Mantras

One of the suggestions I received was that I start learning to meditate by choosing and beginning to use a mantra. According to Wikipedia, the origin of the word mantra is Sanskrit. It consists of the root  man- meaning “to think” and the suffix -tra, designating tools or instruments, hence a literal translation would be "instrument of thought" (“Mantra”, n.d.)

There is no generally accepted definition of the word mantra because its meaning is different across a wide variety of spiritual and meditative practices. In popular culture, the word “om” or the phrase “om mani padme hum”, repeated while in a meditative stance, is often what comes to mind when the word is mentioned. In reality, a mantra could be any “sacred utterance, numinous sound, or a syllable, word, phonemes, or group of words (that has) psychological and spiritual power…

A mantra may or may not have syntactic structure or literal meaning; the spiritual value of a mantra comes when it is audible, visible, or present in thought. In more sophisticated forms, they are melodic phrases with spiritual interpretations such as human longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge and action.”  (“Mantra”, n.d.)

While I’m not particularly attracted to the idea of repeated chanting of “om” or some other phrase, or of chanting aloud in general, I do like the idea that a mantra can be melodic and somehow related to music. I think music is very powerful in its effect on the human mind. Music is very important in my life.

Thinking about mantras brings to mind something my mother mentioned to me earlier this year. She had watched a PBS program featuring the late Dr. Wayne Dyer in which he talks about meditation and mantras. Dyer is definitely a proponent of meditation. On his blog, (www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/sounds-i-love)

he states, “ Mediation is a vital practice to access conscious contact with your highest self. He suggests a mantra based on the name God called himself when he spoke to Moses in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. That name is “I am that I am.”

According to Dyer, when we use the phrase “I am” as a mantra, it has an immediate affirming quality and connects us to Deity or a higher power. It helps us to feel accepted for who we are, connect to God, and enables us to move forward with our “divinely- inspired desires.”  You then follow the “I am” with a variety of positive adjectives that describe your current good qualities, or qualities you would like to possess.

Over time, use of the “I am” mantra allows you to break the cycle of “I am nots” that we are conditioned to allow to dominate our thinking. “I am not smart.” I am not a good person.” “I am not lovable.” “I am not a good potential spouse or provider.” “I am not attractive.” All of these are common negative statements that we allow to creep into and dominate our thinking.

I’m very attracted to really making the “I am” mantra work for me because I myself am often dominated by negative thinking. I tend to disbelieve positive things that are said about me and even positive things I might believe about myself. I’ll admit to casually trying the “I am” meditation a few times earlier this year without much success. There’s always a voice of doubt in the back of my mind that says “yeah, right!” That being the case, perhaps a nonsensical mantra might work better for me.

The other danger in using the “I am” meditation in my case relates to a couple of things I learned in this week’s reading. One relates to entity vs. incremental theories of motivation. Entity theory says that intellectual ability is highly stable and cannot be changed much either by effort or lack thereof. Incremental theory says that intellectual abilities are modifiable through experience and effort. If meditation and mantras are to be used as mechanisms of change, then I think it’s important to avoid structuring a mantra in such a way that it reinforces “entity theory thinking.” For example, my saying “I am smart” as part of my mantra is useless because I know I’m smart—I’ve been smart my whole life. It doesn’t motivate any change. It doesn’t make me aspire to be something better than I am.

This also ties into the Scientific American article we read this week entitled “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids.” The article stresses that placing too much attention and praise on a child’s talent, intelligence, or innate ability can actually be counterproductive to achievement. Instead, it’s better to teach children a “growth mind- set” which focuses on effort, persistence, and the acceptance of failure as part of real achievement. So my “I am” mantra should stress descriptors that inspire action, effort, and persistence, and forgiveness of failure rather than just focusing on my already- established innate qualities.

I’m going to write some action- based “I am” mantras out rather than just hoping they spring to mind when I try to mediate with them:

I am energetic

I am committed

I am dedicated

I am persistent

I am driven

I am hungry

I am vibrant

I am teachable

I am a teacher

I am a student

I am trustworthy

I am motivated

I am a finisher

I am focused

I am animated

I am strong

I am healthy

I am imperfect but I am improving

I think I will start meditating with these “I am” statements this week, printing them out and reading them at first before I internalize them.

Another interesting idea came to me last week that relates to mediation, and I suppose to mantras as well. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter –day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church) held its bi-annual general conference in Salt Lake City. I belong to that faith and consider myself a religious person. One of the Speakers, Devin G. Durrant, gave a talk in which he described what he called “Ponderizing”.

As Durrant describes it, “Ponderizing” is choosing a verse of scripture each week and placing it where you will see it every day. Then, you read or think of the verse several times each day and ponder the meaning of its words and key phrases throughout the week. It’s a combination of 80% extended pondering and 20% memorization. Durrant states the primary goal of ponderizing is “to provide an uplifting place for your thoughts to go.”

“Ponderizing” sounds like a meditation technique to me, with the passages of scripture functioning as a mantra. I shall have to try that as well.