#mantra practice

[compassionmattersmost]

Neti Neti #18: The Path Beyond Concepts and Spiritual Thought

Question: In my spiritual journey, I often find myself fascinated by various ideas and philosophies. While they seem to offer profound insights, I keep returning to the practice of ‘Neti Neti.’ How do I reconcile the richness of these teachings with the deeper truth that lies beyond concepts and ideas? How can ‘Neti Neti’ guide me to the silent awareness that transcends even the most profound…

[syn0vial]

i appreciate that in the boba fett expanded universe canon, we have multiple moments from multiple authors that boil down to "despite his reputation/appearance, boba fett is not fearless, and is in fact doing his level best right now to walk calmly away from this objectively terrifying situation rather than breaking into a fucking sprint in the opposite direction"

[jon-sedai]

Anyone else ever think about how the last hero’s legend is a story about a group of 13 companions who went out into the winter cold as an act of self sacrifice to save those they left behind? And how that is knowingly or unknowingly replicated in the northern tradition where old men venture out to die in the harsh winters so that those left behind have a higher chance of survival? It’s just me? Ok.

[whentherewerebicycles]

ok more AI thoughts sorry i'm tagging them if you want to filter. we had a team meeting last week where everyone was raving about this workshop they'd been to where they learned how to use generative AI tools to analyze a spreadsheet, create a slide deck, and generate their very own personalized chatbot. one person on our team was like 'yeah our student workers are already using chatGPT to do all of their assignments for us' and another person on our team (whom i really respect!) was like 'that's not really a problem though right? when i onboard my new student workers next year i'm going to have them do a bunch of tasks with AI to start with to show them how to use it more effectively in their work.' and i was just sitting there like aaaaa aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaa what are we even doing here.

here are some thoughts:

yes AI can automate mundane tasks that would've otherwise taken students longer to complete. however i think it is important to ask: is there value in learning how to do mundane tasks that require sustained focus and careful attention to detail even if you are not that interested in the subject matter? i can think of many times in my life where i have needed to use my capacity to pay attention even when i'm bored to do something carefully and well. and i honed that capacity to pay attention and do careful work through... you guessed it... practicing the skill of paying attention and doing careful work even when i was bored. like of course you can look at the task itself and say "this task is meaningless/boring for the student, so let's teach them how to automate it." but i think in its best form, working closely with students shares some things with parenting, in that you are not just trying to get them through a set list of tasks, you are trying to give them opportunities to develop decision-making frameworks and diverse skillsets that they can transfer to many different areas of their lives. so I think it is really important for us to pause and think about how we are asking them to work and what we are communicating to them when we immediately direct them to AI.

i also think that rushing to automate a boring task cuts out all the stuff that students learn or absorb or encounter through doing the task that are not directly tied to the task itself! to give an example: my coworker was like let's have them use AI to review a bunch of pages on our website to look for outdated info. we'll just give them the info that needs to be updated and then they can essentially use AI to find and replace each thing without having to look at the individual pages. to which i'm like... ok but let's zoom out a little bit further. first of all, as i said above, i think there is value in learning how to read closely and attentively so that you can spot inaccuracies and replace them with accurate information. second of all, i think the exercise of actually reviewing things closely with my own human eyes & brain can be incredibly valuable. often i will go back to old pages i've created or old workshops i've made, and when i look at them with fresh eyes, i'm like ohh wait i bet i can express this idea more clearly, or hang on, i actually think this example is a little more confusing and i've since thought of a better one to illustrate this concept, or whatever. a student worker reading through a bunch of pages to perform the mundane task of updating deadlines might end up spotting all kinds of things that can be improved or changed. LASTLY i think that students end up absorbing a lot about the organization they work for when they have to read through a bunch of webpages looking for information. the vast majority of students don't have a clear understanding of how different units within a complex organization like a university function/interact with each other or how they communicate their work to different stakeholders (students, faculty, administrators, parents, donors, etc.). reading closely through a bunch of different pages -- even just to perform a simple task like updating application deadlines -- gives the student a chance to absorb more knowledge about their own unit's inner workings and gain a sense of how its work connects to other parts of the university. and i think there is tremendous value in that, since students who have higher levels of navigational capital are likely to be more aware of the resources/opportunities available to them and savvier at navigating the complex organization of the university.

