Q. Does mantra have power? If so, where does it come from?
A. No, it doesn’t. As I have mentioned so far, nothing has its own nature unless we provide it with properties like power and colour. In other words, it is not because the mantra has its own power but because we think that it has power that the mantra has power. To believe that only a certain word or a certain phrase has special power is to be deluded by an illusion. Any word or any phrase can be a mantra; your wife’s name, your puppy’s name, the name of your favourite flower and so on. If you happen to feel any power while reciting a mantra, the power is not from the mantra but of your own making.
However, I don’t mean that you should not do mantra practice but that you should do it in the right way. What matters in doing mantra practice is not to believe in the power of the mantra but to try to know what is making your body recite the mantra. This practice is not different from Zen meditation in essence.
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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