religious-music

"Om Mani Padme Hum, the sunrise comes! The Dewdrop Slips Into The Shining Sea!"

"We raise our hats to the hand a-moulding us Sure 'nuff, he has the answer He has the answer He has the answer be-duh-be-duh-be-duh-be-duh Om mani padme Om mani padme Om mani padme hum."

"It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast. The first, 'Om is composed of three letters, A, U, and M. These symbolize the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; they also symbolize the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha. Can impure body, speech, and mind be transformed into pure body, speech, and mind, or are they entirely separate? All Buddhas are cases of beings who were like ourselves and then in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from faults and possesses all good qualities. The development of pure body, speech, and mind comes from gradually leaving the impure states and their being transformed into the pure. How is this done? The path is indicated by the next four syllables."

"Gregorian chant, but with it all the rhythm of medieval music, reflects a cyclical (and therefore liturgical) conception of time, which undulates and oscillates without rigid formal parameters of duration because it always returns to itself. Implicit in its thematic structure is the certainty of the answer to any question. Every ritual, in fact, like every prayer, never asks real questions, never reaches doubt, because the interlocutor to whom it is addressed is God. Gregorian chant, therefore, can afford to “range” over indefinite durations because it is supported by the “certainty” of the divine response. Time is given."

"Bring forward a chant, a melody of the heart!"

"Bach's genius lies in having found a logical system necessary to support the unnecessarily repetitive structure of cyclical time, which is no longer “given” as obvious and correct. Repetition becomes a continuous succession of questions and answers, a tremendous effort of human intelligence to fill the form of absolute time with self-sufficient content, that is, content implied in its own system, without subordinating reason to the certainty of a time already “given”. Bach's counterpoint does not need God to exist."

"My Nanna, your chant is sweet; it is the chant of my heart."

"With the Enlightenment, man now asks questions that have no certain answer: research becomes the very condition of being human. This is the modern form of scientific logic: the time of science, therefore, coincides with what we might call the “interrogative structure” of music; with a musical time that, from Debussy to Schönberg to Berg to Bussotti, moves further and further away from the concept of [[w:duration|duration, of beginning and end, and seeks “continuity” in “space”, moving from the fading of sound to the fading of tonality. In fact, in the same year that Einstein published his “Memoir on Relativity” – 1905 – Schönberg's symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande was performed for the first time and greeted with boos, marking a milestone in the search for “spatial” music."

"The Gayatri is perhaps the greatest and most beautiful of all the ancient mantras. It has been chanted all over India from time immemorial... in an antiquity so remote that the very memory of it has been forgotten, the altruistic use of such mantras was fully comprehended and practiced. It begins always with the sacred word Om, and with the enumeration of the planes upon which its action is desired—the three worlds in which man lives, the physical, the astral and the mental."

"May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god: So may He stimulate our prayers."

"This aim is formulated with utmost brevity in the famous Gâyatrî Mantra which is daily recited by hundreds of thousands of people all over India. The Mantra prays for arousing, activating, animating and manifesting our mind and understanding. Several Upanishads begin with this prayer: "Make strong my limbs, my speech, my vitals, my eyes, my ears and other senses"."

"Many are still convinced that it is permissible to approach the higher Sources through dead rituals and repetitions of senseless mantrams, which have now lost their meaning, since their value lies only in rhythm, born in a flaming heart. Nothing external, without the inner striving, can be of real value."

"Mantras are not thought of as products of discursive thought, human wisdom or poetic fantasy, but ”flash-lights of the eternal truth, seen by those eminent men who have come to super sensuous contact with the Unseen."

"There are only two mantras … yum and yuk. Mine is yum."

"Thus, says Lannoy, 'Hindus discovered, through direct cognition, the mantra system of musical incantation uniting the laws of phonetics and the physiology of sound waves.'"

"It is powerful, efficacious and deserving of respect. A mantra is like meeting the Buddha or Bodhisattva himself."

"Mantra - A Sanskrit word conveying the same idea as the “Ineffable Name.” Some mantras, when pronounced according to magical formula taught in the Atharva- Veda, produce an instantaneous and wonderful effect. In its general sense, though, a mantra is either simply a prayer to the gods and powers of heaven, as taught by the Brahmanical books, and especially Manu, or else a magical charm. In its esoteric sense, the “ word ” of the mantra, or mystic speech, is called by the Brahmans Vdch. It resides in the mantra, which literally means those parts of the sacred books which are considered as the Sruti, or direct divine revelation."

"To arrive at the Mantra he [the rishi] may start from the colour of a rose, or the power or beauty of a character, or the splendour of an action, or go away from all these into his own secret soul and its most hidden movements. The one thing needful is that he should be able to go beyond the word or image he uses or the form of the thing he sees, not be limited by them, but get into the light of that which they have the power to reveal and flood them with it until they overflow with its suggestions or seem even to lose themselves and disappear into the revelation. At the highest, he himself disappears into sight; the personality of the seer is lost in the eternity of the vision, and the Spirit of all seems alone to be there speaking out sovereignty its own secrets."

