On 6/4/2014 9:07 PM, emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
Yes, that is true. Supposedly, we only get one bija mantra. It is
later used with Sanskrit words that interject certain meanings and
actions – for TM they are shama akshara-s (i.e. peaceful, laudatory
and surrendering seed-sounds).
However, this is not true for TM teachers since, by definition, they
received a well-known sequence of bija mantras used to initiate
students. Most teachers appear to use this group of mantras */only/*
to initiate. However, the whole group of mantras is fully charged and
available for meditation whenever used in that manner. Most TM
teachers don’t like to talk about this possibility - proly because
they are apprehensive about it being “off the program”. I have done so
(of course) and find this collection rather too intense to use for the
sake of mere curiosity. In the live-a-day world, such potency,
distinctive qualities and effacing intensity is more suited to those
renunciate sadhus keen to finish off their stock of prarabdha karma.
>
So, where do the TM bija mantras come from? It's not a complicated
question, or is it? We know that some of them are mentioned in Sri Vidya
scriptures, but how did they get in there?
According to Williams, the first historical mantra is mentioned in the
/Prajña//p//ramita Hrdaya//Sutra/, which apparently originated in the
Swat Valley around 100 BCE. Go figure.
Work cited:
'Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations'
by Paul Williams
2nd edition. Routledge, 2009
pp. 52-3.
