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A Little Bit of Mantras: An Introduction to Sacred Sounds
In the popular “ Little Bit of” a fresh, accessible introduction to the practice of chanting mantras.
Chanting a mantra repeatedly can actually affect your state of mind, elevating your consciousness, altering your emotions, and bringing you peace. A Little Bit of Mantras presents an introduction to these sacred, spiritually empowering words, phrases, and sounds. It explores the history of mantras and how they work, and gives you chants that you can use with your yoga, meditation, or other daily practice.
Chanting a mantra repeatedly can actually affect your state of mind, elevating your consciousness, altering your emotions, and bringing you peace. A Little Bit of Mantras presents an introduction to these sacred, spiritually empowering words, phrases, and sounds. It explores the history of mantras and how they work, and gives you chants that you can use with your yoga, meditation, or other daily practice.
128 pages, Hardcover
Published March 5, 2019
19 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 14, 2020
A Little Bit of Mantras: An Introduction to Sacred Sounds by Lily Cushman. Sterling Ethos: NY. 2019.
The first thing I ever learned about Buddhism was a chant.
A couple of people I worked with were practicing Buddhists and one night when we were out together, they taught me the chant. That was over 30 years ago. We eventually lost touch and though I remembered they had taught me the chant, I could never recall precisely what the chant was. It was gone from my memory and mind, but would nag at me from time to time over those 3 decades.
Until I hit page 5 of this book.
“Nam myoho renge kyo (homage to the lotus sutra).”
There it was, in black and white. Or more like blue and beige.
Just seeing this chant again, raised my spirits and drew my attention into this book even deeper.
Right away, the book kicks off, not with the “woo hoo” aspect of meditations and mantas, but instead with what science says practicing mantras can do for you. These benefits include reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and lower self-related thought (this means you think more in terms of we and oneness with the universe and less me me me me me..”)
After the benefits, Cushman dives into the elements and how to of a mantra practice.
The meat of the book comes next with mantra categorizations including peace, healing, clarity, strength, and liberation.
Each mantra is then detailed with:
• Name
• Pronunciation
• Benefits
• Associated deity
• Meaning
• Mythology
• Application
Finally, each description ends with how to use the mantra in different types of practices:
• Mala practice
• Chanting practice
• Breath practice
• Walking practice
• Writing/drawing practice
The book ends with a chapter on how to incorporate a daily mantra practice into your life, (including for kids!) and answers some frequently asked questions.
This Little Bit book is a wonderful addition to my library, as it is very easy to use, and learn from.
The first thing I ever learned about Buddhism was a chant.
A couple of people I worked with were practicing Buddhists and one night when we were out together, they taught me the chant. That was over 30 years ago. We eventually lost touch and though I remembered they had taught me the chant, I could never recall precisely what the chant was. It was gone from my memory and mind, but would nag at me from time to time over those 3 decades.
Until I hit page 5 of this book.
“Nam myoho renge kyo (homage to the lotus sutra).”
There it was, in black and white. Or more like blue and beige.
Just seeing this chant again, raised my spirits and drew my attention into this book even deeper.
Right away, the book kicks off, not with the “woo hoo” aspect of meditations and mantas, but instead with what science says practicing mantras can do for you. These benefits include reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and lower self-related thought (this means you think more in terms of we and oneness with the universe and less me me me me me..”)
After the benefits, Cushman dives into the elements and how to of a mantra practice.
The meat of the book comes next with mantra categorizations including peace, healing, clarity, strength, and liberation.
Each mantra is then detailed with:
• Name
• Pronunciation
• Benefits
• Associated deity
• Meaning
• Mythology
• Application
Finally, each description ends with how to use the mantra in different types of practices:
• Mala practice
• Chanting practice
• Breath practice
• Walking practice
• Writing/drawing practice
The book ends with a chapter on how to incorporate a daily mantra practice into your life, (including for kids!) and answers some frequently asked questions.
This Little Bit book is a wonderful addition to my library, as it is very easy to use, and learn from.
November 6, 2019
A clear and concise, little book! It contains the base from which to work AND a number of ways in which to take the practice making it your own. A lovely and lovingly written resource.
August 22, 2023
I EXTREMELY appreciate this book as an introduction and a basic understanding of Mantras. I was always interested in learning more in-depth about Mantras as I started my spiritual journey, and this book is definitely a great guide.
Lily gives us history, background and traditions of Mantras - dating to Hindi culture and history/traditions. She also states and describes how mantras are used allover the world in different countries, religions, and practices by different people.
I love how Lily explained and examined mantras in science - being studied in relation to human behaviors, mental illnesses, human responses, bodily responses, etc. Mantras are for the benefit of the mind and body through practice and repetition.
She states the different stages of practicing mantras - as it is natural for people to have a "monkey-mind", get off track, want to give up, get in the ease of practicing regularly, mindfulness, meditation, and pretty much any obstacle you can think of when implementing mantras into your life.
The book is categorized into sections of Formal Mantra Practice, 13 different mantras, and how we can/should apply mantras to our lives. There is an intricate and well-explained guide to the formal practices of mantras and tailored to your style of learning. The 13 mantras are given in great description and categorized for the typed of healing/uses of the mantra. I love that Lily closed this guide with the applications of mantras to our lives, giving insight and encouragement that mantras can easily be our livelihood.
Lily gives us history, background and traditions of Mantras - dating to Hindi culture and history/traditions. She also states and describes how mantras are used allover the world in different countries, religions, and practices by different people.
