybe the melody helps bring that beauty of the mantra out or
51:12
give emphasis to that. So I'll, I'll chant twice and
51:17
then you can join in and we just do this for a couple of minutes
51:21
and I'll ring a bell again to finish money.
51:34
Pardon me. OK, always a shame to break that
54:12
silence after the mantra. So it's interesting, isn't it,
54:16
how in the chanting, the mantra is present and then when we
54:20
stop, it's absent but we somehow feel it or it can still somehow
54:26
resonate or echo. So hopefully chanting the mantra
54:30
together this morning will create that kind of resonance or
54:34
echo throughout the rest of your day.
54:37
That would be ideal. So let's hope so.
54:42
The world needs some more compassion so you now can carry
54:45
that echo out into the world with you.
54:48
And do give give mantra practice a try and see if it has the
54:52
kinds of effects. Don't take my word for it, go
54:55
and try it and see what happens. Thank you for listening.
55:05
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