"What the initiate is learning to do is to make sounds consciously, and thus produce a studied and desired result; to utter words, and be fully [Page 425] aware of the consequence on all planes; and to create forms and direct energy through sacred sounds, and thus further the ends of evolution. p. 155"

"Words should fall from your lips like fragrant flowers”. One poem suggests: “Be sure to make everyone happy through your words. Allow peace and harmony to vibrate through you and radiate from you."

"If you would like to find enlightenment outside and inside, then place on the threshold of your tongue the lustrous pearl of the Divine Name (Mantra)."

"The aspirant has . . . to control his speech every minute of every day. This is a statement easily made, but most difficult to make practical. He who achieves it is rapidly nearing emancipation. This applies not to the reticence, the moroseness, the silence, and the voicelessness which often distinguishes natures but little evolved, and which are in reality an inarticulate condition. It refers to the controlled use of words to effect certain ends, and the retention of speech energy when not needed - a very different matter. It involves a realisation of cycles; of times and of seasons; it supposes a knowledge of the power of sound, and of the effects produced through the spoken word; it involves an apprehension of the building forces of nature and their due manipulation, and is based on an ability to wield mental matter, and to set it in motion, in order to produce results in physical matter, consonant with the clearly defined purpose of the inner God. It is the shining forth of the second aspect of the Self, the Vishnu, or form-building aspect, which is the prime characteristic of the Ego on its own plane. It would be well to ponder on this. p. 156/7"

"Every Word, differentiated or synthesised, affects the deva kingdoms, and hence the form-building aspects of manifestation. No sound is ever made without producing a corresponding response in deva substance, and driving multitudes of tiny lives to take specific forms . . . The majority of human beings as yet build unconsciously, and the form constructed is either of a beneficent or a maleficent agency, according to the underlying motive or purpose of the man. p. 159"

"A sound in the first place is an undulation in the air, and every musical sound has a number of overtones which it sets in motion as well. Four or five or more overtones are detected and recognized in music, but the oscillations extend a great deal further than the ear can follow. Corresponding waves are set up in higher and finer matter altogether, and therefore the chanting of a note or a series of notes produces effects upon the higher vehicles. p. 144"

"This matter of sound is one that penetrates very deeply. “By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made” in the first place. The Logos or Word is the first Emanation from the Infinite, and that quite certainly is far more than a mere figure of speech.... I do not know that we can hope to have any understanding on this plane, in this world down here, of what is meant by that Creative Word. “He spake, and it was done.” God said: “Let there be Light, and there was Light.” This was the first Expression of the Deity; the Eternal Thought concealed in darkness comes forth as the Creative Word... Perhaps because of this great Truth, words sung or spoken down here invoke higher power—power out of all proportion to the level to which they themselves belong. I am sure that there is another side of this whole question of sound which our minds cannot reach at present; we can only faintly adumbrate it. But at least we can see that the power of sound is a very great and wonderful thing. p.146"

"All mantras that depend upon the power of sound are valuable only in the language in which they have been arranged. If we translate such an one into another language, we shall have another and quite different group of sounds. Broadly speaking, the good mantra which is intended to harmonize the body and to produce beneficent results consists largely of long open vowels. We find this in our own Sacred Word, and the same is true of the Amen of the Egyptians, which has been handed down into the Christian Church. It is, by the way, best sounded on two notes. The Church has its traditional way of taking it on two notes a semitone apart—usually F sharp and G. p. 146"

"The Christ is said to have warned his disciples not to use vain repetitions when they prayed, as did the heathen; and from that text the deduction has been made that all repetitions are useless. They assuredly would be so in an invocation addressed to the Deity, for they would imply that he had not heard the first request! They would be (or should be) unnecessary for disciples—for men who have already made some progress along the path of development; to formulate an [intention]] clearly and to express it once strongly should surely be sufficient for them. But the ordinary man of the world has by no means reached that stage; it often needs a long course of steady hammering to impress a new vibration upon him, and so for him repetition are far from useless, for they are deliberately intended to produce definite results. The constant impinging of these sounds (and of the various undulations which they set up) upon the different vehicles does tend steadily to bring those vehicles into harmony with a particular set of ideas. p. 147"

"One may often see a Roman Catholic reciting his “Aves” and “Paternosters” many times over. Generally he just mutters them, and so they are of little use to him, except for the thoughts that they may suggest to him. In India mantras are always chanted, and the chanted mantra does produce an effect. That is one reason why the older languages are better in this respect than modern tongues. Modern languages are generally spoken quickly and abruptly, and only the Italian, Spanish and Greek peasants seem to speak in the old way in long, musical cadences. p. 148"

