Sara Campbell

Chanting, flute or drum playing, and dancing in demilitarized patterns are ideally natural forms of yoga-meditation, because they silence the hypnotic chattering of thought and give one a direct feeling of shabda—the basic energy or vibration of the universe. This is why Gregorian chant, for example, gives the sense of eternity so absent from meter

It is also said that the mind rides on the subtle energy of the breath, the prana, which moves through and purifies the subtle channels of the body. So when you chant a mantra, you are charging your breath and energy with the energy of the mantra, and so working directly on your mind and subtle body.

The power of something so apparently simple—and so seemingly absurd—as mantra-and OM -chanting is that it fosters a relaxed concentration on pure sound, as distinct from words, ideas, and abstractions, and thus brings attention to bear on reality itself.

Mantra is the essence of sound, and the embodiment of the truth in the form of sound.

This is the only form of knowledge cultivated by a bodhisattva. The knowledge of dharmas turns out to be no knowledge, and the knowledge of no knowledge turns out to be the only knowledge worth knowing.

The word mantra means “protector of thought.” Thus, a mantra is like an amulet or talisman, but one that protects its user’s mind rather than their body.