i think what this boils down to is: our culture encourages us to prize efficiency in the workplace over everything else. we want to optimize optimize optimize. but when we focus obsessively on a single task (and on the fastest, most efficient way to complete it), i think we can really lose sight of the web of potential skills to be learned and knowledge or experience to be gained around the task itself, which may seem "inefficient" or unrelated to the task but can actually be hugely important to the person's growth/learning. idk!!! maybe i am old man shouting at cloud!!! i am sure people said this about computers in the workplace too!!! but also WERE THEY WRONG??? I AM NOT SURE THEY WERE!!!!

and i have not even broached the other part of my concern which is that if we tell students it's totally fine to use AI tools in the workplace to automate tasks they find boring, i think we may be ceding the right to tell them they can't use AI tools in the classroom to automate learning tasks they find boring. like how can we tell them that THIS space (the classroom) is a sacred domain of learning where you must do everything yourself even if you find it slow and frustrating and boring. but as soon as you leave your class and head over to your on-campus job, you are encouraged to use AI to speed up everything you find slow, frustrating, and boring. how can we possibly expect students to make sense of those mixed messages!! and if we are already devaluing education so much by telling students that the sole purpose of pursuing an education is to get a well-paying job, then it's like, why NOT cheat your way through college using the exact same tools you'll be rewarded for using in the future job that you're going to college to get? ughhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHh.

[lostlavenderer]

Me, actively sobbing behind the wheel: hot girls hit curbs, hot girls hit curbs, HOT GIRLS—

[nomadman108]

Lakshmi Visits: Timely Reminders

Today I have a story to share. It’s one of those stories in which on little random (as if!) event or occurence leads to another, then another. Like life really – one thing leading to another. When I think about it, this small sharing is very much like many of the other stories I’ve shared: about my prayer life; about realisations and revelations I encounter along the way. (note from inner…

[saganssorcery]

It's the shadow moon, so today I thought I would share some more of my shadow healing techniques: 

Today I want to dive into the nature of negative self-talk and patterns of thinking, and how we can alter these patterns in our thinking. 

I used to suffer with awfully negative self-talk. I would often repeat things that were awful in regards to myself, saying every day things like "I hate myself" for example. 

I'm going to share with you a technique I created to alter these modes of thinking. It allows us, over time and with regular practice, to alter our thought patterns to better align with that which we wish to believe about ourselves. 

First of all I would like to explain how this works:

Our brains naturally go down the path of least resistance when it comes to our thoughts, when we have extremely deep rooted negative patterns of thinking the brain will naturally go down this channel before it can come to terms with anything else.

Think for a moment that thoughts are like a river flowing from a spring, the river will naturally go down the path of least resistance to reach the ocean. What the aim is with this technique is to carve a new pathway in the mind so that the metaphorical river will flow down the one we consciously create, instead of the negative pathway. Unfortunately the river has very likely lodged itself into a very deep crevice, and as such we have to create an equal to larger crevice with our will power and determination to begin digging out the positive pathway in order for our thoughts to divert down it automatically.

The technique is a form of positive brainwashing, the idea is to brainwash ourselves into healthier thoughts. While this technique is very effective at reprogramming any negative self-talk, no matter how deeply ingrained, it does require continuous practice until it has done its work.

I am now going to share with you a rough version of my ritual in the hopes that it gives you ideas on how to make your own personalised version. The more personalised your magick is the better in my opinion.

Okay let's begin.

Some of these steps are optional so do what you want with them:

-  Pick at least 3 nice things about yourself, it can be absolutely anything. It can be things that you don't even believe about yourself, but you wish you did, any idea at all that you wish to reprogram yourself with. At first though I wouldn't recommend picking loads as you don't want to overwhelm yourself as you are getting used to the practice. You can always make new versions or expand on it at any point once you've gotten into the habit. 

-  (Optional) Once chosen you can make a sigil to represent these ideas if you would like, but you don't have to. You can also add any other magickal tools into the mix like incense and/or candles. 

-  Once you have chosen and drawn your sigil (if you chose to make one), it's time to repeat those good things you wrote for yourself as if it were a mantra. Repeat them 108 times every day. This will take longer at first but ends up taking about 15 mins to complete once you've gotten the hang of it. 

