Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques

Mantras are traditionally devotional & are said while turning beads. People saying mantra are in effect doing 'bahkti' yoga. I have never done a course of TM or read the literature about this issue you're raising.

However, my feeling from reading what you said is...

If someone is repeating a 'focus word or phrase' the emotional intent may tend to accummulate in some people & get stuck* somewhere in the body & the mind.

*In Taijiquan the advice is often to 'sink the qi to the dantian'[belly.] Teo Ah Keng, my Taiji father said to me that one should be sinking the feeling to the soles of the feet through the physical training so that the soles of the feet become very hot, especially the balls of the feet when Kidney 1 acupoint is located. Then the qi [internal 'life force' energy] will rise naturally to the 'mingmen' in the small of the back & up to baihui acupoint of the top of the head. This is the explanation that Chinese teachers give.

If a practitioner happened to be angry then repeating something over & over could work the person into a frenzy. A bit like people get when chanting at a sporting event or in a street march. The energy would probably accumulate in the throat, head & chest.

*2 In traditional Indian Yoga it is 'prana' that is circulated & instead of 'qi' going up the back & down the front as in Chinese medicine the explanation is that the 'prana' moves in spirals as positive & negative forces up a central channel in the centre of the body & chakras are located at various points along the way.

A lot of people in the west have been studying & modifying Asian meditation techniques & a lot of teachers have come & taught westerners for a variety of reasons, often purely for financial profit. Teachings often get modified out of recognition. Just like cooking asian food things are modified because some ingredients are hard to get, or there are easier ways to do things, or changes are made to suit the weatern palate & some people are just after a quick fix.

I hope my comments are useful.

Replies:

Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques, by , 09/13/03 Excuse me -- the previous message was written by me., by Laszlo Holics, 09/13/03 Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques, by Lindsay Smith, 09/13/03

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.