Article – Mantra and Recitation

Key Points:

All religions, belief systems, and fields of study are responses to the human quest for understanding life’s complexity. They evolve with time and context, demonstrating that diversity in meaning-making is a remedy for religious intolerance. Harvard professor Robert Kegan highlights the importance of “meaning-making” in our daily lives, a concept fundamental to our interaction with the world. Religions, in essence, are humanity’s way of making sense of the world. Gandhi, the revered Father of the Indian Nation, believed that all religions possess some truth, as they stem from the same divine source but are influenced by human imperfections. The Dalai Lama shares this perspective, asserting that all religions aim to nurture human goodness and bring happiness, despite varying methods. Rabbi Rami Shapiro likens religions to languages, reflecting the cultures that use them.

Repetition has tremendous value. It makes our feet sink deeper into the sand. It creates muscle memory. So, just as we train our bodies through repeat action, we train our brains the same way. Memory gets built by the database of information that you repeat to yourself. All religions have created mantras and daily recitations — often short distilled phrases that are easy to recall and recite daily. These become the tiny anchoring points that help us to deal with the fluid vicissitudes of life. They also automatically, and subliminally, guide us towards the core principles of our faith.

Repetitive mantras can change the neural pathways in our brain — even if recited without understanding the meaning, the vibrations resonate with a potency. When chanted with the meanings in mind, the impact is that much more powerful.

For Jews the Shema Yisrael is the most important prayer to be recited daily, morning and night, as an affirmation of the Oneness of God. Muslims are all required to pray five times daily and many are taught from an early age to memorize and recite all, or at least some, passages from the Qur’an. Additionally, Sufi Muslims practice Dhikr, which involves the repetition of short prayers or other phrases. Followers of the Baha’i faith recite the phrase ‘Allah’u’Abha’ 95 times a day in praise of God. In Confucianism, memorization and repetition are important aspects of education.

In Indian religions daily recitations are known as mantra, with the most famous and important being the single syllable ‘Om’ or ‘Aum’ — an expression of oneness; a clever way to incorporate saying it daily is by making it a greeting, so people often greet one another with a ‘Hari Om’. There are many mantras followed by the various Hindu traditions. Sikhs say ‘Wahe Guru’. The Transcendental Meditation technique involves the use of a mantra, which is uniquely assigned to each meditator. The mantra helps to reduce the chatter of the meditator’s mind and ushers her into a deep meditative state.

What we repeat to ourselves on a regular basis has a huge impact on how we think and behave, and mantras hold great potential for sculpting us into more loving and enlightened beings.

Christianity

“That is why daily prayers and religious reading and church going are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed.”— C.S. Lewis, writer and Christian theologian