Meditation & Mantra Pt 3

Continued from 28/9/20

Previously discussed that to control the mind, we need to control the body.
To have the “perfect” mind we need perfection in our bodily functions also perhaps.
This is not necessarily the same as perfect health, as we cannot bring along a perfect body functioning system to life, let alone to our spiritual practice.
We can only do so much.
We can only afford so much of a time on getting into shape, attaining our best level of health.
We cannot mend perfectly a pot which has been broken, and from which some pieces are missing and lost.
Having So this perfection is about really what does not hinder our mental progress or stability.
If we can do our meditation without needing a yoga posture, and without being distracted by externals for instance then we have enough as a base to start from.
Then we can seek a practice where perfection is about whatever allows us to do our practice.
Part of the “perception” needs therefore regarding Enlightenment is to understand “perfection as what is.

There is use of the Mantra to be considered.
If have your Mantra, your core prayer, and you can do it with reasonable repetitions, you must be perfect already!
Or the other way around you need no perfection whatsoever to do this practice!
The Hindu sect of Krishna Consciousness strongly advertised the use of the Hari Krishna mantra. Even The Beatles member George Harrison sang a well know tune including this this. Chanting of Hari Krishna. The Beatles also got their mantras initially from Mahesh Yogi way back in the 60s.
Thus Hari Krishna Mantra or Om Namah Shivaya, or other mantras are “advertised”, (not quite the right word, very strongly in Hinduism as being the means of Salvation in this dark age. (Called Kali Yuga).
All you need to do is chant the mantra and, well that’s it, everything is sorted!
This all might seem a bit too easy, so let’s get back to a rather more difficult path, where, (for a start), what you eat and drink plays a vital part in nourishment of your body and your mind, and hence ability to meditate or practice a spiritual path.
What you get rid of it also very important. Left to itself the body endeavors to get rid of as much waste as is possible. Hence the strong value given to fasting.
Exercise, movement, and other activity all have an effect on our human waste disposal and thus our state of health. Other dietary aids include the use of herbs and supplements and various medal medicine substances. In particular the use of adaptogens. (Think Ginseng).
Like bringing a car to a state of fine tuning or renovating an old banger to become roadworthy, so we can, with the right guidance and knowledge, achieved considerable levels of rejuvenation.
In summary, if we take care of our diet we can be assured of a fairly healthy life. True or false? You probably actually know of someone who was so healthy as a Vegan and yet they died from cancer!
Unfortunately also our environment is polluted to varying degrees. Acid rain destroys trees and makes our lakes sterile. That lovely outer layer of wheat or oats, the bran, may contain the larger portion of pesticides and insecticide residues! The body can eliminate only so much of the poison.
What if we are disabled in some way? Well we all are! In old age 100% of us will experience weakening of the body’s defense system, just for starters. We cannot avoid the fact that the body is a rubbish bin that is slowly or quickly decaying its way towards death. So diet is not the solution. Diet and exercise. Both can may help. When we stop exercise, we lose rapidly its benefits, and in some cases find that bulky muscle turning rapidly to flap.

However the system of Hatha Yoga is geared to a permanency of our state of well-being. It is physical yoga tied up intimately with the welfare of the mind, and if we so choose, tied up with a spiritual practice. Is it scientific? Well has science made the world happier? Are we free from disease, war, poverty, mental illness, and misery?
Hatha Yoga then, is a system of exercise not just to make us fit and healthy, (although these are side effects), but for body purification through subtle and microscopic parts of the nervous system. We get clear to graduate from Hatha or Kriya, (action), yoga, towards Raja Yoga, the kingly yoga of meditation. (Or Dhyana in Sanskrit).
We then move into meditation through introspective exercise, and perhaps use mantras to assist the processes.
Mantras are sounds or words associated with inward spiritual states or positions, (such as a bodily chakra). It can be easier to do Japa (mantra repetition), as it may be difficult to spare the amount of time required to perform a range of Hatha and Dhyana exercises to a sufficient level that enables a high degree of yogic perfection.
Most of us cannot aspire to the heights of aesthetics who live in caves and meditate all their waking hours. For most or many the practices enables us to “tick over”, and hopefully live our lives in a reasonably peaceful happy fashion, that may be not much more than just survival.
We need to be able to transcend daily problems at times without putting ourselves into trance like states, seated in the lotus posture. We to switch off as and when needed. Here is where the mantra can help. Try it! (See other writings that deal with mantras in depth).

To be continued…..