Anybody there got a favorite mantra?  What's it mean, bub?
One of mine is *OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA* which means "Shiva, I bow
before Thee in reverence, Shiva being the aspect of god that de-
stroys ignorance.

37 responses total.

ive got several.
i either use 'satis' or 'non illegimati carborundum'
the first means 'enough' or 'what you have, it is enough'
the second means 'feel no anger'
i use either of them, or occasionally a different one,
depending on the situation.
hmm.. might try om namaha Shivaya sometime.
for me, its not the wording that matters, though, its the
personal significance.  ten words might sound better, but
one might mean more to you.  its if it has personal
meaning.

I don't so much use mantras as favorite chants/songs which I can set to running
in the back of my mind for calm, protection (or at least courage), confidence,
focus/centering, grounding, transport (contact with the sacred), etc.

"Non illegitimi carborundum" is supposed to be a joke.  Hugh Hefner
used to have it posted on the front door of the Playboy mansion in
Chicago.  "Carborundum" is the brand name of various abrasives.  The
saying is supposed to mean "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
It's what used to be called "macaronic" - ie, a gag saying that
combines Latin with English vernacular.  But despite that, I think
it's as good a mantra as any other.  My personal mantra is "We're
all fucked and we deserve it," but I can't tell you what it is
because it's supposed to be bad luck.

My usual one is "Whatever works,"  but that has to be taken within context of
my own greater value system to be properly understood.

Hell, thats not what i heard about it. better check my latin
<blush>

on another subject (but they say not to "enter") anyone heard of Pantheist
Atheism? basic premise- believe in ALL gods dreamamed up by men, women and
small fuzzy creatures from Tau Seti- and that their power is from belief. we
don't worship them though because they don't do a real bang-up job of managing
things.

all things exist beause of beleif.  even things that don't exist for one 
person can affect the health of others.  

I second that!
I this weren't true then by xtian philosophy we are all worshipping satan.
Even JR Bob Dobbs is real:)

Me too!

re#6:  i feel the same way, the real power is not in
the reality of gods but in the belief.  i'worship' (if
that is the right word) the *idea* of a god/goddess/creator,
and the *idea* of a supreme moral force, rather that
the god/goddess/creator him/her/itself.
(translation:  i'm agnostic, dammit!)

Awfully nebulous and fine distinctions- One image has the gods being "real",
solid, discrete people creating a world out of "clay".  Another has the stuff
of creation all in a primordial soup from which we abstract both the material
world and our images of the gods- but that does not address the initial cause
of the forms the world has taken. And yet another view holds that we are "real"
and create our images of the gods to meet our psychological needs, they having
no existence separate from our belief.  Take your pick or make another way
of looking at it, I suppose.

These are the mysteries, eh??!!
Do you have a distinct view Kami??
/

well, i'm #3.  gods are phsychological constructs, but useful
ones.

I think they're more than Jungian templates, or psychological manifestations.
The Gods that is...

I believe my view is currently in flux, shifting from #2 to something closer to
#1, but not quite.

Sounds like you've been....<<THINKING>>> AHHHHHH!!! The destroyer of religions,
 thought!!! That's really cool, and good that you're view is changing.

SHit happened.  I cleaned it up.  NOw I'm working on the compost pile...

Hello, Peter.  Nice knowing someone who believes in Shiva, the great!
My favourite mantra incidently is also "OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA".  It gives
me peace of mind, a sense of well-being, the ability to take
disappointments, and the cruel ways of the world in my stride and make
my own path in the world for tohers to follow.

I forgot what my current title in this conference is, but I know it used to
be The Eclectic Pagan Cleric - for I believe an all deities of all religions
save one . . .

Wow!  Resurrected after nearly a year.  This poor item...
Shakuntala, when you speak of the gifts confered by the use of this mantra,
to what extent would you attribute them to a)the meaning of the words 
b) visualizations which accompany your use of the mantra c)your expectations
and/or d) the sounds themselves and how they resonante in the body/soul.

