Kamalasiha talks to Adam about his new venture of Mantra Circle on the second Friday evening of each month
Kamalasīha first came along to the Ipswich Buddhist Centre in the summer of 2013. He was in a new relationship with Mosaic, who had been coming along to the centre for around 6 months, and started talking to him about becoming a mitra. He could see how enthusiastic she was about this, so he thought he would go check it out himself to see what she was getting into. For the first three weeks at the Wednesday evening newcomers’ class, he wouldn’t say a word to anyone. Just sat and watched everybody, seeing how people were with each other. And then, after the third week, he heard there was a sangha retreat that weekend, which he decided to investigate as well. On that retreat, he came into contact with some incredibly difficult moments and was not sure what was going on for him, but he came to realise that these just seemed like very kind people, and he would like to spend more time with them.
Following further classes at the centre and other retreats at Padmaloka, he decided to become a mitra too, in October 2014. A couple of years later, he wrote his letter to start the ordination training process, knowing the three jewels were bright and sparkling for him and just had to keep going. He went on his ordination retreat to the secret valley of Gukyaloka in Spain last year for 3 months, where he met the realm of myth and so many things he couldn’t have possibly dreamed of. He returned with his new name, Kamalasīha, which means “The lion that is imbued with the qualities of the red lotus”. One of the things he particularly associates with his name is the symbolism of the red lotus Padmasambhava sits on, the great, loving, compassionate guru of Tibet.
Over the years, Kamalasīha has served Ipswich Buddhist Centre in many ways, first through tentatively getting involved with the newcomer’s team on Wednesday nights. He’s been part of several iterations of Young Buddhists, supporting the Community Action Kula as well as the Shrine Kula. He has helped lead Festival Days with his Going for Refuge group and has been part of the team on many sangha retreats.
Currently, he assists with Saturday morning sessions and his new venture of Mantra Circle on the second Friday evening of each month, which we wanted to ask more about:

What inspired you to start Mantra Circle?
When you come back from ordination, you don’t necessarily have to do anything, it depends on what’s right for you. But mantra has been a strong part of my practice for a very long time. And so, I thought the Mantra Circle would be a bridge in between perhaps coming to classes, doing study, and with ritual. And so, Mantra Circle is somewhere in between. A little bit of an introduction, a stopgap, but also something for people who find meditation a bit more difficult. But mantra was something I am very passionate about, and I thought it would be quite good to start.
What is the typical format of Mantra Circle?
The format is that I will start by talking a little bit about mantras and explaining what mantra is for anybody new to it. We then head up, and I’ll lead the first mantra, which we’ll chant together for a little bit. That will die down, and then we’ll be quiet for a little while. Then someone will start another mantra, and we will chant that for a bit. What you tend to find is some of them naturally have a bit more energy and people will stay with that mantra for a bit longer. I think one of the mantras went on for about ten minutes once. It’s just a way of being with each other and responding to each other’s energy. And anybody can start a mantra. If they’re not confident, the people will tune into what it is that they started. If they come out of the gates a bit fast or their tone’s a little bit off, then the room will bring it back and support them.
And also, it’s a frightening thing the first time you get asked to lead a mantra in a puja. For the entire puja up to that point, the only thing going on in your head, or certainly for me, is “Right, I don’t want to lose this tune”. So this is a way for people to become more confident, to be a bit playful. There may be a few giggles, but that’s ok; they’re all supportive giggles.
What does mantra mean?
Ma means mind, and tra means protection. Well, that’s one translation, anyway. So, it’s a way of protecting the mind. We were talking in the last mantra circle about how different mantras have different qualities associated with them, and when you become more familiar with them, they can definitely change your state of mind and your energies.
But even just the sound itself. Mantra is dharma sound. It’s sacred, blessed sound. It’s not just some nice words. There is something incredibly powerful in mantra. I think some language l like around this is that every time we open our mouths, we can choose to perfume a place or pollute it. Or when we chant in mantras, certainly for me, we’re filling that place with the most beautiful perfume through sound. Chant mantra on a windy day, and see how far that will go, who that might reach. Likewise, if you want to bring fearlessness in before a job interview, say, chant Amoghasiddhi. Maybe that could bring some unobstructed success and fearlessness into your experience.
When did you first start connecting with mantras?
So the first time I would have heard mantra would have been on that first sangha retreat. And I think there were so many new experiences that I was probably not able to tune into that properly at that time. I think, I’m looking at the shrine, my Christian conditioning is kicking in, thinking why are people going down on the floor, not necessarily freaking me out but I found that all quite strange, so I think at that time, I probably wouldn’t have responded to it particularly strongly.
