You're welcome. You can probably find the beej mantras in a lot of texts. No one knows their origin for sure. My guru things they just evolved from tested sounds.
As for the deities they are considered to be a personification of forces of nature. The scientific references were over the heads of the people so the guru personified the elements so the public could grasp them in concept. You are probably familiar with the Indian "stages of life" and the "deities" that correspond to them. Similarly there are the Ayurvedic stages of life and there are mantras for each of those. ;-) Are you saying you are having sleep problems since learning TM? I know some people do, often because of a vata imbalance and sometime pitta, especially in summer. On 07/13/2011 06:20 PM, William Parkinson wrote: > Thank you so much for the information Bhairitu . I tried to trace back my own > mantra within the Advaita-shakti tradition and found that it was recorded in > Shankara's 'Saundaryalahari.' Perhaps I am just slow witted, but I don't > believe in Ishta-devatas or any of these deities. For me it is sort of like > if an Italian person came to me and gave me an ancient religious tradition > that was based on a belief in Hermes or Zeus or Neptune. These are just > personifications of natural forces and experiences. Still, TM does work! I > have my own secular explanation as to what I think makes it work, but of > course maybe Kali, Lakshmi and the other goddesses of the Divine mother > tradition are real! Nevertheless, I find it fascinating to trace the roots of > this religious tradition. I hope you will add any further information you can > on the tradition. There is so much I really do not understand about it or > even about the growth of the tradition after Shankara. Perhaps > others can shed further light upon the tradition that underlies TM. At this > point, having heard too many testimonials concerning disrupted sleep patterns > (even when they are seen as being helpful) I think I'm going to cut back my > TM to 10 minutes each session and add 10 minutes of pranayama prior to doing > the TM. Maybe in that fashion I can still get some of the benefits from the > practice, but not develop full-blown CC, which would surface during my > sleeping hours. Anyway thank you so much!! > Cheers > Bill > > > From: Bhairitu<noozg...@sbcglobal.net> > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:45 AM > Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Sleep and TM (are youstill there RC?) > > > > On 07/13/2011 11:12 AM, William Parkinson wrote: >> Thank you so much for sharing with me what happened to you Ravi. I did not >> know that you are using something other than TM. The only reason why I >> practice TM is because having tried other meditations, TM, for better or >> worse, seems to allow me to transcend in the quickest manner I have ever >> experienced. > That's because it's a beej mantra which are generally used to enrich > longer mantras. They're short and create a quick dip. Longer mantras > create a more sustained effect. Maharishi wanted people to get the > advanced technique as early as a year and a half after the first. It > resembles a "guru mantra" for the tradition. > >> It happened in the first day or two, and that was something I can't say for >> any other form of meditation I tried, including classical concentration >> (which I started when I was perhaps 12 years old following the guidelines in >> a book by Richard Hittleman on Yoga), or vipanassana, or meditating on my >> breath while using a simple form of pranayama. For me TM is simply an >> expedient tool-- I have no desire to reach GC or UG and right now I'm just >> trying to figure out if I should even allowed to go so far as CC 24/7. >> Frankly this entire notion of having so-called Cosmic Consciousness, this >> awareness of a silent inner level, during sleep is something that >> concerns me. I wonder if it will make sleep far more difficult. > You probably know that most brain wave research would say that deep > sleep would be the delta state which is possible to produce through > meditation too. Back in the 1970s I was part of a university study on > meditation and had an EEG test. The researcher was looking for alpha > waves but I produced theta. We now know that theta states (as well as > delta) are signs of deeper states of mediation. I don't know why the > movement keeps pushing alpha states. > > Witnessing in sleep is not uncommon when one practices advanced > meditations. But you'll also find plenty of yogis who will tell you > they are "dead to the world" during sleep and happy for it. > > I taught TM briefly in the late 70s. About 11 years ago I learned > tantra from an authentic Indian tantric yogi who resides in the US. TM > for me was a dead end because we were never taught things like mantra > shastra or how to use different mantras. We were nothing more than > parrots for the technique. With the tantric I learned things like > mantra shastra. > >> And I also worry about what I just read concerning what seems to be >> long-lasting, if not permanent changes to either neurophysiology or even >> neuroanatomy. Btw, what form of meditation were you practicing? And also, I >> love the comment by your Guru. That was a very perceptive comment!! >> Cheers >> Bill > >
