Meditation: Vipassana & Mantra

I’ve learnt and practised two forms of meditation. The first was vipassana meditation. I was living in Italy and started going to a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Florence where I was taught by Andrea Cappellari, the Dalai Lama’s Italian translator. He was a  petit man, almost pixieish with a shaved head and sculpted stubble. Like a lot of serious meditators, he looked a lot younger than he really was. He was the best meditation teacher I’ve ever had. I really felt I was making progress, and he was so enthusiastic, telling us it was possible to reach samadi: a type of higher level of meditation when the mind becomes so still that thoughts stop.

Vipassana meditation is basically concentrating on the breath and sensations in the body. You start by being aware of the breath going in and out of the nostril, feeling it as it hits the skin just below your nose. Then you move on to the sensations in your body, starting with the top of your head. I also did a 10-day silent vipassana retreat as taught by SN Goenka. While in meditation during that retreat I felt that I could get hold of the waves of energy flowing through my body and ‘comb’ them. For more information on vipassana I suggest going to www.dhamma.org.

The other form of yoga I do is mantra meditation. I was given mantra initiation while I was doing my Sivananda yoga teacher training. You chose the mantra yourself from a list of maha (or great) mantras of all the main Hindu gods, such as Krishna, Durga, Shiva, Hanuman etc. or short mantras such as om or soham. You are supposed to chose intuitively – whichever one you feel drawn to. I wanted a female mantra, but not aggressive like Durga or too sweet like Lakshmi. So I chose Saraswati – the goddess of knowledge.The mantra for Saraswati is: om aim saraswati namah.

I was initiated into the mantra by one of the swamis at the ashram. I had to dress in white and give an offering of fruit, flowers and a small amount of money. The swami then recited it to me so I knew the correct pronunciation. The initiation made it particularly powerful, and I do feel a strong connection with my mantra.

The Sivananda form of meditation is very simple: you sit in half-lotus, or a chair if you’re really stiff,  and fix your attention either on your third-eye or head chakra. You can also visualise an image such as a divinity, the om symbol or a candle flame. Personally, I find the visualisation very hard to do. You then recite your mantra to yourself. This is the form of meditation I do the most. Partly because I’ve practised it such a lot (I’ve been on many Sivananda retreats) and partly because it is so simple.

Mantra meditation also has another advantage: when you are feeling stressed, or negative thoughts are going through your mind, you can recite your mantra to calm you.