The Practice--Working with Mantras (Sacred and Mundane)
image from Pix a Bay (free images) Often when we think of mantras, our minds turn to religious chants such as kirtans. We intentionally use mantras with our meditation practice or perhaps, when we feel frightened or alone losing our connection to the Divine, we chant mantras. However, this article is not about the warm fuzzy feelings we experience from sacred words and phrases. My definition of a mantra is a phrase that we repeat either mindfully or mindlessly. While some mantras are obvious such as the Moola Mantra or the Gayatri Mantra which are sung in Sanskrit, repeated words in everyday songs also act the same way on our brain as sacred mantras. While, a sacred mantra brings us closer to God or our god-self experience, a mundane mantra manifests our everyday life experiences. As modern-day humans, we surround and cloak ourselves in mundane mantras--ranging from the Rollingstones' "I can't get no satisfaction," to R.E.M.'s "I am superman and I can...