(𝘞𝘩𝘺 108? 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 108 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘏𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 108 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 1 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 0 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 8 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 15 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.)

-  If you have meditation beads these will help with the counting but if not then counting on the fingers is completely okay, just remember to mark a tally on a piece of paper every ten chants so you don't forget where you are.

-  (Optional) If you created a sigil, once complete you can release this in any way you feel is best for you. The easiest is probably via lighting a candle and carefully burning it in the flame. 

Over time your mantra will seep into the subconscious so when the intrusive thoughts randomly pop up, you force yourself to combat it with the mantra, over time this becomes almost automatic.

Eventually that even stops, you won't have to sing the mantra anywhere near as much cause you will glow the very things you have been reprogramming yourself with. 

The idea is to keep at it for as long as it takes, it might take quite a while if the negative pathways are very deep, but it just takes practice and determination to carve out a deeper more beneficial path for the thoughts to go in. I think of it like doing workout reps but for your brain, it works in a similar way by building strength and creating big changes through a regular regime and repetition.

©️Sagans Sorcery 🔥🖋️

[enhanced-operatives-division]

Improvement :3

[puriwaves]

Eternal Nature Of Gayatri Mantra

By KRISHNA ACHARYA BHATNAGAR

A human being’s most important and sacred duty is to remember God by singing His glory for all the bounties he has bestowed on humankind. For the Hindus, Vedic prayers are very sacred. Hymns of the Vedas are known as mantras. Some of the mantras are prayer-mantras. One such hymn in the Yajur Veda is the Gayatri mantra. It is a Beej mantra or seed syllable, derived from ancient primeval sounds.

The origin of the text of the Gayatri mantra has been elaborated in the Manu Smriti: “Brahma milked out, as it were, from the three Vedas or Rig Veda, Yajur Veda and Sama Veda, the letter ‘A’, the letter ‘U’ and the letter ‘M’ and formed by their coalition three monosyllables, together with three mysterious words — Bhur, Bhuvah and Svah or earth, sky and heaven”. Thus the text of the Gayatri mantra was composed as Om bhur bhuvah, svah, tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dheemahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat. The mantra is conceived as the worship of Lord Hari, of Aditya or the Sun and also as pure Nirguna worship of Brahma.

Japa or chanting of this mantra with concentration and understanding, ushers in inexplicable mental peace, calm and solace. According to Agni Purana, the syllable ‘ja’ destroys the birth and death cycle and the syllable ‘pa’ destroys the sins. Thus japa of this mantra has the potential to unite the soul with the supreme being.

It has miraculous powers which can infuse us with courage and confidence. In the battle-field of Kurukshetra, in the Mahabharata Bhishma advises Yudhishthir to recite the ‘spiritually powerful’ Gayatri mantra. A wonderful miracle was witnessed when the late Swami Gitananda performed Guru Puja in Pondicherry. “The flower plates shook with powerful vibrations of the chanted mantras, and glasses of water shivered, bubbled and frothed”. In this mantra there is latent spiritual power which by regular japa and meditation can transform the mind into pragya or wisdom.

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Amongst the mantras I am Gayatri”. The Goddess Gayatri Devi is the incarnation and manifestation of Brahma, who resides in all living beings. The Gayatri mantra is also known as Savitri or Sun mantra. It is addressed to the divine power in the Sun.

The Svetasvatara Upanishad says, “The one affluent divinity is hidden in all beings. He is all-pervading and is the inner-self of all creatures. He presides over all actions and all beings reside in Him. He is the inner-witness. He endows all with consciousness and He is Nirguna or free from the three gunas”. Almost similar exposition of this mantra has been given in Isa Upanishad. However, the Rig Veda has defined this mantra from a different angle. “The illumined sages like Surya constantly see that infinite all-pervading supreme reality Vishnu without any obstruction as though their vast intuitive eye or vision was spread over the spiritual sky”.

All Vedic prayers have emerged from Om, which is synonymous with Brahma, and have ‘Om’ as prefix. “Om is a primeval sound. Exhaustive exposition of this mystic word has been given in Mandukya Upanishad. The gist of which is, “The word Om is this very soul that was in the past and all that would be in future. That which is beyond all this is also AUM”. Om represents all physical and astral bodies, both manifested and unmanifested, from the external most physical to the internal most spiritual core in their manifestation in four cosmic planes”.

