Making A Mantra

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Making a Mantra

Author: Ellen Gough
language: en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date: 2021-10-13
Jainism originated in India and shares some features with Buddhism and Hinduism, but it is a distinct tradition with its own key texts, art, rituals, beliefs, and history. One important way it has often been distinguished from Buddhism and Hinduism is through the highly contested category of Tantra: Jainism, unlike the others, does not contain a tantric path to liberation. But in Making a Mantra, historian of religions Ellen Gough refines and challenges our understanding of Tantra by looking at the development over two millennia of a Jain incantation, or mantra, that evolved from an auspicious invocation in a second-century text into a key component of mendicant initiations and meditations that continue to this day. Typically, Jainism is characterized as a celibate, ascetic path to liberation in which one destroys karma through austerities, while the tantric path to liberation is characterized as embracing the pleasures of the material world, requiring the ritual use of mantras to destroy karma. Gough, however, argues that asceticism and Tantra should not be viewed in opposition to one another. She does so by showing that Jains perform “tantric” rituals of initiation and meditation on mantras and maṇḍalas. Jainism includes kinds of tantric practices, Gough provocatively argues, because tantric practices are a logical extension of the ascetic path to liberation.
Explaining Mantras

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Healing Mantras

Author: Thomas Ashley-Farrand
language: en
Publisher: Wellspring/Ballantine
Release Date: 2008-12-24
"Sound is more than simply a medium of artistic expression. Sound has practical and powerful applications in the real world." Mantras, or simple chants, are short phrases packed with energy and intention--specifically designed to generate powerful sound waves that promote healing, insight, creativity, and spiritual growth. Healing Mantras is the practical, how-to guide that makes the strengths and benefits of mantras available to everyone. The transformative power of sound has been passed down to the present from the sages of India, the classical scientists of ancient Greece, and the medieval monks of Europe. Mantras, sounds, and chants have inspired, comforted, and mended the lives of individuals, religious orders, and even entire cultures. Even though the science and discipline of chanting and formal prayer are practiced in every religion around the world, this is the first time that ancient Sanskrit mantras have been explained and adapted to Western needs. One of the few Western experts in Hindu and Buddhist mantras, Thomas Ashley-Farrand has practiced mantra-based spiritual disciplines for twenty-five years. In this illuminating book, he explains how and why mantras work and shows how to use them for everything from controlling habits to overcoming fear, from curing specific ailments to finding inner peace. In each of the more than fifty mantras, all translated from the original Sanskrit, Ashley-Farrand unlocks the power of every word, explains its appropriate application, and tells you how to pronounce it in easy-to-follow phonetic symbols. Inside, you'll find mantras for - Health - Worldly Success - Habit Control - Protection - Grief - Anger - Controlling Fear - Personal Attraction - Wisdom - Concentration and Mental Clarity - Healing Life Issues - and more! These mantras can be repeated aloud or in silence and can be used by people of any religion or spiritual practice, "as you wash dishes, as you drive on the freeway, as you meditate, or as you cook." Sound can help and sound can heal, and Healing Mantras now makes this sound medicine available to everyone.