Eknath Easwaran
How many of us can recall a week, let alone a day, where we were not wrestling with something that was the source of psychic discomfort?
Modern neuroscience has begun to reveal the biological underpinning of parts of our consciousness. We now understand, for example, that the emotional experience of fear requires the activation of the amygdala, a small, globular collection of neurons (nerve cells) located deep inside the temporal lobe. The perception of conflict, whether internal or external, involves a stretch of brain along the midline known as the anterior cingulate. The orbitofrontal cortex, located at the very front part of the brain, has a critical role in weighing reward and punishment, which is the basis of decision-making.
At the most superficial level, repetition of the mantram causes the brain to swing from barely connected thoughts to a simple phrase that holds the attention and thus slows down the mind.
From studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we know that concentrating on a short phrase will activate specific areas in the front and side of the brain. These areas, the frontal and parietal lobes, are involved in selective attention - the capacity to maintain a single focus despite the presence of distracting stimuli. In this way, the mental repetition of a simple phrase like a mantram can provide a guidewire to move your attention away from a troubling stream of thoughts. It is as though the mantram provides access to a peaceful, grounded center that puts our cravings, drives, and other immediate needs in perspective.
However, historically there's no doubt that the mantram has been a powerful and positive tool - great spiritual teachers like the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi have used mantrams extensively on their spiritual journeys.
Once you have chosen your mantram, do not change it.
The mantram is most effective when repeated silently in the
The mantram is most effective when repeated silently in the mind.
You will find that this is not mindless repetition; the mantram will help to keep you relaxed and alert during the day, and when you can fall asleep in it, it will go on working for you throughout the night as well.
This is the real glory of the human being, that we can choose to remake ourselves completely.
When we repeat the mantram, we are not hypnotizing ourselves, or woolgathering, or turning our backs on the world.
Repetition of the mantram is a dynamic discipline by which we gain access to our inner reserves of strength and peace of mind.
Anything which takes attention away from the mantram itself, such as counting or worrying about intonation or connecting the mantram with physiological processes, only weakens the mantram's effect;
So it is best right from the outset not to get dependent on external aids, not even the rosary that is used in many religious traditions.
Similarly, let me urge you not to connect the repetition of the mantram with your breathing or your heartbeat.
At first, of course, we will be repeating the mantram only at the surface level of the mind. But if we repeat it with regularity and sustained enthusiasm, it will take root deep in our consciousness until it becomes as natural to us as breathing.
WHATEVER RELIGION YOU profess, or if you profess no religion, you can still use the mantram.
Then, once you have chosen a mantram, do not change it.
The spiritual teacher says,"I don't have a closed fist; my hand is open. Everything I know that can help you cross the sea of life is yours for the asking."
Buddhist mantram Om manipadme hum,
the Buddhist mantram Om manipadme hum, which makes no direct reference to God at all.
I wouldn't suggest making up your own mantram, either.
Another caution which I would sound here is not to use the impersonal mantram Om by itself.
No matter what the associations of your past, it is always possible to choose a mantram that can come to appeal to you deeply. Then, once you have chosen your mantram, do not change it. As one of the Desert Fathers, writing on the Prayer of Jesus, warns us with a homely image, a tree that is too often transplanted will not take root.
"Live only for yourself and you will never grow; live for the welfare of all those around you and you will grow to your full stature."
I don't even get agitated when people tell me that they don't believe in God at all.
When I use the word God, I am not referring to anything separate from us, but to the divine ground of existence of which we are all part. God is the supreme reality which is the very core of our being, ever pure, ever perfect. He - or she - is our real nature, my real me, your real you.
Three thousand years ago he came to us as Krishna to give us the Bhagavad Gita.
God, called Brahman in Sanskrit. Brahman is not just God; Brahman is the total Godhead, which is beyond thought, which has no attributes, which can't be defined or expressed.
In Indian mysticism we refer to a divine incarnation as an avatara or avatar: ava means "down"; tri, "to cross or come' Avatara is "one who comes down" - the supreme reality whom we call God appearing on the face of the earth as a human being like us in response to the tremendous needs of the world, in response to people who are in dire distress.
It was through the ceaseless repetition of Rama, Rama, Rama that the very ordinary young man Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi transformed himself into Mahatma Gandhi, who freed India from the greatest empire the world has ever seen without firing a single shot.
Another incarnation with universal appeal is Krishna, whose name means "he who draws us to himself." In traditional Hindu language, the Godhead has three functions: creation, preservation, and destruction. Krishna is the full form of God as the preserver or savior of the universe.
