Building Your foundation
Japa Mini-Course Installment 1- Building Your Foundation
Dear Prabhus and Mataji’s,
There are ten installments in this japa course. I suggest that you focus on one to two installment per week, integrating what you have learned into your japa that week.
At the end of each installment I ask you to write me the realizations you got by applying the practices. Writing your realizations will help you better imbibe what you are learning, and also serve you in the future as a reminder of the realizations you were getting while doing this course.
Hare Krishna,
Mahatma das
Evaluating Your Japa
Rate how your japa has been in the recent past on a scale of 1 to 10.
Consider what you can do to improve, and start to implement these ideas. Regularly monitor the quality of your japa by considering what is going well, what isn’t going well, and how you can improve.
Little improvements over time amount to major progress.
Without making a regular effort to improve, our japa can easily lapse into a mediocre state. If we are not trying to regularly improve, it can easily get worse.
The difference between offensive chanting and the clearing stage is the effort you make to improve. When you make your best effort, you are at least on the clearing stage.
Since we are creatures of habit, we have specific japa habits. Improving japa entails creating new and improved japa habits, thus making good japa your norm.
This week work on overcoming some bad japa habits by developing some new and better habits.
Write down the realizations you got by doing this and send them to me at mahatmadasa@gmail.com.
Note that all realizations will not necessarily be positive. Sometimes you might simply realize how difficult it is to change. These kinds of realizations make you aware that you will have to work harder at improving than you might have thought. Therefore, even the “bad” becomes an inspiration to improve.
Write down the realizations you get this week by applying this principle to your japa. Send me those realizations at mahatmadasa@gmail.com
More audio and video on improving japa is available at:
www.krishna.com/mahatma
My YouTube Channel, Mahatma Das
Under “Newsletters” on my website www.mahatmadas.com
This mini course is a sample of the many principles and exercises we do in The Japa Workshop. The Japa Workshop has transformed the chanting of thousands of devotees. It is a small investment of time that pays incredible dividends. I would love to come to your temple or area to facilitate a weekend workshop. If you are interested in having The Japa Workshop, please write me.
(The Japa Workshop course description is available on my website, www.mahatmadas.com under “Courses”)