What is the meaning of "Samma-Araham", and why
repeat it ?
Samma-Araham
is a compound term derived from ancient Indian philosophy.
Samma is a prefix which means the righteous one.
In ancient Indian philosophy, there was the belief that all human
beings, regardless of nationality or faith, have their own goal
of highest achievement. This goal they called the arahant
and the one who achieves it they called arahanta.
The compounded term Samma-Araham means the righteous
absolute of attainment of a human being. Samma-Araham
needs to be repeated because we use the term as a mantra
to prevent the mind from wandering from one idea to another during
meditation. Using the mantra, the mind can be trained to rest
at the centre of the body, because the sound of the words produces
a slight vibration in the mind which helps the awareness to move
in the direction of happiness and peace. You can use other words
instead but any word which is chosen to be used should have positive
associations and should not lead to passion, hatred or delusion.
It should be repeated until the mind is calm and peaceful. After
this stage, the sound of the mantra will fade away by itself,
leaving just the crystal ball shining and still at the centre
of our body. Our reason for using the mantra is just a technique
for training the mind to rest at the centre of the body, inside
the crystal ball.