On the physical level, for example, poor eating habits and too little exercise lead to all sorts of physical problems. If the resulting pain spurs us to change our way of living, then pain has helped us to grow.
In Japan, the traditional Buddhist mantram comes directly from Sanskrit: Namu Amidabutsu, "I put my faith in the Buddha of infinite light."
But the oldest mantram in Buddhism, revered everywhere, is Om mani padme hum, which refers to the "jewel in the lotus of the heart." This jewel is the permanent treasure of joy and security hidden deep within us, waiting to be discovered.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, men and women from all over India, and later from all over Asia, were drawn to the Compassionate Buddha to learn the supreme art of living from him. There are many significant stories that have come down to us that give a clear picture of the greatness of
the Buddha as a spiritual teacher. Perhaps the single quality about him that appeals most deeply to the modern spirit is his unflinching search for truth, his refusal to believe any dogma that has not been verified in personal experience.
The Buddha carefully avoided impractical questions.
That is what the mantram Om manipadme hum stands for: personal realization of the jewel that lies in the heart of each of us.
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim is a beautiful Muslim mantram, meaning "In the name of Allah, the merciful, the com- passionate"The Lord, who is the source of all mercy and compassion,
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim is a beautiful Muslim mantram, meaning "In the name of Allah, the merciful, the com-
passionate"The Lord, who is the source of all mercy and compassion, has given us a wide margin to experiment with the playthings of life.
Allahu akbar, "God is great;"
The perfect symbol of the impersonal aspect of the Godhead is the syllable Om. In Hinduism and Buddhism, many mantrams based on the personal aspect of the Lord begin with Om, so that a single mantram symbolizes the divine presence as both personal and impersonal, manifest and unmanifest.
According to this theory, the entire phenomenal world consists of vibrations, just as matter, according to modern physics, may be looked at as a concentration of energy. The physicist will tell you that in the last analysis, this book is not a solid object; it is a structure of vibrating energies temporarily fixed in a particular pattern. In
When we utter Om with awareness
of its significance, we are to some degree evoking the supreme reality for which it stands.
Once a man and woman who had been meditating under my guidance for a short while came to me and said that they had been hearing the cosmic sound. Their meditation was not likely to have been so very deep, so to get to the root of the matter I went to their home one morning to meditate with them. It turned out that they had been hearing the hum of the
Once a man and woman who had been meditating under my guidance for a short while came to me and said that they had been hearing the cosmic sound. Their meditation was not likely to have been so very deep, so to get to the root of the matter I went to their home one morning to meditate with them. It turned out that they had been hearing the hum of the refrigerator.
In any case, whether you accept the theory of vibration or not, Om is still a magnificent symbol. For thousands of years it has stood for the ultimate reality - the transcendental Godhead beyond all names and forms, beyond all sects and all denominations.
When you are sick or suffering any physical discomfort, the mantram is of great value. As more attention goes to the mantram, there is less attention for the physical sensations of discomfort or pain.
I do not recommend repeating the mantram while driving, especially in heavy traffic, because of the danger of getting absorbed in the mantram and not paying enough attention to the wheel, to your speed, to other cars, and to pedestrians and animals.
Most of us, in fact, do not realize how much of what we do is motivated simply by boredom, by restlessness, by not knowing what to do with our time.
Indiscriminate television watching is one sure sign of boredom. Friends of mine who work in hospitals tell me that many patients have the television going all day long, sometimes even with two sets both on in a single room, just because they do not know what else to do with their time. I would say, turn off the television, lie back, and repeat the mantram; the silence and the mantram will speed your recovery much more than a soap opera.
People who are compulsive talkers are not too different. There is a Sufi proverb that each word we utter should have to
pass through three gates before we say it. At the first gate, the gatekeeper asks, "Is this true?" At the second gate, he asks, "Is it kind?" And at the third gate, "Is it necessary?" If we applied this proverb strictly, most of us would have very little to say. I am not recommending silence, however, but control over our speech.
One of the most important times to use the mantram is at night,
One of the most important times to use the mantram is at night, when you are going to sleep. This is the time when all our problems come home to roost - all the turmoil of the day, all the anxieties of the following morning. This is why we have bad dreams, why we don't sleep very well and get up wishing we could sleep four hours more. So instead of falling asleep in your problems, put your book away, turn out the light, close your eyes, and begin repeating Rama, Rama, Rama or Jesus, Jesus, Jesus until you fall asleep in it. It takes some time and some effort to master this, but once you are able to fall asleep in the mantram, it will go on working its healing effect in your consciousness throughout the night.
