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The practice of mantram yoga is well known throughout India as a method of suppressing the wandering tendencies of the mind …Which one is used does not matter from the point of view of acquiring concentration, but it does matter from the point of view of developing any particular quality of character or devotional homage which the mantram symbolizes…
4.4.6.1,Listen … In choosing a suitable formula for his own use, the student should bear in mind that it is not only remembrance that is needed, but loving remembrance. The mantram for such repetition must not only remind him of the Overself but attract him to it. Hence, it should be one that inspires devotion and uplifts character. It should embody spiritualizing thought and gather ennobling emotion around it…
4.4.6.4,Listen A factor in the integral path… is self-recollection, the frequent remembrance of the Overself at all times of the day and amidst all kinds of situations…
4.4.6.4,Listen ... as a sister exercise to the ordinary meditations, the mantram will be useful to many students — whilst as a means to replace them for those students who find formal meditation too difficult or too inconvenient, it is most valuable…
4.4.6.4,Listen … the mantram is a handy device for attracting him to the remembrance of the Overself and making its achievement easier and sure …
4.4.6.4,Listen Practising mantram consists of repeating a selected word over and over, soaking oneself in it. There are three stages: (a) chanting the word out loud; (b) whispering it; (c) repeating it mentally. Then, when repetition ceases, all thoughts cease. Through this constant concentration, the mantram becomes a backdrop to one's daily life. Just as one can hum a tune while attending to other affairs, so the mantram becomes an ever present accompaniment. When one turns full attention onto it and concentrates fully upon it and then stops—all thoughts stop. This is the purpose of the mantram. This result may take weeks or months.
4.4.6.5Listen The repeated invocation of a sacred name, with trust in its saving power, eventually keeps away all other thoughts and thus focuses the mind in a kind of constant meditation. In the earlier stages it is the man himself who labours at this repetition, but in the advanced stages it is the Overself's grace which actuates it--his own part being quite passive and mechanical.
4.4.6.9Listen A further value of mantram yoga is that it keeps the practiser from thinking about himself. The two things--a specific mantram and a personal matter--cannot coexist in his consciousness.
4.4.6.17Listen … To be severed from God is the only real sin.
4.4.6.21,Listen OM means ”I am part of (or one with) the World-Soul.”
4.4.6.24Listen The continual practice of the mantram leads in time to the awakening of his spiritual forces. They rise up spontaneously from their deeply hidden source within him and begin to saturate his mind and overwhelm his ego.
4.4.6.33Listen When the incantatory words of a mantra by constant practice become fully activated, the mantra becomes fully automatic and circles round and round inside the head or the heart just like a revolving wheel. At this deep stage, he is not concerned with its translated or verbal meaning but only with the kind of consciousness it produces. For now it is not a matter of what he is doing but of what is being done to him. The mantra has brought him into a region of released forces which are very active in him.
4.4.6.43Listen The Arabic word for God--Allah--or the Aramaic (Jesus' spoken language) word--Alaha--form excellent mantric material.
4.4.6.59Listen A time comes when there is no need to try to practise the exercise, for the mantram wells up of its own accord. It then repeats itself automatically and silently in his mind alone…
4.4.6.64,Listen It is useful to follow out the mantram system of meditation when the ordinary systems, involving set exercises and formal periods, have been tried and found profitless.
4.4.6.86Listen The affirmations divide themselves naturally into two main groups: those belonging to the Long Path and those to the Short Path. Of the first kind, there is Coué's famous suggestion: “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” Of the second kind there is Jesus’ figurative statement: “I and my Father are one.”
4.4.6.101Listen There is one human activity which is continuous, rhythmic, natural, easy, and pleasant. It is breathing. We may take advantage of its existence by combining it with a simple exercise to bring about a kind of meditation which will possess all these four mentioned attributes. The exercise is merely to repeat one word silently on the inhalation and another word on the exhalation. The two words must be such that they join together to make a suitable spiritual phrase or name. Here is one useful example: “God Is.”
4.4.6.105Listen What is newer than a new dawning day? What a chance it offers for the renewing of life too! And how better to do this than to take a positive affirmative Declaration like, I Am Infinite Peace! as the first morning thought, and to hold it, and hold on to it, for those first few minutes which set the day's keynote? Then, whatever matters there will be to attend, or pressing weighty duties to be fulfilled, we shall carry our peace into the midst of them.
4.4.6.113Listen He is to remind himself constantly of the greater truths, whether he is at home in his room or abroad in the public places. Be still and know that I am infinite power is one such truth. Be still and know that I am infinite joy is another.
4.4.6.150Listen To the degree that a man practises constructive thinking and harmonious feeling, to that degree will he help to draw progressive events and helpful chances to himself.
4.4.6.175Listen When his last thought at night and first thought in the morning refers to the Overself, he may appraise his progress as excellent.
4.4.6.231Listen
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