I had been chanting a mantra in my childhood 'to acquire knowledge and learning'. But as I grew up I abandoned it for several reasons, not realizing its importance, and because it was 'inconvenient' in the hostels of the colleges where I studied. Although I felt guilty later I could not revive it becase I had forgotten parts of the essential preliminaries. Now I find that mantra sounds can be effectively used to calm the mind as well as to create a mood of reverence and devotion.
I sit in the easy posture and close my eyes. The sight is cut off. I am able to bye-pass the mental images and the incoming sounds by being attentive to their comings and goings. I am able to ignore them.
But the part of the mind that controls speech is murmuring. It is a chatter-box giving a continuous running commentary. The ‘Broca’s Area’in the brain is a restless child. I try to calm him down with a toy to play with. The toy is a sound or a word, say a ‘mantra’. The mind goes on repeating it instead of indulging in running commentary or murmur. The sound or word has particular significance to me in so far as it is sacred for me, given to me by my father, and attributed to be created by a great Rishi. It creates a mood of reverence and devotion.
That part of my mind is thus continuously engaged. The attentive awareness is now left free to witness the goings on in the mind. Drowsiness attempts to creep in. Alertness resists it. Any resistance is conflict. It interferes with calmness. Something interesting, something new has to pop up in the mind to ward off boredom. Memories are ever ready to come up. But I don’t want them. They create nuisance. Then what, what can be new? Look more keenly and wait?
Friday, October 3, 2008
murmuring mind - the Broca's Area?
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