mantrams have different sounds and come from diverse traditions. But essentially they all do the same thing: turn us away from our dependency on what lies outside — money and things, awards and position, pleasure and comfort, selfish relationships and power — to the serenity and goodness within our own being.

In the teachings of the Tantras, the goddesses are said to have three forms through which they can be engaged: the image we see in paintings and statues, the mantra, and the geometric form, or yantra. Each of these forms, the Tantric sages say, fully contains the energy of the deity. As we tune into that unique energy signature, it will start to

In the Chungnan Mountains south of Sian, I once met a Buddhist master who had founded four Buddhist colleges before finally retiring to spend her last years in a mountain hut. She told me in all seriousness that mantras were taught to humans by beings from another world. No doubt their authors were from another world. At the very least, it was a