What is the Transcendental Meditation Mantra?

Bob Roth, executive director of the David Lynch Foundation, explains the mantras used in the Transcendental Meditation® technique.

For more information on the Transcendental Meditation® technique, please visit: learntm.org/3TngQd2 or call 1-888-LEARN-TM

Transcript:

A mantra is a sound whose effects are known to be positive and life supporting. A mantra has no meaning associated with it. This is very important, because if it had meaning it would keep the attention on the surface of the mind. If the mantra was tulip then you have the sound tulip, but then you also have the meaning implied in it. Remember in Transcendental Meditation we are taking the awareness from the surface thinking level, the conscious thinking level and using the mantra as a vehicle to settle down, dive within, transcend thought and experience the deepest level of thought. If the mantra had any meaning it would keep us on the surface. So, this mantra that we learn during Transcendental Meditation is a sound whose effects are known to be positive and life supporting. It has no meaning associated with it.

I have been asked, but aren't mantras the names of Buddhist deities, or Hindu Gods? The answer is a flat out no. There is no meaning associated with the sounds. That isn't to say that in any given language the sound tulip couldn't have a meaning that has been ascribed to it at some later time, but the sound (the mantra) and the origin in Transcendental Meditation has no meaning associated with it. They are not the names of some deity, they are not the names of anything, they are just a sound.

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