Meditation
The Doorway called Mantra
By Fred Miller

Fred Miller

Over the years of teaching yoga I have noticed that many asana students are of the Pitta and Vata varieties. That is, they have very active minds. Me, too. We have a lot of mind chatter. There is a Taoist story that compares mind chatter to being like a "Drunken Monkey," hyperactive and without direction. The second of Patanjali? Yoga Sutras suggests that yoga can quiet the variations, chatter or ripples of the active mind.

One of the many exercises Patanjali suggests, along with pranayama and asana is japa. Japa is the repetition of a mantra - holy or sacred words.

In the previous sutra, Patanjali refers to the pranavah, which is the name of God. T.K.V. Desikachar says that the pranavah is specific to each culture and religion. If you are a Hindu that would possibly be Om. For a Muslim the name of God is Allah. A Jew might say A-do-noi El-o-ha nu. A Christian could repeat the name of Jesus Christ. The point is, it? up to each person to decide what is holy and sacred to them and what? appropriate and desirable to spend a lot of time repeating.

I believe it would be inappropriate for me, as a yoga teacher, to suggest a Sanskrit mantra to a practicing Muslim. Likewise I would not pick a passage from the New Testament for an Orthodox Jew. Some people want nothing to do with the major religions. Their mantra might be a song, a poem or something else that connects them to the Creative Force of the Universe. Your mantra is yours, not the teacher?
I have found it very helpful to use a personal mantra to focus my mind. But this is not the only reason you would want to use a mantra. In the Tibetan Book of Living & Dying it is recommended that we practice for the moment of our death. We will live a happier, more productive and peaceful life if each day we are prepared for the last thought. Imagine for a moment that it is a dark and rainy night. You are driving on a mountain road. Rounding a hairpin curve you realize, too late, the car is traveling much too fast. In a heartbeat, you have crashed through the guardrail and are sailing into eternity. What is the thought that goes through your mind? Oh, Shit or Oh, God? What do you want your last thought to be?

Creating and using a personal mantra brings a multitude of benefits. Moment to moment during the day there is always something to refocus upon when the drunken monkey is running wild in your head. Mantra can also be used as the doorway to meditation. Morning and evening when sitting quietly to begin your meditation practice, repeating your personal mantra will aim you in the direction you wish to go. To merge with your God, whatever that definition may be for you.

Happy Japa.

Fred Miller has been teaching yoga and meditation in Los Angeles for 20 years, and is the author of How to Calm Down, due out in January 2003 (www.howtocalmdown.com).