A friend once told me that he had long been subject to a certain recurrent nightmare, but one night, just as this nightmare was working up to its usual fearful climax, he heard the mantram echoing in his consciousness. It dispelled the fear and the bad dream, too, and that nightmare has never been back to haunt him again. So when you have learned to fall asleep in the mantram, it is goodbye to nightmares, to disquieting dreams, to that feeling that the night hasn't exactly been refreshing.
Falling asleep in the mantram is not as easy as it sounds. It takes some practice, but it is well worth the effort. So if you take a nap during the day, or doze off while riding in a car or bus or plane, or wake up in the middle of the night, just treat these events as opportunities for learning to fall asleep in the mantram. This is especially helpful for those who are subject to bouts of sleeplessness. Instead of lying there watching the clock, getting anxious about how much sleep you're missing or how you will feel in the morning, repeat the mantram. Then instead of complaining, "I missed two hours and forty-three minutes of sleep last night;' you can say, "I had
two hours and forty-three minutes of uninterrupted time for the mantram." With this change of perspective, and with the mantram soothing your mind, you may soon find yourself a complete stranger to insomnia.
Writing the mantram is a valuable discipline. In our home we have a big, thick album in which anybody who has a few minutes can sit down and write the mantram. This has quite practical uses. When you are too upset to repeat the mantram calmly in your mind, you will find that you can write it, and that the act of writing will keep your mind from wandering away to whatever is troubling you.
This prayer is not addressed to anyone or any power outside us, but to our deepest Self, the Lord of Love, who dwells in the hearts of us all.
It is said that mantram comes from the roots man, "the mind;' and tri, "to cross." The mantram is that which enables us to cross the sea of the mind. The sea is a perfect symbol for the mind. It is in constant motion; there is calm one day and storm the next.
Below the surface level of consciousness, what storms rage! Here are our deep-seated fears and hostilities, our cravings and conflicts. These are the deep divisions in our consciousness which make it difficult for us to concentrate, difficult to be loyal and steadfast. Often these divisions are at the root of serious physical ailments. They come to us in our sleep as nightmares, and all too often they plunge us into depression. Such storms sap our will and our vitality.
But let me assure you that this is not our real nature; it is only our conditioning.
Mahatma Gandhi assures us that we can come to have such effortless mastery over our mind that even in our dreams a selfish thought will not arise. This is what stilling the mind means: laying to rest permanently every negative and selfish force in consciousness.
There is a popular misconception that to still the mind is to become a zombie or robot. It is just the opposite. The calmer and stiller the mind becomes, the more we can realize in our daily lives our true birthright of security, joy, and tireless energy to work for the welfare of those around us.
The mind is very much like this. Most of the time it has nothing to hold on to, but we can keep it from straying into all kinds of absurd situations if we just give it the mantram.
We live at the mercy of external circumstances: if things go our way, we get elated; if things do not go our way, we get depressed. It is only the mature person - the man or woman who is not conditioned by compulsive likes and dislikes, habits and opinions - who is really free in life. Such people are truly spontaneous. They can see issues clearly rather than through the distorting medium of strong opinions, and they can respond to people as they are and not as they imagine them to be.
The person with strong likes and dislikes will try to move away from what he does not like doing and throw himself with extravagant zeal into what he does like doing.
I am not too much impressed by a person who works hard at a job he likes; what really wins my admiration is when a person is able to do a job he dislikes with cheerfulness and zest if it benefits those around him.
People who have strong likes and dislikes find life very difficult; they are as rigid as if they had only one bone. Such people cannot bend, and if they are compelled to bend, they can only break. There is only one position they can take - absolute rigidity.
There are old people who are fogies, but I have seen young fogies, too. The fogy is anyone who cannot change his opinions, who is locked into old habits and cannot yield gracefully.
When we go through life having to have everything just right before we can function, we will find it difficult to adjust, to be resilient, to accept any change at all.
We can make ourselves like that Japanese doll called the daruma doll, which has a rounded base and is weighted in such a way that when you push it over, it springs back up.
Whenever life tries to knock down people who have developed this precious quality of resilience, they are able to spring back; they have lost every trace of rigidity.
Learning to drop work at a moment's notice is one of the great spiritual disciplines practiced in Catholic convents and monasteries. Saint Therese of Lisieux tells us that when the bell for prayer rang, she trained herself to put down her sewing without even finishing the stitch she was on. Imagine the patience and effort required to master this art of dropping work without so much as a ripple of protest in the mind!
People with strong likes and dislikes are often extremely self-centered; and they often have difficulties in personal relationships.