"Another point with regard to mantras which is stressed in the Indian books is that students are forbidden to use them in the presence of coarse or evil-minded people, because the power of a mantra will often intensity evil as well as good. If there were a person present who could not answer to the vibrations in their higher form, he might well received a lower octave, which would be quite likely to strengthen the evil in him. We should never use a mantra where there are people who are likely to be injured by it. p. 149"

"Madame Blavatsky... gave a caution that no one should attempt to use a mantra which is too high for him. None such will be given to us by our teachers; but I would say this, as a caution to neophytes, that if the reciting even of the Sacred Word (Om) in any particular way should produce headache or a feeling of nausea or faintness, it should be stopped at once. We should go on working at the development of our characters, and try it again in a few months. In using the Word, we are invoking great forces, and if we are not yet quite up to their level they may not be harmonious, and the result may be not invariably good. p. 149"

"Mantra protects us in every life situation. It fills us with a positive vibration whenever we think of the Mantra or speak it. In this way it purifies our inner Self."

"A Mantra is a series of words which in their entirety form a sound with a positive vibration. Words mean sound and sound produces vibration. Vibration is power - an all-pervasive, creative power that generates movement and resonance. Energy means life and where there is life there is also creativity."

"The basis of all manifested phenomena is the enunciated sound, or the Word spoken with power, that is, with the full purpose of the will behind it. Herein, as is known, lies the value of meditation, for meditation produces eventually that inner dynamic purpose and recollection, or that internal ideation which must invariably precede the uttering of any creative sound. p. 150"

"The most effective way to use this mantram is to say or think the words with focused will, the attention at the ajna center between the eyebrows. When the mind grasps the meaning of the concept and, simultaneously, the will is brought to bear, then those concepts will be activated and the mantram will work. If it is said seriously every day, there will grow inside you a realization of your true Self."

"The Mantra may be used in any life situation and even during our daily routine to relax and quieten the mind. It will bring clarity and the ability to think positively."

"A Prayer for the New Age, given by Maitreya... [It] is a great mantram or affirmation with an invocative effect. Using this prayer will enable one to recognize that man and God are one, that there is no separation. The 'I' is the Divine Principle behind all creation. The Self emanates from, and is identical to, the Divine Principle."

"I am the creator of the universe. I am the father and mother of the universe. Everything comes from me. Everything shall return to me. Mind, spirit and body are my temples, for the self to realize in them My supreme being and becoming."

"A seed when sown grows into a fruit bearing tree.In the same way the Beej Mantra is full of Shakthi. There are various Beej Mantras each with its own power. When mixed with other mantras additional power accrues to that Mantra."

"It was said that the first primordial sound produced at the time of creation was the syllable ‘OM’ and this became the first Mantra. This consists of three letters AUM. The sound ‘A’ starts from the throat and comes as far as the lips and as such is the longest and fullest vowel. The Letter ‘M’is the sound produced when the lips are closed and thus is the last sound. In between is ‘U’."

"Mantra which contain up to nine Nine words are called Bejj Mantra, ten to twenty words form Mantraand beyond are Mole Mantras."

"Samput are specified words used in Mantra. These can be used at the beginning, middle and or the end of a mantra. The samput has a great value in Mantra shakthi or in other mantras and must be used carefully."

"Prana, [we could say], is the spirit of mantra. Mantra in turn is the expression of prana. Whatever most engages our prana or vital energy becomes the main subject of our speech."

"Mantra is a vehicle to bring our minds, hearts and prana to the level of both primal sound and primal meaning , in which we can return to the original state of unity with all. This requires that we use mantras with an intention, focus and aspiration to reach the supreme."

"The higher word or mantra consists of both sound and light. It is the word of light. Sound is the vibratory quality of space, which itself is the field of light....Mantra brings light into our awareness, but also allows us to carry and sustain that light as knowledge."

"Through mantra we can gain mastery of all the forces of time and karma."

"Through mantra, we can awaken the Divine light within us and expand beyond the limitations of space, direction and manifestation. Through mantra, one can learn to ride the waves of cosmic light and sound, going back to the Divine Word at the heart of the world. This is the cosmic form of Mantra Yoga known known only to Yogis who have gone beyond the body and mind."

"This [Kundalini] manifests when we develop higher powers of speech through mantra and the practice of silent communion during meditation. Kundalini speech is energized mantra. In this regard, we must remember that Kundalini wears the garland of the mantras of the Sanskrit alphabet and ultimately the garland of all mantras. Mantra is the main yogic method used to arouse the Kundalini, particularly mantra repeated along with pranayama, meditation and deep devotion."

"When Sanskrit is called the ‘universal language’ or ‘the language of the gods’, it is no mere exaggeration...Truly learning Sanskrit is not just conventional language but of learning the language of mantra. It is not a mere academic study or a means of improving communication, but an inner practice to create the foundation for Mantra Yoga."

"Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists."

"One who receives a Mantra and merely “puts it in their pocket” without putting it into practice, is just like the farmer who locked the soybean in a box where it was eaten by the “moth of time”. Only practice makes a Master."