Question asked by Catherine
Thank you for your reply so I would like to ask how do we know how many mantras must we chant for certain situations in our life? For example how many times must I chant the mantras to have peace and harmomy in my family? How do I know how heavy is my karma from my past lives carried into this life? And if we want to help another person who is of different faith will it be effective if I chant on his behalf even if he refuses to belief that it will help him?












































































































Dear Catherine,
It all depends on the severity of the Karma we are afflicted with. But generally you should set a realistic number that you can achieve, such as 50,000 or 100,000. The goal may be achieved before you finish the mantra count or you may need to extend the mantra count further if the goal isn’t reached. In the case of harmony within the family the mantras are not a miracle cure, so you still need to put effort into creating harmony within your family yourself. The blessings of the Buddhas will manifest through the mantras by making this easier.
As for the severity of negative karma, since each of us has had countless lives we all have a lot of negative karma. The simple trick is to make sure that we do not create even more negative karma in this life by watching what we do, say and think. To be more positive. This coupled with purification practices will cut the affects of the negative karma in our lives. The highly attained masters of the past always stressed the importance of purification practices no matter what level they were. In fact the more you purify, the more likely you are to have spiritual realisations.
The Buddhas bless everyone without discriminating what people believe. So yes, there will be benefit for the person of another faith but please be mindful of other people’s own belief systems. If they say it is ok, then by all means go ahead.