Before recitation of the Gayatri mantra pranayama is immensely beneficial both for the mind and body. This helps in concentration. There is a very simple mechanism for this breathing exercise. Plug the right nostril by right hand thumb and then breathe deeply by left nostril as long as possible. Then exhale slowly through the right nostril. This exercise may be repeated as many times as possible.

Recitation of the Gayatri mantra, can be Vachik or chanting loudly, so that it is audible to listeners; Upansu or reciting in a very low voice and Mansik or mental chanting. The last one is most effective. Gayatri is a spiritual weapon which protects one who chants it, and blesses him with brilliant light of wisdom and spiritual illumination. Japa of the Gayatri mantra is a specially designed, efficient spiritual ritual for the realisation of the divinity of the self. It is nitya karma.

[compassionmattersmost]

Neti Neti Series No. 12B: Reflecting the Pristine Mind Through Spiritual Practice

Question: Now that I’ve realized that the I-sense cannot directly experience the pristine mind, how can I use the spiritual practice of Neti Neti to help the ordinary mind and ego come closer to reflecting or mirroring the qualities of the pristine mind? Dear friend, There comes a time in our journey when a quiet realization emerges—a truth that feels as though it has always been with us, just…

[santmat]

Praxis! Spiritual Practice. "Hallowed be Thy Name…" Sacred names are key in Gnosticism and related movements. Orthodoxy has something called "The Jesus Prayer." In Gnosticism invoking the power and protection of divine names was central to ruling over the All and transcending the archons, the cruel hand of fate, etc…. In Trimorphic Protennoia there are five names mentioned. For the Orthodox version, this is an author who has taught much about this: The Jesus Prayer, by Lev Gillet: https://web.archive.org/web/20070927234536/http://www.coptichymns.net/module-pagesetter-viewpub-tid-1-pid-155.html

[satanfemme]

I'm keeping some specific pronouns in my bio as my main preferences, but ftr I'm an "any pronouns" girl now, a true clowngender dog as it were. it/they/etc are now on the table if ur ever feeling fun about it.

[ellefindsherbliss]

practice makes...more practice 🖤🤍🖤

[blackpinkofficialupdates]

JENNIE - Mantra MV Rehearsal

[yourdreamysalamander]

"Monk walk" A blessing in disguise. I felt a need to start my road and ground my spiritual practices. At the time I felt my vibration was lost on the spiritual road. I felt I needed to engage in spiritual practices like a man dying of thirst and needing water. How was I too begin? I had no structure. No routine to solidify my inclining spirituality. Growing bird wings that are aching to learn how to spread and fly. I heard a man talk about his journey. His mount onto his spiritual road and reground of himself. He went on to join a monk monastery to find himself and his new path before reengaging society. That is a bit extreme for me. :) However, he pointed out a practice that he was taught and acted on. He would walk in meditation watching his thoughts. He would then focus on the mantra of "love, strength, and peace." And focus on that thought repeating it to himself the words. I thought to myself that is a great, simple, and easy starting place. And so I did, for a week straight walking around my building for a quick break. I started to shift and retune my vibration just by that. Then, I would have a snow ball effect of thinking about other things from that point of view. Gearing up my spiritual practices from that point of view. Low and behold I am on my grounded spiritual path and now expanding in many directions and practices. Causing lifestyle changes. Vibration changes. Relation changes. A lot of things shaking up and reorganizing itself. A blessing in disguise. Just with that one starting practice. Thanks, bud. Interesting to note on how the universe can appear to help when there's a block and we're not sure how to overcome it. Something simple and random. Totally worked to fulfill a change in direction of my life. I haven't done it since. I will do it tomorrow. :) Bright blessings. Sending positive vibes. :) ! Love, Strength, and Peace.

[dkscore]

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra: Meaning, Benefits, and Chanting Practices

The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra is one of the most powerful and revered mantras in Vedic tradition, dedicated to Lord Shiva. Known for its healing and protective qualities, it is believed to bestow longevity and immortality. This article delves into the meaning, benefits, correct way to chant, Vedic astrological significance, Read more >>