I think one of the first retreats that I went to at Padmaloka, Arthasiddhi led a mantra workshop, I think with about 80 guys. At that time, I still wasn’t sure how I was feeling about everything, so I would sit at the very back of the shrine room, so I wasn’t amongst lots of people. I was close to the walls as at the time, that used to make me feel quite safe and reassured. And he had us chanting lots of different mantras and things and that was great. And then he would encourage us to get up and to move sort of in front of the shrine.
I started feeling a bit braver, and I thought I would go down to the front. It’s quiet at first, but then he leads us in another mantra, and all of these guys suddenly start chanting, and I feel like I was the striker inside a bell, and I could just feel all of this vibration coming through me from everywhere and I flipping absolutely freaked out. I made my way out from the guys and went on the periphery for a bit. Then I was like, “Well, that’s alright, this is just something you’re not used to”. So then I came back into the centre of that, and well, I hadn’t felt anything like it; it completely changed my state. It’s a hard thing to describe, really, but I just felt clear and clean. It was only a weekend retreat but that really affected me for a few days. So that’s one quite significant time with mantra.
Another one was the first funeral that I’d been to, where we chanted the white tara mantra. Not all the people there were Buddhists, but everybody was standing around an open casket of this particular person chanting the white tara mantra, and I can just remember how beautiful it was, and it also seemed to allow people to be with their grief, in a different way to what I had experienced before. That’s probably as much as I can do with words about that experience.
How do you incorporate mantra into your daily practice?
I do mantra at least one time a day in a more formal practice. I will nearly always chant the seven-line prayer in the morning, refuges and precepts, and then probably a mantra.
And then throughout the day, I will just chant different mantras, however I feel really. Mosaic and I always chant the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra while we do the housework. It just makes us both incredibly bouncy. You know just looking at each other, giggling and once someone starts, you just can’t not join in.
If I’m coming into contact with perhaps some difficulties, some dukkah, some suffering, I’ll often chant green tara and bring her close. Or Padmasambhava. I’ve spoken a lot about energy in talks recently, and sometimes my energy is proper spiky and strong, and I’ll then move to perhaps the garland of skulls mantra with Padmasambhava or perhaps some more edgier figures. And it feels like a good home for that energy. I suppose it’s an intuitive thing. There are some things that I do formally and other things which are just quite intuitive
When leading a mantra for a puja, do you have any advice for remembering the melody?
Just practice it. But I witnessed some fantastic bravery a while back from a very experienced person, someone I have a lot of respect and love for. And I think they had had a very busy week, and they were going to lead a mantra in this particular puja and they just couldn’t remember it. And they’ve been doing it for years and years, and they just asked for help in the room and everyone picked that up, you know.
But practice, practice something you are familiar with. You can let the team know if you’ve got a particular connection with a buddha or a bodhisattva too. And I mean, mostly when we do the offerings, it’s normally after the worship section in the puja, so you don’t have to try to remember it for too long. But you will see people whispering a mantra to themselves outside the shrine room just before they go in just so they can try and remember it.
Perhaps bring to mind the qualities of that particular buddha or bodhisattva as well. Has that mantra got a colour? If you’re bringing imagination, emotion, colour, you’re being playful with it, then the chances are, you’re going to be able to remember it when it comes to it.
But don’t worry about it too much either, everybody will struggle at some point.
Which mantra are you currently connecting with in your practice?
The main one is Padmasambhava. I was chanting Amitabha earlier this week though, and that just kind of emerged, I was not expecting it. I was thinking about Padmasambhava and then how he was born from a ray of light from Amitabha. I think love was on my mind too, when I reflect on that moment, so that could be why Amitabha came up this week.
I chant green tara quite regularly, as well as Shakyamuni and other mantras, depending on how I’m feeling from an energy point of view. But they all come and go. I just love it. It’s great fun. It’s a lovely way to play and be creative.
What have you learnt or what insight have you gained through chanting mantras?
It definitely brings me more fuller into the qualities of the buddha or bodhisattvas. But then I think some of that is I’ve spent a lot of time researching mantras, and the qualities associated with those figures. So it’s not just that I will think of those qualities when chanting those mantras; I feel them fully. I’ll feel love and compassion fully when I’m chanting them.
I also think I’ve certainly been opened and able to explore my own depths and the depths of the world through mantras because it’s a different way of working with experience.
Something as well, over the last couple of years, when I’m chanting tara or prajnaparamita, it allows me to come in contact more with what I might see as the feminine qualities I have, and that’s been reassuring, it’s been really lovely to explore and open up to.
Why not come along to the next mantra circle and have a play. It’s on Friday 14th February from 7pm to 8:15pm. If you have any questions about the night or mantras in general, you can get in touch with Kamalasīha on Slack or even on a dedicated Mantra Circle Slack channel coming soon.