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Originally Posted by Soul_Surfer
So a little update...today when I was meditating (while saying mantra in my mind) for a brief moment I lost a sense of where I was (and I haven't fall asleep). I don't know how else to call it, when I came back to my senses I had to remind myself I'm still in my room. It's a first time ever something like that happened to me. So I guess there is some progress in my practice after all. Apparently patience is the key ;D
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Soul Surfer,
I don't know if this is silence, it could also be drifting off into a little trance. Silence is when the mind stops, even the breath stops, one is aware of awareness, and that "I am not mind". One remains aware not lost in a trance.
Since you like to use chanting and mantra, you might be interested in following the retreat that is starting in March. I am reactivating my thread about it and giving all links
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...&postcount=229
Since that's a month away, I'll share what I know about chanting and mantra. Chanting works best for me when done in group. It opens the heart chakra, but of course all chakras can be involved in it. It has the effect of building excitement in the energy field and raising the vibration (not unlike the power of an excited crowd at a football stadium - only more powerful). When the chanting stops then the mind, being overwhelmed naturally quiets and it's easy to just slip into meditation.
With mantra, there are stages to mantra repetition that can take us deeper. First repeating it but not like a parrot, but with focus and feeling like each syllable is liquid gold, like it's your first time. And also repeating it throughout the day, not just in sitting meditation. This is the gross stage. Then, just like an advertising jingle, it comes up like that song you can't get out of your head, automatically. This is the second stage, the astral. In meditation we try to pass this stage by observing the energy that is pushing this mantra up automatically - something is there pushing it, making it come up. This takes us deeper. And when we discover the source of that, we enter into a kind of bliss. That's the causal field. And beyond energy is a stage called turyia - it is the transcendental witness. That is the goal, where we enter into its consciousness, where we become one with it. That requires the greatest surrender. Usually if we make it to bliss we're really happy, and tend to stay with the bliss. And transcendence also involves grace and timing. But to be able to reach bliss this way is fantastic meditation practice.
Hope this helps. I wish you all luck with it.