With so many apps and gurus out there today, the number of types of meditations have exploded. There are ancient ones and brand new untested ones. So how do we know which ones are the best, which ones are a waste of time, and which ones may even have negative effects?
In this episode, I go into depth about the two most common types of meditation, mantra and breath meditation. Breath is where we simply observe our breath with our entire focus. Mantra is where we repeat a mantra to ourselves. The very popular Transcendental Meditation, or TM, uses mantra meditation, whereas breath awareness meditation tends to be used in the school of mindfulness. I explain the differences and benefits to both types of meditation, and whether or not mantra meditation does indeed count as meditation.
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0:01
Welcome to the Eastwesticism podcast where our host Todd Perelmuter shares the lessons he's learned spending eight years living with gurus, monks, lamas, and shamans across 35 countries and five continents. Join in the journey as he brings the best scientifically proven methods for living your best life from the east and the west, straight to you. The path to peace, love, health and happiness starts here.
0:28
Hello, and welcome back to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host Todd Perelmuter.
0:34
And today, I'm going to answer the question, Does chanting a mantra count as meditation?
0:42
That is a terrific question. You know, sometimes when we're meditating, we can think to ourselves, am I meditating? Is this meditating? Is this doing anything? Is this doing any good at all? Am I just making myself bored for no reason. And these these questions, just, of course, they pop up because the ego inside our mind thinking mind does not want us to stop thinking. And so it will do everything in its power, to make itself as important as possible.
1:12
That's why we call it ego. And it will try to convince us to stop meditating, because it doesn't want our true selves, to run the show. It wants to run the show, that thinking unconscious machine that just utters every little like, nonsense that can come into our mind, it will do it, it is the monkey mind, you know, swinging from thought to thought, with no direction and just whatever pops into our head is just it can be way out there. But our mind is just constantly grasping for things to think about.
1:53
And so that is why we even wonder, you know, am I meditating? Is this doing anything? And the answer is, absolutely, when we meditate, it is, the most important thing is to just sit still, and close your eyes. If you do that you are meditating, it doesn't matter. If you're thinking constantly. It doesn't matter if you're not able to focus on a mantra at all. And you just keep forgetting to chant your mantra doesn't matter if you can't focus on your breath for more than two seconds. Because each time you make that attempt, even if it's for half a second, you're breaking up that train of thought.
2:36
And when you do that, you are stopping your normal thought patterns and creating new ones, and you're creating new neuronal pathways in the brain, and new behaviors, new thought patterns. And it is as simple as just for a moment, saying a mantra, or bringing your attention to your breath.
3:01
Just that one brief moment of peace, that silence or that mantra where our normal thinking stops. And there's just the sound of the mantra, we're interrupting our old behaviors and thought patterns. And that moment of peace spreads out, like a ripple in the ocean. And it touches all aspects of our lives.
3:28
There are some differences between chanting a mantra, or focusing on our breath. And I'll get into a few of those right now.
3:37
Number one, when we say a mantra, it is so much easier to get outside of our normal thinking. For some people, especially starting out, then it can be to focus on your breath, then it can be to have no thoughts and just to have pure focus of our breath. And so I like to tell people to start with mantra meditation. Because it's easier to focus on one thought, than it is no thoughts when we have a chaotic mind, when there's a billion thoughts in our brain.
4:13
It's an incredibly fast and powerful way to come into the present moment, using a mantra, and it's and it's incredibly peaceful and pleasant right away, and everyone can enjoy it. And it's much easier for most people starting out with focusing on their breath. It's a lot harder to focus on the subtlety of the breath than it is to repeat a mantra in our mind.
4:41
In fact, a very popular meditation, transcendental meditation or TM teaches to repeat a mantra in your mind for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. And so it is absolutely effective and mantra meditation is certainly counsels meditation.
5:04
One thing I would recommend, though, is to chant it silently in your mind. And there's a few reasons I say this, but one is, is the actual quiet, the peace and quiet is such an important effect and the pure stillness of the body, the still body will bring stillness to the mind. And a chaotic mind will typically lead to a lot of fidgeting and twitches and other movements in agitations, in our meditation, and so it's really incredible to be completely still in our body. And that will bring a stillness to our mind.
5:51
Some people like to use a mantra that has a meaningless word, like, um, you know, it's not about the meaning behind the word, it's just giving your mind, something to latch on to, that has no mental weight behind it. And it is an incredible experience to give our mind a break from that constant thinking, and to just relax on a mantra, and just let us relax and go for the ride. It's a beautiful process, it's an incredibly powerful experience, it brings so much peace into our lives and joy and relaxation, it is incredible.
6:37
I will say there is one extra benefit to breath meditation, or body meditation, these are where you focus on your breath, or where you scan your body, repeatedly during meditation. And there is one difference, and it is it is a big difference. And that is when you observe something real, not a mantra, but your breath, or your body, you are training your mind in awareness.
7:13
And the mantra trains our mind in focus and concentration, and puts us at a very relaxed state that de stresses us and gives us many health benefits. But when we observe something real, we become more mindful of all of our surroundings, our thoughts, we are we become really highly sensitive to nuance and subtleties. And we see more, and we appreciate more.
7:45
And we're able to notice things we never noticed before. And it even increases our wisdom by so much because we're so much more aware of so much more going on. And we understand how many different levels, things can work on. And we can see relationships and connections and patterns. And just it's it's opens a mind blowing amount of information that we're able to just understand on a deep, deep level that you cannot get with the mantra.
8:16
However, if you decide to do mantra, and you do that for the rest of your life, and you do it consistently, you will have immense benefits. And you will say, within within a year, how did I ever live without it?
8:35
That has been my experience. And I like to tell people, you know if that's for you do it, it's incredible. It is so beneficial. And if you want to after six months or a year of daily practice of mantra, move on to breath or body, mindfulness meditations. I think that is an incredible goal. And I think you'll do it in a much easier way than starting with that. And you'll be able to keep it up for a really long time.
9:08
And only by doing it for a really long time. Do you get the benefits. And so whatever works for you, whatever you love, that is the most important thing, what you can do on a consistent basis. Because if you don't do it, it doesn't work. But if you do mantra every day, for a long period of time, you're gonna get the benefits, you're gonna love it, your stress is going to be down your health is going to improve. And you're going to feel like you can focus you can concentrate, and the world is just yours.
9:40
And you can do anything you want your creativity, so many benefits. It's really an endless list. So, feel great, you're doing great. And you know if you want to chant a mantra out loud, that is also great, you know, mix it up. It doesn't have to be just one thing. Whatever you do, in peace is beneficial. So keep it up. And thank you so much for listening.
10:06
This has been path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Peace and love.
10:12
You were listening to the Eastwesticism podcast. Be sure to visit us at Eastwesticism.org to join the conversation and receive enlightening emails. Until next time