Updating Mantras — April 2020, Toronto Canada.
At the risk of being a sloganeer, I like Mantras. I want to tell you why.
They are short, and structured with patterns that can motivate or relax humans or animals.
The right ones are proven to be good for you. The modern ones can be different. The modern mantras are even simpler and not necessarily meant to be repeated and chanted like the ones in vedic or tao traditions. They are meant for power point slides and factory floor posters and Instagram ads. Modern ones would be like Apple’s “Think Different” and Nike’s “Just Do It”. Both so simplistic. One a snide slag against IBM. The other a gung ho order suited for sportsism or brutish motivation. As meditations or repetitions, they take rather than give.
Google’s dictionary tell us of two definitions for mantra. The first is aligned with the older use and the second shows the modern evolution.
Om or Aum:
- (Originally in Hinduism and Buddhism) a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation. A Vedic hymn.
- A statement or slogan repeated frequently.
"the environmental mantra that energy has for too long been too cheap"
I prefer thinking of the first definition. It shows why they have lasted for thousand of years. I think they give rather than take. I like them because they are giving and forgiving. They do not take away.
So, something like Om is a mantra and it is as simple as it gets, and as powerful as it gets. Did you know it is considered by Hindus to be the most sacred of invocations? It represents a focus on creation, liberation and preservation. Take a long breath in and on exhalation incant the sounds“Om, Om, Om, …”, while breathing deeply and slowly. It is the begining of every Sanskrit prayer and often at the closing as well. The Alpha and Omega. It can invoke the connection that we can have with the universe. It probably and conditionally, could mean almost anything.
Another powerful, ancient mantra is the phrase: Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. Not only a mouth full but its subtelty is sublime. According to gaia.com it means:
“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”
Lokah that. It is a centering thought to just spend 15 minutes on repeating those sounds. Think of, say, that moment of time after the Raptors won the 2019 NBA championships, and in my role as a fan, I bore witness to that glory. I really felt that way. My own life was contributing to the happiness and freedom for all. Let’s. Go. Raptors. We were all happy.
And now, we have had a violent and traumatic shift. A Black Swan event, that was expected.
It is April 2020. 4/20. April the cruelest month of COVID19. The peak. What do you do in the morning after weeks of strife and stress?
Maybe chanting a mantra that I like is an alternative.
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu,
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu…
This is a proof the current world is different from what it was BC. The words of the mantra have different meaning now as we meditate and repeat. Our bearing witness to this and and to the fear, changes meaning for us.
Cough.
“May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”
It goes from a call to happiness to a prayer of hope for survival. Without changing one word. Not one word. You have changed, for now.
The question will be whether or not a mantra’s meaning changes back to the way we felt before.
“Om”
Creation, liberation and preservation.
That is what we need to think about. Tomorrow we should and will worry and wring our hands for the economy.
“Om”.
