Japa Meditation

Experience Tranquility and Peace

Japa meditation is very popular amongst many world religions including Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. Practitioners say they are calm, peaceful and much more resistant to day to day stresses.

So lets have a look at ...

• The Benefits of Japa Meditation and How it Works
• How you can do Japa Meditation

What are the Benefits of Japa Meditation - How Does it Work?

Japa mediation focuses on attaining calmness and peace of mind by getting rid of the everyday problems and stress that plague our minds. And its very effective. With a stress free mind obtained through practicing Japa meditation, you can lead a happier and fuller life.

Japa meditation is a little like mantra meditation. You focus a thought, material or objective until your mind is quiet. You use a mantra or chant to do this. By repeating your mantra you can ease away the stress and tension from your mind and body.

Mantras are essentially Sanskrit words with a unique arrangement that produce the desired effect in your mind.

How to Perform Japa Meditation?

1. Choose your mantra. You can use divine names such as Atman, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Tao, Ra, Jah, Jehovah, Brahman, etc or simply chant OM which is an extremely powerful word often used for meditation practices. Ensure that the selected words have a calming effect on your body. Or you can simply use a more neutral word like "One". Have a look at the Relaxation Response for more on how this works.


2. Find a room where you won't be disturbed for 20 to 30 minutes. You may have to close the door and even the draw the curtains so that the room is as dark as possible.


3. Light incense and a candle as these create the perfect ambience for meditation.


4. Take up the meditation beads or mala (containing one hundred and eight prayer beads). To make you aware of the completion of 108th Japa, there is a larger bead which is known as Meru. Many people use such a Japa mala during meditation to increase their focus and multiply the effects of meditation.


5. Sit in a comfortably placed chair or on the floor in a lotus position (cross-legged) would be the ideal posture for performing Japa meditation. Your spine should be straight. Have a look at meditation posture to find out why a straight back is important.


6. Drape the mala on your right hand palm. Keep the index finger extended while touching the first bead with your thumb.


7. Close your eyes, start the "mantra Japa". Each time you chant a mantra, the beads should be pushed forward as a method to keep a track of the chants.


8. Chant the mantra. The mantra or the word selected for the Japa meditation should be chanted for a total of 216 times. For remembering the repetitions, go through the beads in the mala in the reverse way. Take care not to go the Meru (the large bead).


9. Continue to chant the mantra or the word as many times as possible for you.

The purpose of Japa meditation is to relax your mind and to keep the unwanted thoughts away. Japa meditation can clear your mind of the multiple tensions and soothe your spirit. Practitioners all over the world, use Japa meditation to attain peace, calm and tranquility within. Why not you?

Enjoyed Japa Meditation?

Then read

• Mantra Meditation
• Third Eye Meditation
• Chinese Meditation

Return from Japa Meditation to Learning Modern Meditation