The mantra as a harmonic

Just to help you understand what the mantra is doing (you will find that out for yourself) John Main described it once as like a harmonic, so we use this little bell. As that sound lasts, we listen to it. It’s a nice sound, it’s a harmonising sound. So think of the mantra as a harmonic that we’re sounding in the centre of our being, to bring ourselves into this centredness, into this har-mony with ourself. You could also think of the mantra as a signal, like a little radar bleep leading in a plane to land even in fog. Planes can land in fog because they have this automatic signal-ling system now. So even though you don’t even see where you are going, you are listening to the signal. Even though your mind may be very distracted during your meditation, don’t worry about that. Just keep the focus on the mantra, keep coming back to it and you are on course. And thirdly, you could think of the mantra as a plough. Think of a farmer making a furrow in the field so that he can plant the seeds for future growth. You are creating the space in yourself for further growth. So those are simply little metaphors that may help you to understand what it is you are doing. What the meaning of the experience is.