How a global meditation helps us connect to community—and uplift the world.
Nearly 10,000 people in over 20 countries participated in Deva Premal & Miten’s Buddha Full Moon Meditation at 9am worldwide on May 21 to create a wave of healing energy across the planet.
The Buddha Full Moon, also known as Wesak, “is one of the most auspicious times for meditation and chanting, with a focus on enlightenment for all beings,” they explained on their Facebook event page.
“Buddha was born, became enlightened, and left his body on this day. At this powerful time, we can raise our vibration and focus our intention for the benefit of humanity. For all sentient beings, actually.”
A Mantra for Awakening
During their virtual, global meditation, Deva Premal & Miten invited participants to chant the core mantra of Nichiren Buddhism: “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.”
“The translation of the mantra is ‘I bow down to the mystical law of the Lotus Sutra’,” they explained in an email interview with LA Yoga. “In the Lotus Sutra, Gautama talks about our inherent nature being ‘Buddha Nature’—the potential in us all to wake up to the here-and-now, in all its pristine beauty and awesomeness.”
As Deva Premal and Miten observe in the liner notes of their new album, Cosmic Connections Live (which rose to #1 on the iTunes world music chart in the US, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland), “Chanting this mantra opens us to our supreme and innate Buddha Nature.”
Deva Premal & Miten and Manose in a Moon Mandala created by Tania Summerell
During the Buddha Full Moon Meditation, participants chanted along to the “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Mantra (live)” track from the new album. Deva Premal’s soothing, surround-sound rendition of the ancient mantra is embedded in an East-West fusion soundscape that soars on luminous notes of the bansuri (courtesy of Nepalese maestro Manose).
As 9am rolled around in time zones across the world, comments from participants began pouring in on Deva Premal & Miten’s Facebook page for the event:
“We need this light and energy so much,” wrote Mariann Weed from Rohnert Park, California.
“Thank you for creating a universal connection without borders!” wrote Roshan Cader from Johannesburg, South Africa.
“I did the meditation near the ocean…Lots of love to all from Mallorca, Spain!” wrote Uschi Schena.
Tania Summerell, from Cabarita Beach, Australia, described Deva Premal & Miten’s mantra track as “a wave of soft light and love itself.”
And Miri Jeijers, writing from Middleburg in the Netherlands, said, “I chanted with this track over and over again for a full hour, first with happy tears down my face and later on with a smile. Beautiful to be a part of this.”
The Benefits of a Global Meditation
“Everything we think, say, and do creates a certain vibration in the energetic field in which we live,” Deva Premal & Miten explain. “That’s why it’s so important to purify our thoughts, words, and actions so that we stay in a healthy, joyful state. The more people put their intentions on raising the vibration, the stronger it becomes.”
It also helps us connect to a sangha, or spiritual community, they say. “Chanting mantras [together] creates this spiritual bond among us…The silence that follows the chant connects us all on a non-physical level. We meet in a higher dimension.”
Get a free download of Deva Premal & Miten’s “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Mantra” here. For more information about the duo’s upcoming concerts and other events, visit devapremalmiten.com.
