The Definition Of A Mantra
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"a: a word or motto that embodies a principle or guide to action of an individual or group: Slogan <"safety" is our watchword> b: a guiding principle <"change" is the watchword for both parties>"
Vital to the definition of a mantra, it – the mantra – only becomes your watchword when you choose it and use it...
External to Internal Mantras
Your emotional state is largely determined by your mind's repetition of guiding principles and personal slogans. A positive person may repeat and focus on mantras such as, "This, too, shall pass away" ... "I will do my best!" ... "I love my family, I love myself."
Your mind is also influenced by the external slogans and guiding principles you watch and hear, thus bringing them into your mind. Mantras/slogans/guiding principles are ever-present within your mind and within our societies.
For example in politics and advertisement...
You might recognize these mantras/slogans: "Change we can believe in" (Obama) ... "Are you in good hands?" (Allstate insurance)... "Love the skin you’re in" (Olay) ... "The Coke side of life."
Did you feel any immediate associations to any of these slogans?
For example, which feelings does "The Coke side of life" evoke? I associate this mantra with a geyser-like bottle erupting with joy. This connection is made stronger by repeatedly associating emotions to product until the emotions become the product.
If you observe this unifying product-becomes-emotion process enough times, you will feel the emotion. When you feel it, the association has been conditioned, and the product is now coated with joy and fun even though it had nothing to do with the emotions in the first place.
Furthermore, the association is largely unconscious.
The viewer is no longer aware of the conditioned influence unless she meditates and learns to explore, understand, and become aware of the recesses of her conscious mind...
Perhaps a TV viewer watching a collision while hearing the slogan, "Are you in good hands," somewhere, unconsciously, responds:
"Am I? I don't know..."
Perhaps a person watching airbrushed models getting paid and directed to love the Olay'd skin they're in, unconsciously states:
"I don't have skin like that. I don't like my skin."
These things can be stressful. And I am not attacking advertisers here. I'm just illustrating how the mind works.
Reason and emotion interact in your brain. So if you're feeling negative emotions, you can be sure that there are negative mantras circulating in your mind. Becoming aware of them is the first step towards controlling them and making a change that you will believe in.
Now that we define mantra before we choose it, the meditation process becomes simpler and more understandable.
MIND OVER Mantra
While you meditate, you often become aware of thoughts and notions which you were previously unaware of. This is perfectly normal. The mind is busy, often chattering away while you're busy doing something else than paying attention to the background chatter.
Sometimes, especially during meditation, these words don't seem to belong to you. As we've seen, they may not be yours. Ads and repeated slogans are powerful and largely unconscious stimuli, and they compete for your attention.
Through meditation/awareness these mantras and your unconscious responses to them become conscious, and you thus learn to master and control your mind. Because of the external competition for your attention, the definition of a mantra should include the following:
Your chosen mantra is your loyal, obedient watchdog protecting you against attention grabbers and
stressful stimuli.
If a distracting, unwanted phrase, word, or sound enters your awareness, you can decide to calmly shift focus to your familiar, chosen mantra.
Looking beyond the mere definition of a mantra, powerful people practice the art of influencing their own mind (and other people's minds) through transmission of their chosen mantras.
Practicing mantra meditation,
you learn to influence, watch over, and master your mind.
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