My teacher,
Damarato,
Has a favourite mantra.
Coca-Cola.
I was shocked when I first heard about this.
Coca-Cola?
You mean the health-destroying product of the evil mega-corporation with the same name?
Damarato had a good laugh,
And he went on to explain that when he was a young boy,
A Coke would be a real treat.
He remembered the sound of the cap coming off,
The smell,
The cool,
Wet glass bottle in his hand,
And of course,
The sweet,
Sweet taste.
As a boy,
Damarato didn't know,
And nor did he care about the health risks.
He was just full of joy.
To evoke this feeling is the point of mantra repetition.
We tend to think that spiritual practices from the East are somehow magical.
To be fair,
Most people in the East think that their spiritual practices are somehow magical.
They're not.
The mind is plenty powerful enough.
We don't need anything supernatural for the purpose of coming into satisfaction.
Hindus repeat,
Ram,
Ram,
Ram,
Ram,
Ram.
Tibetans repeat,
Om Mani Padme Hum,
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Many of us Westerners take up these mantras expecting some benefit.
But we have no cultural investment in these words.
To a person who has read the Ramayana eight times,
The word Ram means something akin to ultimate good.
And they feel that when they say Ram.
To most Westerners,
It just sounds funny.
But we go to yoga class and we hear a bit of philosophy at the end,
And we think,
Yeah,
I'll do mantra,
That'll work.
And maybe in a sense it does.
Maybe if you practice enough,
You experience some of that good old one pointedness of mind.
But what good is one pointedness of mind if once you stop repeating the mantra,
The mind scatters into thoughts of past and future worry and anxiety again?
Hmm.
The point of any good practice is to come out of dissatisfaction right now.
Do you want to have to say Ram every time you do that?
I don't.
I can't imagine it would be much good for conversation.
So we come back to Damorato's choice of the mystical,
Magical,
And most secret mantra.
Coca Cola.
He picked something that was relevant to him that evoked a feeling of joy.
In this way,
He created a perfect tool for training the mind.
What kind of training was he doing?
Step 10 of the Buddha's Anapanasati.
Gladdening the mind.
Once we develop skill in gladdening the mind,
We drop the mantra.
Simple.
So if you fancy giving this a shot,
Choose a mantra that's relevant to you.
Training from childhood is good because our joy was very innocent and pure back then.
That is to say,
When we drink a Coke now,
We probably feel guilty.
I used the mantra Thundercats for a while.
This was my favorite cartoon when I was around five years old.
I didn't question my choice to watch cartoons when I was five.
I didn't have a bunch of responsibilities to take care of once the show ended.
I was just happy.
And this made Thundercats a good mantra for me.
Find yours.
Use it as a tool to develop the skill of gladdening the mind.
And once you've developed this skill,
Throw away the tool.
Enjoy!
