Spiritual Exercises - Mantra Meditations

In this page, I try to impart how to do one particular form of spiritual exercise that I have found useful. I can't predict how it might work for you, however. Many such methods fail for some people; some could even have a negative effect. In general, I advise stopping an exercise right away if it leads to discomfort ("If it feels bad, don't do it"). And if nothing useful seems to be starting to happen after a reasonable time (people I have learned from have suggested allowing six weeks), maybe another technique would be better for you.

Mantra meditations are one kind of exercise in which one repeats a harmonious sound. Meditating on a mantra involves making the sound mentally, inside oneself. An alternative activity is to make the sound out loud; this is chanting.

To meditate on a mantra, you first need to have a mantra.

Randomly choosing a word or phrase is generally a bad idea. Your choice may carry bad emotional freight for you, or may be harsh rather than harmonious.

The purveyors of Transcendental Meditation will, as part of their not-inconsiderably-priced service, select a mantra for each customer which they find to be appropriate for that individual. ^footnote1

One "universal" mantra that seems to work for most people is the "sacred syllable," rendered in the Latin alphabet as Om, or, alternatively, Aum (click to see this syllable in the original Sanskrit). Om should be imagined as a sonorous sound, with the vowel portion resonant and the consonant prolonged; most people seem to find it best to let the consonant die gradually into silence rather than end more abruptly. A similar approach is advisable with all mantras, making the most of their harmonious natures.

Another good general choice is the Hebrew Shalom, or its Arabic equivalent Salaam. Both mean "peace" as a greeting, although I suppose some would in 2007 find politics getting in the way of using one or the other form for meditation.

Peace itself isn't bad, if the consonant sounds aren't too choppy. One is a good word, too, and has been recommended in the medically-originated form of mantra meditation described by Herbert Benson in his 1975 book "The Relaxation Response." ^footnote2 Both involve, though, a problem for some in using an English word or phrase (or any in a familiar language), namely that the word has a meaning. This can be good if the meaning reinforces the effect of the meditation; but it can be bad if your mind gets distracted from the meditation into thinking about the meaning. Particular examples of the possibly good and possibly bad are prayers designed for repetitious use in a religion that the meditator may follow.

Let's assume that you have managed to select a mantra to try.

Like many spiritual techniques, mantra meditation begins with positioning the body. If you can, assume a comfortable seated position with the spine relatively straight and vertical (lying down risks going to sleep quite early in the exercise -- some people have no choice, of course, but if you can comfortably sit up, you should do so). If you have a favorite hatha-yoga or zen sitting posture, by all means use it, but not if it involves a distracting strain. A chair is fine for most Westerners.

Close your eyes. If you're a beginning meditator, and you don't have a gentle timing alarm available (such as a beep from your watch), you may need to peek later to see how long you've meditated. Doing so is a distraction, but it's certainly better than spending a lot of your time wondering whether you're through yet.

Start your mantra. In Transcendental Meditation, you would "allow" the mantra to start. In any case, be gentle and don't rush. If you need to sit for several minutes achieving physical relaxation, so be it. After decades of mantra meditation, I find I can drop into doing the mantra right away, just as I have a sense of continuing my meditation for about the right amount of time without paying much specific attention to the issue. It's just practice.

Some traditions involve synchronizing the mantra with your breathing. This is like a silent form of chanting, and some find that helpful. I was taught in the Transcendental Meditation method, to allow the mantra to find its own rhythm (and to descend into increasing states of softness or "subtlety"), and I just let my breathing go its own way.

After about twenty minutes, or whatever similar length of time you find, with experience, works best for you, let the mantra stop. Continue to sit quietly for a few moments, or even minutes. Then gently open your eyes. Do this twice a day until you've been doing it long enough to decide if it has benefits for you, in terms of spirituality, relaxation, destressing or whatever is your goal. But don't think about your goal while you're meditating.

The chief problems people tend to encounter during mantra meditation are those common to many spiritual exercises. The first, as I just mentioned, is thinking about where you want to go instead of, by doing the exercise, going there. The second is thinking in general. Of course, you will think about other things. You may find you've just spent several minutes of your twenty thinking about the next day's schedule or any of a myriad other things. The prime rule here is, don't blame yourself. Just recall to yourself what it was that you intended to do, namely to repeat your mantra, and gently return to doing it. Be as patient with yourself about this as is necessary. You're not in a hurry to succeed; hurrying, for success or for any other reason, is what you do the rest of the time, not while you're meditating. And the third problem is going to sleep. Provided you don't miss anything important, such as changing buses, don't worry about it (yes, I do on occasion meditate during a bus ride -- the ambient sounds and people's chatter are just more distractions that I have found I can put aside). You may sleep simply because you were tired. You may have been stressed enough that your body would have taken any opportunity to rest. Whatever; dozing off can be a reminder to you of why, if your goal is secular, you wanted to meditate in the first place. Next time might be different, or will be whatever it will be.

Return to "Spiritual Exercises" page to select another kind of exercise.