There is trouble because sooner or later the person with strong likes and dislikes will gravitate towards another person with equally strong likes and dislikes who will contradict him. When people with fierce likes and dislikes are contradicted - which is absolutely inevitable - a host of disastrous consequences ensue. Personal relationships deteriorate, emotional security vanishes, there is constant mental turmoil, and all sorts of psychosomatic problems arise: breathing problems, digestive problems, allergies, and even cardiovascular problems. So you can see that freeing ourselves from the tyranny of likes and dislikes is not just of theoretical importance. It can solve emotional problems and often physical problems as well, and it never fails to make for richer personal relationships.
When we are tempted to compete and compare ourselves with others, the mantram can come to our rescue. If we can repeat the mantram when we find ourselves falling into competitiveness and invidious comparison, it will help greatly to keep our minds calm and our relationships secure.
The problem is that excitement never lasts. It is the nature of the mind to change. If we think life is drab when we're not elated, if we feel alive only when exhilarated, then we are bound to feel depressed when excitement fades. It is one of the laws of nature that what goes up must come down; so we should not be surprised that in a culture that prizes excitement, depression in some form or other is practically epidemic.
That is why the person who is prone to the cycle of excitement and depression often finds it hard to be effective at work, steadfast in personal relationships, and secure within.
The more we seek excitement, the more likely it is that depression will follow. To avoid feeling depressed, we need to keep off the whole sad-go-round of elation and depression altogether. We need to learn to keep our mind on an even keel.
On the day of his inauguration, a reporter asked him, "Mr. President, aren't you very excited on this great occasion?" Kennedy replied, "No, not excited - very interested."
Looking forward too much to some kind of excitement in the future is another way of courting depression.
depression for the mind to dwell on itself - on one's problems, one's failures, one's inadequacies. If we can distract the mind from this favorite pastime - trick it, if you like, into turning its attention to something nobler - we may find that we are no longer depressed.
When you can give your full attention to the mantram, there will be no attention left for your problems, which means that the depression has packed its bags and left town.
In fighting depression the mantram needs all the help it can get, and the most effective support we can offer is to throw ourselves into work or activities that turn our attention outward and keep us from thinking about ourselves.
Unfortunately, when people are depressed they usually do just the opposite of this. They hide themselves in their room, draw the curtains, and minimize the distractions so the mind can dwell on its problems without interruption. Often they feel they don't want to inflict their depression on others. This may be a commendable motive for withdrawing, but it only makes the depression worse.
Another bit of advice for coping with depression is simple, difficult, and extremely powerful: always act as if you were not depressed. People in a depression walk slowly, with their heads down; they slump in their chairs with a preoccupied look in their eyes. They avoid being with people, and when they have to be with people they avoid talking to them or meeting their eyes. They may be so absorbed in themselves that they do not even see or hear what is going on around them. So when you are in a depression, make every effort to be with people and let them draw you out. Walk briskly with your head up. Try to take an interest in what is going on around you, and smile at people and talk to them even if you don't feel like it.
Real spontaneity lies in being able to overcome years of powerful conditioning in order to express the abiding joy and infinite love which is our real nature.
The Compassionate Buddha describes the spiritual life as "going against the current" - learning to go against our past conditioning. By just drifting, we will never cross the sea of life to the far shore of abiding joy.
The Compassionate Buddha puts the same message precisely in the famous Twin Verses:
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfish thoughts cause misery when they speak or act. Sorrows roll over them as the wheels of a cart roll over the tracks of the bullock that draws it.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy whenever they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.
"Thought"
The Compassionate Buddha puts the same message precisely in the famous Twin Verses:
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfish thoughts cause misery when they speak or act. Sorrows roll over them as the wheels of a cart roll over the tracks of the bullock that draws it.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: we are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy whenever they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.
The simplest thing to do when you are caught by fear, anger, or greed is to go for a long, fast walk repeating the mantram.
the rhythm of your breathing, the rhythm of your footsteps, and the rhythm of the mantram has a deep influence on your consciousness.
the mantram protects you not only against worry, but also against anxiety, nervousness, and apprehension.
When you go for a job interview and you get the butterfly effect, try the mantram. When you go to the dentist, or to the doctor, or to a hospital, these are all occasions to repeat the mantram. Use the mantram when you are in pain; it will take your mind off the pain, whereas fear only makes pain worse.
But there is a third alternative: we can transform anger, through the repetition of the mantram. Anger is power, and the mantram can transform this negative power into its positive counterpart, which
is compassion. Not only that, the very power that is behind anger serves to drive the mantram even deeper into our consciousness.
The words we say in anger, the decisions we make in anger, the things we do in anger - none of these are likely to be wise.