Gee, you know, it sort of reminds me of something else; in many of the 
traditional Celtic stories, you get a sort of intro in which the Seanachie
names a bunch of fairly specific blessings to be gotten by hearing or telling
that tale.  Given the use of sound in sacred storytelling (chant patterns,
tonal patterns, specific harp chords), I wonder if there are similarities
between the use of traditional tales or poems and the use of mantras?

my boys, stay relaxed, make no shit, keep u minds clean...thats all
and 4 those who want +, got it:
FA-RA-ON
E-GIP-TO
LA-RA-SH
want more?
send me and e-mail: carioni@cyberspace.org

wow! while I was having a life...this conf took off!  
I have a few mantras, like "relax" and "defense".  (both of these I use most
often when I am driving a car).  (the latter is often used at football games,
too...but that's the hayoka in me talkin) As for the
existance/reality/mentality of the Gods/Goddesses...well, I experiance things
that I can't explain by any other way then by saying "it exists...it feels
so real."  It doesn't happen very often, but when it does...it pours.
I mean, sure, it could be a delusion or something.  (I used to be an atheist
and an agnostic for a bit...my aditude is constantly shifting by situation
and experiance...so I tend to be kinda flakey in terms of explaining my
beliefs...because I hold so many that don't always mesh...due to reality and
my experiance)

(Life? What's that? :)

Ummm...................<>

well chicas, life is what happens to you while you're busy making other
plans...
And as for mantra, syllabic mantras (or those in languages other than my
native toungue) I leave to meditation as I believe it is pretentious and/or
arrogant to pretend to fathom more of anothers' culture than I actually do.
Any phrase that pertains to the situation is an appropriate mantra. Anything
from 'KILL PEOPLE!' to 'goddess beneath me and around me...I call upon you'.

So I take it...you won't take other's words for it/  <joke>

(I hate it when old dead items get stirred up...it means I have to see how
obnoxious I was back in Middle School...)

You think that's bad?  I actually found printouts of conferences
I was in ten years ago when I moved...

Yes, but I imagine you weren't quite so irritating back in the day :)

(You shouldn't see old responses in old items though...not if you've read them
when you entered them, right?)

No, bt I tend to tail back some to get the context.

I, also, don't like to use any phrase or chant whose meaning I don't know.
One of the old Wiccan chants that I've got in my notes, which I never liked
to use because I didn't know its meaning or origin, turns out to be archaic
(and rather irregular, I think) Greek meaning basically; "Welcome!  C'mere!".
Gee, really portentious, eh? <g>
I'm rather too wordy for one-word mantras, but sometimes I write (or
spontaneously generate <g>) prayers and verses to the deities with whom I
work.  That's kinda fun, and really helpful. 
I gather that the Hindu mantras are meant to convey pretty subtle and complex
messages although the actual phrases are simple mnemonics aking to Font's
"peace" or whatever.  What little of them I've seen, they don't much work for
me.

Yeah, I'm afraid using a chant who's meaning and subtext I don't know would
really freak me out.  :-)

Mantras, chants, spells, song cycles are all wonderful, as different as the
person using them and as different as the time that person's needs need
be.Does anyone out there subscribe to the philosophy that all of our race,
the entirity of the known Multiverse is here only as an eternal thought in
the mind of the Goddess and her Consort?
They instruct us in all that we do by dreams, omens, and portents. Even those
that we consider 'mundanes' are influenced by the least of their movements.

Holy Chrome, but I love the way this thing kicks me around ... I've completely
lost my train ... for the use of mantras and chants I find that the use of
'non-words', free association in sub lingualistic thought sounds, something
like, but not quite the same thing as 'love noises'. Somebody once told me
that I was 'channeling' the static of the physic ethers, but, even as respect
the opinions of others, I believe that whatevereworks best for the worker is
the path that must be met. I'm really gonna have to learn to type as fast as
I can see.

<grin> so do I for many reasons.  <g>

Hellloooo?
Anybody home?
        home?
          om?

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