Enjoy the Silence

Silence. Neutral Mind. Meditation. I try to practice this daily. Doesn't always work out. When I get to that place, where the mundane, daily "noise" is turned off, I find I can hear farther than before, and I don't mean the traffic on main street or the kids around the corner. I can hear what the Powers that Be are telling me. Sometimes I hear my own bs, but that's not the silent place, that's in the hallway leading to it. When you find the silence, it is truly a respite from the day/week/month. The more I practice, the faster I get there (and there have been times when it's taken weeks to get there).

I actually prefer to use mantras and chants in my meditative work: It's a way to drown out all the "noise" and bypass the mental chatter on the way to the silence. I feel like that's cheating. I don't like crutches, so I'll keep that in reserve for specific times and uses.

It's scary to confront yourself and all of the mental junk you have accumulated: Old fears and regrets hanging around, old victories or notions you manage to cling to, random thoughts jumping out, your stream of consciousness not so much a stream but a series of jump-cuts all over the place... Spring cleaning means inside as well as out. I plan to spend time every day, or every night as the case will likely be, to clean up my mental desktop.

I don't know if I will journal it, will likely do it before falling asleep and won't get to writing it down unless I'm particularly moved to do that. I won't post that kind of thing here.

So what do I chant? I have a few favorite mantras from my kundalini yoga practice, family "songs," and a few modern ones. My favorite kundalini mantra:

Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung
"is the Siri Gaitri Mantra, and is chanted for healing. Ra is the sun, Ma is the Moon, Da is the earth, and Sa is Infinity. Say is the totality of Infinity, and So Hung is "I am Thou". "Ra Ma Da Sa" is the Earth Mantra. and "Sa Say So Hung" is the Ether Mantra.

Here is a list of mantras and a link to hear them chanted.


Do you meditate? Did you ever? Do you plan to?