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According to Wikipedia, japa meditation is ( Sanskrit) is a spiritual discipline involving the meditative repetition of a mantra or name of God .
The mantra or name may be spoken softly, enough for the practitioner to hear it, or it may be spoken purely within the recitor's mind. Japa may be performed while sitting in a meditation posture , while performing other activities, or as part of formal worship in group settings. The practice of repetitive prayer is present in varied forms within most religions in the world, although the religions of India generally give more emphasis to it as a specific discipline.
I couldn't have put it better myself.
However, what it fails to mention about japa meditation is this.
People who practise japa meditation have no direct experience or knowlege of God, they just believe in a God.
Assuming that God does exist, there is no proof that God uses a name.
What would God need a name for?
There is no proof that God would want to listen to anything or anybody repeat its name over and over and over and over. I mean, would you want to listen to that?
On the whole, japa meditation, as practiced by many religions, is simply an exercise to make the meditor feel like they are communing with God. That is it. They use all kinds of beads and wheels to keep count of the repetitions. Christians have their own version of this practice, using the rosary beads. Apparently, the more repetitions, the more spiritual you are... hmmmmmm.
That is not to say, that you, as serious meditator, cannot use the repetion of sounds to have a certain effect on your bodies. The repetion of certain sounds, or mantras, have a very powerful effect on your inner journey. These very specific sounds, or mantras, have very specific effects on your meditation.
Just as there are experts in any field of endevour, be it science, literature, biology, engineering, etc, so it is with mantras. There are experts who can advise you on what mantras to use, depending on where you are on your journey inwards. See above for details.
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