While I could have done without the admonition that one needs a teacher
to learn mantra from, I did learn a lot from this book. Many "spiritual" teachers have sleazy and greedy agendas, while great teachers are rare and hard to come by.
I have gotten better results as a solitary practitioner than most people I know who have recieved the initiation, the shakti pat, formal instruction etc from a guru.
Additionally many of these devotees have been violated and abused by their gurus.
I prefer working my own path.
Having said that, this book is very useful. The deeper meanings behind the seed mantras are explained and some formulas for using them are presented here. The seed mantras are the building blocks of reality, thus an understanding of them in important.
I'm using mantra to obtain real world results rather than performing mantra
as a part of a devotional or religious practice. This book along with the books and cds by Thomas Ashely Farrand are really useful in terms of an approach that has
a greater likelihood of reality creation. So far my results in terms of manifestation have been robust in several areas of mantra intention. Others are still in process, so time will tell. I am convinced that mantras are powerful and life changing.
This book would have been better had it a phonetic pronunciation approach to mantra included, but overall an important contribution to the serious practitioner of esoterica in regards to manifestation technique. Perhaps Mr. Frawley will produce a cd that will instruct the student in the art of mantra pronunciation.
If you want to understand seed mantras, buy this book.