I remember my class of Buddhist studies.
I was sitting on a cushion with the prayer book in front of me.
My teacher,
An ordained monk who has been studying Buddhism for 15 years,
Started our class by reciting mantras.
I asked him later,
What is the meaning of this mantra?
He told me,
Don't just recite the mantras but become them.
Become the qualities of the person whom you recite the mantra of.
Become the quality of what the mantra talks about.
It is not about religion.
For some it is a spiritual path and for some it is a philosophy.
But for me it is a very powerful mind training practice.
To train your mind,
First you should understand what your mind is like.
By deploying deep meditation,
Try to understand what are the negative states of your mind and what are its positive states.
And then you should train your mind by decreasing your negative states and keep perfecting your positive states.
Mantra recitation can be very powerful to train your mind.
That's why they say you get attracted to a particular deity,
To a particular mantra,
To a particular hymn.
Because that's probably what your mind requires.
Choose your mantra which you feel really attached to.
Choose the deity to which you really feel attached to and then recite the mantra.
But it's important to feel the mantra,
To become the mantra.
The first thing that a mantra recitation tells us is that these qualities are achievable.
Mantras or hymns or verses are often praises to the highest quality of a deity or a verse for your daily life.
By saying it again and again,
It develops inside us a feeling that these qualities are achievable by me as well.
This verse is achievable because somebody said it and somebody did it and hence I can do it as well.
The second thing is every time you recite the mantra,
Feel as if you have those qualities in you and act in a similar way.
Maybe just for few seconds,
Maybe just for few minutes.
As you're reciting the mantra,
Feel the qualities in you.
Feel the energy in you to do it,
To achieve it.
I want to give you an example of my favorite mantra.
I recite the mantra of Mother Tara who is a beloved figure in Buddhism.
I don't recite the mantras to ask for gains.
I recite the mantra so that I can become like her.
She's a beautiful deity whose one leg is crossed and one leg is on the ground as if she's about to get up and save the world.
When I sit on a meditation cushion,
I see her and I see so many qualities that she has achieved.
She has achieved the greatest realizations of compassion and immeasurable love.
Visualizing her and reciting her mantras gives me the power that things are indeed achievable.
Deeply visualizing her again in front of me and reciting her mantra,
A positive energy flows through me.
Seeing her leg which is on the ground which is about to stand,
I feel as if I want to get up too and go and help the world as much as I can.
As if I want to get up quickly and run towards people as soon as they call me and help them as much as I can.
The powerful energy flows through me,
Filling my body with all the qualities that I wish to aspire.
Every morning recite your favorite mantra,
Your favorite verse or your favorite hymn and feel the energy,
The qualities flowing through you.
Don't just recite it,
Become it fully,
Become it completely.
Thank you for listening to me.
