Week Five – Mantras

We went live with Week Five on Wednesday April 29th, 2020.

You can watch the entire YouTube recording HERE.

Below we are breaking it down into seven separate chunks.  The format for this (and every week) is that there are some meditations broken up by some commentary about the nature, purpose and benefits of meditation.

Part One – Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to week five of Introduction to Meditation.  For four weeks we’ve been looking at meditation that involves placing our attention into the present – via our breathing, our bodies, emotions, or anything else that is happening right now.  This week we are changing track to look at a different type of meditation.

Part Two – The first meditation (10 minutes)

Relatively quickly we get down to do our first meditation. Simple, classic, focussing on the breath. When you notice you’ve lost focus, simply let go of the new focus and re-focus back on the breath. Start again. Rinse and repeat.

Part Three – Mantras (i)

Mantra meditation involves repeating a word, a syllable or a phrase over and over. Commonly when we meditate this is done silently in our head, but it can also be chanted out loud and there is also a practice of writing the mantra over and over.

Some have claimed that this type of meditation is an Eastern construct and a vehicle for making everyone into a Hindu, or Buddhist. But as we explore in this part of the class we see how this type of meditation has been practiced in every tradition for thousands of years. And although it comes to us from religious pratices, it does not require any particular faith or tradition to explore it and find the benefit that people throughout the ages and across all cultures have discovered.

Part Four – Meditating with a Mantra

The important part – doing the mantra meditation (or as the Sufis would say, allowing the mantra (zikr) meditation to do you).

Part Five – Mantras (continued)

Mantra meditation is very simple. Yet there are a few pointers that might be helpful as you explore this practice.

Part Six – Final Meditation

The culmination of the class – we’ve warmed up to this point and hopefully this is where you get the best experience of mantra meditation.

Part Seven – Wrapup and Close

Congratulations for getting this far.  See if you can now practice a little bit everyday.