I love how Lily explained and examined mantras in science - being studied in relation to human behaviors, mental illnesses, human responses, bodily responses, etc. Mantras are for the benefit of the mind and body through practice and repetition.
She states the different stages of practicing mantras - as it is natural for people to have a "monkey-mind", get off track, want to give up, get in the ease of practicing regularly, mindfulness, meditation, and pretty much any obstacle you can think of when implementing mantras into your life.
The book is categorized into sections of Formal Mantra Practice, 13 different mantras, and how we can/should apply mantras to our lives. There is an intricate and well-explained guide to the formal practices of mantras and tailored to your style of learning. The 13 mantras are given in great description and categorized for the typed of healing/uses of the mantra. I love that Lily closed this guide with the applications of mantras to our lives, giving insight and encouragement that mantras can easily be our livelihood.
October 19, 2019
I received this book as part of a subscription box, and I enjoyed many of the mantras Cushman includes, as well as the supplemental material that goes along with the book to illuminate different practice methods, pronunciation, and so on.
Having said that, my stars did this need another pass of copy editing. There are some glaringly incorrect passages, structurally and grammatically speaking, that really detract from otherwise good information. There is one section early on in the book where multiple paragraphs are repeated, wholesale. I honestly don't know how that didn't caught during editing.
Having said that, I did finish the book (obviously), and I did enjoy much of what it has to offer. Just be aware, going in, if you're as easily distracted by structural issues as I am.
Having said that, my stars did this need another pass of copy editing. There are some glaringly incorrect passages, structurally and grammatically speaking, that really detract from otherwise good information. There is one section early on in the book where multiple paragraphs are repeated, wholesale. I honestly don't know how that didn't caught during editing.
Having said that, I did finish the book (obviously), and I did enjoy much of what it has to offer. Just be aware, going in, if you're as easily distracted by structural issues as I am.
April 22, 2021
The book itself gets three stars, but considering the nice web component which had pronunciations, songs, PDFs of how to write each mantra, etc, I bumped it to four. It’s not that the writing was bad, but it was clear it got rushed to production before a second proofreading. There were multiple times where there was a word missing in a sentence, or repetitions of a few words in a row (not grammatical, just straight doubling) and even one time where an entire paragraph was repeated word for word. Also, the end of each mantra had a list of ways to practice it...but they were identical each time (except one) and seemed to be included with each mantra to fill up more pages, since after about the third one I knew what it was going to say for each style. It’s a shame, as the rest of it was put together well, but it seems in the rush to get this mass produced and to make it seem a more full book, some corners were cut and fluff was added.
May 4, 2020
Perfect book to learn about Mantras. It's very gentle and easy to manage for beginners. In a few words it explains what mantras are and many ways they might be used, and benefited from, in practice. I especially appreciated the pronunciations, literal meaning, associated deities, and brief summary on the small but significant set she's chosen. I am definitely grateful for the Gayatri Mantra, the Bija Mantras, and other familiar chants, like the Maha Mantra. I was aware of speaking and singing (japa, kirtan, chanting) - I had never heard of writing mantras. There are supporting downloads. I have already started another book in the series, by two different authors, "A Little Bit of Chakras, An introduction to energy healing".
May 29, 2020
A little bit of mantras is a great explanation of working with mantra meditations and how to incorporate them into your daily life. This book is easy to read and hits all the key factors to help lead you into creating your own practice.
This book is a little shy on connection information within it’s uses throughout other philosophies and religions. But it does give you references and and tools to learn on your own if interested.
Over all this book is short and sweet and gives you great understanding to figure out if you are ready to add mantra meditation into you practice.
This book is a little shy on connection information within it’s uses throughout other philosophies and religions. But it does give you references and and tools to learn on your own if interested.
Over all this book is short and sweet and gives you great understanding to figure out if you are ready to add mantra meditation into you practice.
December 23, 2020
Ready to try.... In hypertensive people displayed inporoved blood pressure after two weeks of practice, I could definitely try: not that I have issues with my BP, but 3 or 4 weeks of practice can't hurt, and if it works....it works!
I liked the easy and rich style, explaining a bit of history, a bit of traditions a bit of practical aspects.
I definitely recommend this book for whom have curiosity on the topic and on the practicality of it
I liked the easy and rich style, explaining a bit of history, a bit of traditions a bit of practical aspects.
I definitely recommend this book for whom have curiosity on the topic and on the practicality of it
April 6, 2022
This book is a great introduction to mantras and the various scenarios in which you can incorporate them into your daily routine. The author provides the pronunciation of each mantra which is useful. I did notice a decent amount of typos in the book which threw me off a bit.
August 22, 2019
A great introduction, but only gives examples of Hindu mantras.
May 29, 2020
It is an okay book if you already know the basics and origins of Mantras and just want to have a cheat sheat type of book.
June 5, 2020
It was a cute book for someone who was interested in what Mantras are. A quick 101 type of guide.
August 6, 2020
I have never read much about mantras. This book was a good introduction and I found a few mantras I would like to try as I engage more with meditation.
March 21, 2021
Good explanation about mantras and examples of mantras to begin practice.
July 18, 2021
brief but very to the point and easy to read!
November 17, 2021
It was goodish
February 23, 2022
I love this series!
January 27, 2023
Really nice book will keep to go back on in the future
May 14, 2024
Nice, short and simple.
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December 18, 2024A lovely little introductory resource on mantras. I do wish, however, there was better editing (the most egregious example was half a page that was repeated).
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews