The Word Within the Word

However, the way the mantra works and the secrets of how it works are quite subtle. To understand the inner practice of mantra, we must turn to the texts of the Indian tantric tradition, where the science of mantra is explained in all its complexity.

Tantric teaching texts like the Shiva Sutras tell us that the words of a mantra are only its shell, a kind of jacket. The real essence of a mantra is the subtle energy embedded in its syllables, rather like the code in a computerized key card. As in the keycard, that energy needs to be activated in order to work for us.

There are two ways that a mantra gets activated. One is through your practice: you repeat the mantra with focus and feeling until it gradually sinks into your body and mind at deeper and deeper levels. The second method, which the tantras agree is not only easier but also more powerful, is to receive a mantra that has been empowered by a teacher or a lineage of teachers. This is like having the mantra activated at the source, because then it is imbued with the effort and the inner experience of the teachers who have practiced with it over the centuries.

The transmission doesn't have to come in the form of a whisper in the ear, as in the old guru-disciple stories. The transmission can be verbal, it can come through writing, or it can be received in a dream or meditation. When you receive a mantra through transmission, the key code has been unlocked for you.

Practicing with a Mantra
The simplest, most basic way of working with a mantra is to combine it with the breath. You breathe in softly, thinking the mantra with the inhalation. You exhale gently, thinking the mantra with the exhalation. If you're practicing with a long mantra, like the Sanskrit mantras Om Namah Shivaya (Salutations to the Divine in All That Is) or Om Mane Padme Hum (the jewel in the lotus), you might find it hard to coordinate it with your breathing. One solution is to adjust the speed of your mantra repetition to the speed of your breathing. If you begin by mentally repeating the mantra rather quickly, you will probably find that your repetition slows down automatically as you get deeper into meditation and your breath slows. Another solution is not to try to coordinate it with the breathing, but simply to think the mantra to yourself over and over again.

In mantra practice, as in any technique, the effort you make needs to be soft and subtle. You focus, yes, but your focus is not a grasping concentration, not a mental fist gripped around the technique. Instead, we hold the mantra in our awareness with as much delicacy as if we were holding a bird that had alighted on our arm. As we do, little by little it will take our awareness inside.

Of course, this may not happen all at once. When you initially begin to practice with a mantra, you are usually working purely with the syllables, and you seem to spend much of your time in meditation losing track of them. You try to stay with the mantra, but without even knowing how it happens, you keep finding yourself somewhere else—thinking about the laundry, worrying about what your brother-in-law said yesterday, wondering whether to drive to the city or to take the train. This moment when you catch yourself thinking, however, is a powerful point of practice. At such a moment, there are a couple of possibilities. You could follow the original thought or to let yourself get caught up in an inner commentary on the process—such as berating yourself for thinking—or you could choose to bring yourself back to the mantra. The practice, clearly, is to bring yourself back. Without surrendering to the reverie or getting upset with yourself for thinking, you just come back to the mantra. After a while, the mantra begins to act as a sort of magnet that aligns the iron filings of your scattered attention. This practice of gathering up the rays of your mental energy and bringing them into alignment is referred to in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as dharana, which literally means "concentration."

If you stay with the mantra, the energy embedded in it will draw you deeper into meditation, sometimes right in the middle of a particularly nagging thought!

One of the best mantras to experiment with is hamsa. Hamsa replicates the susurra of the breath, and in Sanskrit, it means 'I am That'—meaning, I am not different than the divine.

Sitting quietly, focus your attention on the breath as it comes in and goes out. With the inhalation, have the thought 'hum'. With the exhalation, have the thought 'sa.' As thoughts arise, let them go as soon as you notice them, and come back to the breath and the mantra. Try this for ten minutes at a time, and gradually increase your meditation time to thirty minutes—and keep track of the changes in your inner state!