Poem and Quote about Life

Mantra Meditation – A Classic

Mantra meditation is one of the great, classic meditative traditions — the fruit of thousands of years of meditators handing down their discoveries — and is a superb core practice.  It is also is an excellent meditation technique for newcomers because it’s so very easy to do.

A mantra is pretty concrete, which makes it easy to stay with, and is particularly good at displacing verbal thought.  Mantras are also pretty magical, with a special beauty all their own.

As with most practices, mantra meditation operates on an important fundamental principle: where your attention goes, energy flows.  When you put your attention on a meditative anchor — be it a mantra, chakra, or the breath — energy flows to it and enlivens the work. It’s how you tap into the juice.

It can be illuminating to know something of the philosophy behind the practice. Most mantras are in Sanskrit and refer to qualities or names of the Divine. The mantra is thought to be imbued with holy energies, with these qualities of the Divine. The sound of the mantra is like a sheath around the energy and it is the energy within the sheath that blesses you and bestows some of these qualities upon you.

Some mantras come from the Christian faith, from a meditative tradition known as contemplative prayer which uses mantras in English, which we’ll go into as well.

And, of note, if the mystical explanation sound pretty far out to you, no worries. You don’t have believe any of it!  It will still work.  You can just think of a mantra as a simple tool to help you move into a meditative state.

 Distractions and Sensations

When your attention wanders, as it naturally will, you just come back to the mantra. Having your attention wander is perfectly normal, part of the process, and will happen a million times. When you notice that you’re off on a train of thought, just gently disengage from the thoughtstream and go back to the mantra.

Each time you do so — each time you let go of the thinking and bring your attention back to the mantra — it takes you a little bit deeper, a little further into a meditative state.

Any number of sensations may arise: swirling, indefinable energies, a sense of expansion, tingling or light buzzing, feelings of pressure or contraction, or you may feel an undercurrent of emotion bubbling up into your conscious awareness.

Whatever comes up, just notice it and experience it. There is nothing you need to DO. In fact, don’t try to change anything – just be with it.

You might think of it as a journey through your interior landscape — an ever-changing experience of different states and sensations — and you’re in the passenger seat, just experiencing it all.

Your mind may start telling stories about the sensations — naming and dialoguing. Try not to get involved in the verbal thinking — just notice the thoughts, label them “thinking,” and keep holding the mantra in your awareness.