The angry person may hurl barbed words and even throw things, but it is he who really gets hurt - by developing serious physical problems like asthma, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
There is a tremendous statement in the Hindu scriptures: "That which makes you sick, if harnessed, can be that which
makes you well."
"You are not upset because of your children or your partner; you are
upset because you are upsettable." The choice is ours to make ourselves unupsettable.
The simple solution I would suggest to the problem of anger is repetition of the mantram. This is how we can become slow to anger and quick to forgive.
Thomas Jefferson who said, "When you are angry, count to ten before you speak" I would say, when you are angry, repeat the mantram ten times before you speak;
When disciples used to ask the Buddha, "How do we become more patient?" he would reply, "By trying to become more patient:"
Greed is another of the undesirable weeds which we can root out of our consciousness through the use of the mantram. I use "greed" here to stand for selfish desire in all its varied
forms: the greed for personal power, for prestige, for profit, for pleasure; the belief that we can find abiding happiness in pursuing our own selfish satisfactions regardless of the cost to those around us.
With penetrating insight, the mystics will tell us that when we have a desire for a certain thing, a certain experience, and we fulfill that desire, the happiness we feel is not something given by that thing or that experience; it is due to having no craving for a little while. It is not because this craving has been satisfied, but because for just a little while there is a state of no craving.
"There is no joy in. the finite; there is joy only in the infinite." What we are all looking for is unending joy, a delight that never pales or cloys. But if we try to find this unending joy on the physical level, where it is the very nature of things to change, then we have lost it. I have known some very wealthy people, some famous people, some people who have indulged in all of the pleasures that life has to offer. When I have asked them very candidly whether they have found what they are looking for, they confide, if they are honest and sensitive: "What we were looking for seems to have slipped through our fingers:"
It is a law just like Newton's law of gravity. If a relationship is not founded on mutual love and respect - and let me point out that we have to work at this day by day by putting the needs of the other person before our own - then when the physical appeal goes, the relationship has to fall apart. The tendency here is to blame the other person, or to say, "Oh, well, I guess it just didn't work out" When we do this, we go through life never suspecting that we cannot build a lasting relationship on the physical level, and we find ourselves enacting the same drama over and over.
When we draw a curtain around death, hiding it away out of sight in hospitals and rest homes, our lives can become
When we draw a curtain around death, hiding it away out of sight in hospitals and rest homes, our lives can become shallow.
heard my grandmother tell me every morning "May you be like Markandeya," it sank very deep into me. By this constant reminder and by taking me to those scenes of grief beside the dying, she made me aware of death and gave me the intense desire to go beyond it. More than that, she showed me that death could be transcended in this very life.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEATH
Everyone will agree that some day the body must grow old, decay, and drop away, but not many will face the fact that it will happen to them. The proof is that if a person really believes he will die, he will do something about it. If I may say so, very few understand the real significance of death. Those who realize that the purpose of death is to go beyond death can use death itself to do this. When we know fully that we are not this changing body but the changeless Self who dwells in the body, we conquer death here and now.
We hear a great deal about death these days; everywhere we look there are books and seminars on dying. This is a change for the better, because until recently death has been a forbidden topic in our society. When we draw a curtain around death, hiding it away out of sight in hospitals and rest homes, our lives can become shallow. But talking about death is only a first step. These books and seminars are intended to help us to accept death, but they do not show us how to go beyond it.
Talking about death can be a real service if it enables people to
Talking about death can be a real service if it enables people to shed the body more peacefully or more courageously, but the mantram can do this for us far more effectively than any intellectual discussion.
When we draw a curtain around death, hiding it away out of sight in hospitals and rest homes, our lives can become shallow.
In India, as in other traditions, it is the custom to sing the mantram beside a dying person. This helps to console the family, as well as the person who is about to die. But it is even more effective for the person who is dying to repeat the mantram silently, in the mind. The mantram can replace fear and confusion with the calm atmosphere so important at this great transition.
And this is indeed how it came to pass: when his body was pierced by the assassin's bullets, Gandhi blessed his attacker with folded hands and fell with Rama on his lips and in his heart.
And this is indeed how it came to pass: when his body was pierced by the assassin's bullets, Gandhi blessed his attacker with folded hands and fell with Rama on his lips and in his heart.
If we are able to repeat the mantram at the moment of death,
If we are able to repeat the mantram at the moment of death, the great mystics tell us, we merge into God just as a bursting bubble becomes one with the sea. This is not just a Hindu idea; we find it in all the other great religions too.
If we are able to repeat the mantram at the moment of death, the great mystics tell us, we merge into God just as a bursting bubble becomes one with the sea.
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