on 11/3/05 12:38 PM, authfriend at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > --- In [email protected], "feste37" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> I wonder about this "meaningless sounds" business. At the >> preparatory lecture, I always used to say the mantras were "sounds >> the effects of which are known," or "words selected for their sound >> quality," or something like that. I never said, "meaningless >> sounds" and I wonder whether using that phrase was ever an official >> instruction. It's a very unfortunate phrase, in my opinion. > > Whatever associations they may have in Hinduism, > as they're used in TM they're semantically > meaningless sounds.
Meaningless, but the bija mantras are fundamentally connected with Devatas, and these Devatas are instrumental in producing the effects that result from meditating with their mantras. > > I know all the "names of gods" stuff from Trancenet, > but that's just inaccurate. At most, they're sounds > that are associated with gods in Hinduism. But if you regard Hinduism as anything more than a mythological tradition, then you might acknowledge that it's colorful depictions of gods and goddesses might represent actual celestial entities who are powerful governors of nature's mechanics. >But even > Hindus who are taught TM are told to treat the mantra > as pure sound during meditation (at least that's what > I was told by a long-time TM teacher who did a lot of > initiations in India way back when). Hindus who are taught TM in India are asked who their cherished deity is, and on that basis their mantra is chosen. > > If you want to get all esoteric about it, the mantras > are in some sense devas, but then you have to get into > the whole Nama-rupa thing and how Sanskrit syllables > aren't symbolic, like regular language; they don't > *stand for* things, they *are* things. And if you're > going to say mantras are gods, well, you gotta first > believe in gods. I'm a lot happier with "impulses of > creative intelligence," myself. Just a Western phrase Maharishi chose to make a Hindu concept seem more scientific. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
