There are pros and cons to repeating a mantra

On this blog I've done a lot of writing about mantras. I just used the Google search box in the right sidebar to locate posts dealing with "mantra." The results went on for 10 pages, all of most of the posts being written for Church of the Churchless rather than my other two blogs.

I assiduously repeated a mantra silently both in meditation and during some of the rest of my day for thirty-five years. 

That was the meditation method I first was taught, though it had a component of open awareness to go along with the focused attention of repeating a mantra.

At times I've considered that mantra meditation basically is useless. In part, that's because I no longer like the idea of separating my body and mind. 

When I was really into repeating a mantra, I found that this created a distance between what I was doing physically and my awareness, because part of my mental energy was devoted to the mantra while, say, I was doing the dishes.

Now I prefer to be mindful of whatever I'm doing, no mantra required, which is why I've said that mindfulness has become my meditation. 

But I still play around with repeating a mantra -- the operative word being "play." I no longe view a mantra as anything serious, a cosmic secret between me and the guru who gave me supposedly sacred words to repeat in my mind.

Nor do I consider that a mantra has any special powers, or is a means of achieving some sort of supernatural consciousness. Rather, I like to try out various mantras just to see how this feels to me, sort of like an actor playing various roles. 

An actor tries to inhabit the role being taken on in order to make their acting appear genuine. But they never lose themselves in a role so deeply, they aren't conscious that what they're doing is just an act.

Being inclined toward Buddhism, though in no way am I a Buddhist, I've been trying on the Shin/Pure Land mantra of Namu Amida Butsu. 

Basically those words mean "I take refuge in the Buddha." There's quite a bit of weirdness associated with the Shin branch of Buddhism, but I don't have to embrace all that when I'm repeating Namu Amida Butsu. 

I like how those words sound, especially when repeated slowly, one word to each out breath.Namu ends in "ooh." Amida ends in "ah." Butsu ends in another "ooh." Nice soft vowels. They relax me.

Mostly I play at repeating the Nembutsu, as it is called, when I'm not doing anything else. Going to sleep, for example. 

But there's other times when I enjoy repeating this mantra, or some other word(s), especially when my mind is overly active. Yes, in general I believe in not diffusing my attention with a mantra when I could be simply fixing lunch, taking out the trash, or whatever.

That assumes my mind is quiet enough to be mindful of what I'm doing physically, However, sometimes thoughts of something I've done, or something I need to do, keep intruding. 

In that case, I figure that it makes sense to have a few simple words being repeated mentally than to have a whole bunch of complex thoughts rattling around in my head. 

I'd rather be speaking to myself Namu Amida Butsu than, say, "Geez, I can't believe Governor Brown decided Oregon teachers should get a Covid vaccine before seniors. So wrong. Maybe I should write about this tonight. Or maybe not. Hard to decide. Politicians are doing so much that's stupid. Mostly Republicans, but Democrats also. So irritating..."

Most of our inner speech isn't productive. it's just how our mind likes to pass time, by talking to itself. So a mantra can be a useful means of quieting the mind, sort of like giving a baby a pacifier it can suck on rather than crying. 

Comments

[Spence Tepper]

If we could only find a way to control the mind with the mind. We develop all sorts of ways, formulas. After all the mind is a great lab. Our experiences with different approaches lead us to different results and those, understood rightly, lead us further. At best we discover something real within ourselves, then that leads us further. Then we submit to the reality of that. In meditation practice as science and in life all progress rests on setting up the conditions for success as best we can, making the effort, and adjusting to the outcomes: both successes and failures, and new discoveries. They are all discoveries. In all circumstances the element of being a good student willing to learn and try, a creative artist willing to adapt, and a servant willing to submit to the realities that may not be as we had hoped or believed, but are the truths we said we had wanted to discover, to digest these, adjust and move forward. I guarantee that the notions you start out with, using your best thinking, will turn out to be a little different from what you discover. And this is so at each stage, proving how useful and limited the mind is. And some of the basic eternal principles will prove themselves.

[Dragonwarior]

Mantras, in RSSB, is nothing but calling upon on entities. These entities are so called Lords of various regions and they are not your friends. They want you to stay in illusion, in lies and in submission to them. Doesn't GSD say in his own mouth that if you think of an apple and apple will appear in the minds eye , so by that logic you repeat the devils name, he is sure to appear. Beware, the sachkand and enlightenment path RSSB put you on is that of kaal. It is nothing but a trap to keep you tied up in this matrix reincarnation cycle for ever.

[um]

@ Dragon warior

Is this what you are hinting at?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix/comments/4fnitl/matrix_forced_reincarnation/

[S]

I think we should acknowledge that the mind is neither good nor bad—it’s how we use it that makes it good or bad. Plenty of so called spiritually minded people have repeated mantras day in and day out without ever gaining an ounce of wisdom.

Reason is neither good nor bad, it is merely a tool.

Mantras aren’t bad. But they’re not necessarily good either. It depends on the individual and what their mantra means to them as well as how they use it.

Meditation doesn’t automatically bring enlightenment. Neither does reason. But if you truly care about honesty and decency you will find it regardless of whether you repeat a mantra or not.

[Nick]

What’s going on with the GSD court case? What happened to the Ranbaxy brothers? Are they both still in prison? There has been no news on this subject since September..

[Uchit]

Nick, the courts are again investigating serious fraud , but the slithery snake billionaire GSD is trying to wriggle his way out of court charges. He has tried to slither his way up the back side of modi , as he offered dera for covid patients. Was it for love, or favours in the future, you scratch my back scenerio - I strongly suggest the latter given this naracist has never opened up the dera to anyone other than feeding and expanding his dera investment. Also as he has been a bully and heartless to neighbouring farmers, he does nothing other than for self gain. Finally his wife's suspicious timely death was very convenient as he put most the siphoned money into family members names. In short hes trying to wriggle his way out of the court cases, and and he is trying to enjoy his new life as a single man - it's worth checking his mobile phone as it is supposed to have many pictures of girls and check out how he creepily flirts with them. Dirty old man

[manoj]

Evoking the evokable is never a wise move.

Repeating and calling upon something or someone without having the true knowledge and without knowing the truth behind it, puts you in a very vulnerable position.

Majority of Mantras are satanic in nature take GSD and the creepy RScult.

The very first Name in the Mantra given at the time of initiation is "Jyot Niranjan" ( meaning the Light of the Devil) how clear does it need to be to be understood.
What fool would call upon the devil?

By meditating with this evil mantra the individual slowly looses himself and falls under the wicked spell that he has just weaved on to himself.

Trick and Deceive one of Satan's favorites.

GSD is a looney nutcase job on the loose, who will do anything for his master Satan.
With a treacherous track record for criminal activities and disgraceful intentions we would all be wiser to stay, well clear.

God save us all from this looney lunatic baba!

[Nick]

Thank you Uchit. I hope justice prevails in the end!

[Todd Rush Chambers]

Wow Brian! "Namu Amita Bul" (Korean) and "Om Mani Padme Hoom" (Sanskrit) were my first mantras when I was a teenager.

[Fairy Vibration]

Mantras = Solfeggio frequencies = vibrational binaural beats= Yoga of the Sound Current= Surat Shabd Yog.🧚🙏😂🎻🎶