Thread: does it matter which mantra you use ?

Originally Posted by Justinn

whats the difference between a sentence and a mantra ?
i think philosopher tried to explain it but i didn't quite understand

A mantra is designed to empty the mind. Stop it. It is a meaningless word. I paid 300$ for mine a long time ago. It is designed to relax--completely--even the mind.
A sentence for lucid dreaming is the focal point of intended action, the starting point of human will.

Lucid dreaming has its origin in the jewish nations, mantras in the Indian culture. They are as opposed as inaction and action.

For a complete understanding of mental discipline, one learns both--but they do not confuse them.

However, common to both is getting under the myths of their origin and meaning. The Yoga Sutras were written in a language that was almost dead when written, and they have never been translated correctly. If one undertake the task, one might discover a similarity between the idiology of the sutras with a certain Greek philosophy. Both initiated by language scholars--not mystics. One important anomaly is a phrase that is not common to Indian Lituratue in the Sutras, and has been always missed, but common in Greek formal presentation. "it is a given" if I remember, in about 4 of the suturas. It is a formal presentation about language and the mind.

Another thing, common to Greek thinking, but not Indian, is that the Sutras us a Geometric metaphor "parallel" which, quite frankly is the prime meaning of the idea of yoking in the sutras. What you see is what you think. Perception is the modification of the mind. One learns to cut off perception, blank all imput to isolate the mind. An exercise in mental discipline.

Here is what mystics do. It was known that there was one Patanjali at the time who was a language scholar. Sanskrit was near a dead langauge at the time, a language of scholars. Patanjali hated mysticism, was a realist. So, A new Patananjali was created, one of myth. but here is the rub, how did he also get to be a language scholar to write in Sanskrit? And a third really difficult thing, the name Patanjali itself is composed of two words which denote the core idea of the sutras themselves. There is much more, but what I concluded is that it is probably more than coincidental that the Patanjali lived at the same time as Plato, came up with with a foundation and method of learning very similar with the theory of forms, Both language students, and the name Patanjali a construction. And, that this character appeared in India, but his origins were unknown.


When you search for understanding, you have to dig really deep sometimes. I gave up on it, put it aside for a later restudy of the whole mess.