On 6/6/2014 7:19 AM, authfri...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
I don't believe this has "been established," Richard. I don't recall
ever hearing Maharishi (on tape) or TM teachers say the bija mantras
have "no semantic meaning," only that they were "meaningless sounds."
TM critics have objected to "meaningless sounds," saying that because
Hindus associate the bijas with deities, therefore they cannot be
said to be "meaningless." But when most people ask what the mantras
mean, they're thinking of semantic meaning, like words in a dictionary
that can be used in a sentence. And the answer to that question is,
no, they're meaningless sounds. So "no semantic meaning" is more
precise, but it isn't the phrase TM uses.
>
Good points, but I think I have already established that MMY never said
/the TM mantras were meaningless sounds/. I may be mistaken, but I've
read all his books and listened to several tape recordings and videos
and nobody has posted any evidence that he said the mantras were
meaningless. Certainly he would not say this to Hindus in India. So, I
can't feature MMY saying that the mantras are meaningless sounds, seeing
as how he wrote about them in Beacon Light. Meaningless would seem to
imply that they are of no value. Go figure.
So, I like to call the mantras used in TM "abstract mnemonic devices"
/that have no semantic meaning/, since they are not words in a Sanskrit
lexicon. In fact, that's probably why they work so well - they are
abstract for most people so they don't tend to keep one on the conscious
thinking level. The bija and the words are like the proverbial string
tied around your finger - a device for recalling a previous state of
consciousness, /before your mother was even born./ That you are - tat
vam asi. /The bija is like a reminder/, whose effects are known, over
countless centuries of experiment and practice by meditation masters.
It has already been established that MMY never said the the bijas
are "meaningless sounds." That's just one of those internet
newsgroup rumors. What we are saying is that the bijas have /no
semantic meaning/, that's why they are called"mantras". All words
found in the dictionary have meanings, but bijas are esoteric seed
sounds, whose effects are known.
