A recent focus on recitation and mantra has lead to deepening realization around the interplay with emptiness. Mantra and recitation, if practiced skillfully lead to the skill of letting thoughts and other phenomena “slip” by without catching or sticking. This plus the stability, clarity and flexibility of mind that comes from these practices serves as an excellent preliminary for emptiness practices that can often be entered into through a very similar experience, “slippery mind”. Thoughts and phenomena coming and going without traction or sticking.
An anchored practice leading more and more into something like patinissagga, pointing again back to how powerful the practice of Anapanasati can be when approached skillfully and patiently. Mantra and recitation can serve in this case in a very similar capacity as the anchor of awareness of breathing in Anapanasati.