By Royal E. Alsup, Ph.D.

The mantram is essentially a holy name of God or a formula symbolizing the ultimate reality. It is used by devout Hindus and Buddhists just as devout Christians and Jews and Muslims use their spiritual formulas, which in this context may well be called mantrams too: All are used as a focus for devotion, as a means of steadying the tense or troubled or agitated mind, and as a constant reminder of the presence of God. More than that, mystics in all these traditions testify that the mantram, systematically repeated over a period of years, can permeate our consciousness, transforming our character and enabling us to rise to the highest state of spiritual awareness.-- Eknath Easwaran

Repeating the holy name is one of the most effective spiritual practices for our time and culture. Daily activity is hallowed by repeatedly saying a holy name silently to oneself throughout the day. A beautiful part of this practice is using the mantram to put yourself to sleep. It becomes a comforting blanket of divine remembering that can influence your dreams Centering on the holy name, slowing down, being one-pointed, and training the senses are practices that do not demand a monastic or ascetic way of life. They allow us to stay in the world and to transform the world. Using the mantram can help us in our individual lives to be more loving individuals, partners and parents. The mantram can help those who are called to action by their sensitivity to injustice to gain the courage and strength necessary to face the oppressors and to make lasting change in the world.

In his book The Unstuck Bell: Powerful New Strategies for Using a Mantram, Easwaran guides the reader in selecting a holy formula. For those who relate to the Holy Mother or the Virgin Mary he suggests Hail Mary or Ave Maria. People who like abiding joy, such as the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi, might choose Rama, Rama. Eastern Orthodox Christians practice the Jesus Prayer, saying, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me. The short form of this mantram is Lord Jesus or Jesus, Jesus. A Buddhist mantram is Om mani padme hum. Easwaran suggests other mantrams and discusses how to choose an individually effective and appropriate one.

Life becomes meaningful when we allow the Transpersonal Self to penetrate our consciousness. Use of the mantram moves us from a life of separation toward the goal of union with the Cosmic Lover. Repeating the holy name creates a space within us for the uncreated energies of grace to make their presence known. The experience of grace gives us an identity and unity with the world and the cosmos.

The alienated heart feels separated and disempowered, and can cause an agitated inner life. The hurtful hearts may bring about hurried and violent action. The angry heart can be steadied by focusing on the mantram, bringing in feelings of safety, security, and belonging. Repeating the holy name heightens awareness of the presence of God and raises one's self-esteem. A feeling of absolute dependence on God is part of the change in character that comes about by setting our ego aside in the repetition of a mantram.

World Suffering and the Anonymous Authority

The practice of repeating the holy name can have profound ramifications in the worldwide struggle to maintain humanity in the face of insensitive and profit-driven multinational corporate dictatorships.

Mass media propaganda is an influence of large corporations that the American psychiatrist Erich Fromm called the anonymous authority. Invisible, subtle structures of the mass media and corporate profit-driven maneuvers constitute a hidden administrative structure of our government. Multinational business and its burgeoning technology shapes and influences American opinion and values, breeding mistrust, loneliness, and fragmentation. Hidden corrupt corporate power is the main force of alienation. The anonymous authority impersonalizes our world, dehumanizes our citizens, and steals our personhood.

The hidden forces of American multinational business that perpetrate war, poverty, racism, and sexism were revealed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his various campaigns. He was criticized for demonstrating against the Vietnam War and was assassinated as he was preparing his Poor People's March. That march would have revealed the hidden forces that cause poverty -- not laziness and lack of motivation, but the lack of opportunity that is created and maintained by the multinational conglomerate.

Levels of suffering in the world have greatly increased. The global village that is emerging in world consciousness is not the one of love and ecological unitedness toward which we so hopefully aspire. It is in reality a huge takeover of lands and the destruction of people and mother earth by an insidious capitalistic dictatorship. Workers are turned into slaves as they are forced to conform in order to maintain privileges and benefits for their families. Those who do not conform face unemployment, homelessness, illness, and starvation.

When we repeat the mantram, it helps us to be strong individuals so that we can unite against the hidden forces that increase internal misery and maintain global suffering. Personal and private inner work can and should be used to increase our individual freedom so that we can work to fight injustice and to relieve the suffering of others. The world is crying for a deep spiritual commitment from every individual in our community.

Practicing the Presence of God

Martin Luther King, Jr,. focused on practicing the presence of God; and his experiences of grace strengthened him and enabled him to persevere in the stand against injustice. Dr. King's nonviolent ethic includes 10 principles that were used in the civil rights movement to focus, nourish, and support the nonviolent soldiers in their struggle. The techniques are daily ways to practice the presence of God. Some of them are:

• Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
• Pray daily to be used by God in order that all people might be free.
• Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
• Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
• Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.

As we honor Dr. King's birthday each year, meditating on these practices can help each individual in their daily lives and can lead to healing and reconciliation within families and communities. In my paper Liberation Psychology: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Beloved Community as a Model of Social Creativity, I document the values, basic needs and hope of Dr. King's message to the world.

Practicing the presence of God allowed Martin Luther King, Jr., to resist the ignorance and the errors of his time and gave him hope for the Beloved Community. Repeating Rama, Rama as a constant spiritual practice helped Mahatma Gandhi, naturally timid and shy, to become a person with enough strength to take on the British establishment in India. Gandhi and King were representatives of the potential that lies within each of us. They became self-actualized and self-empowered human forces because of the effort they put into their spiritual practices. Using the mantram brought out their deepest love and energy through evoking and stimulating the Transpersonal Self.

Gandhi and King realized that ultimately the power and love of grace gave them the energy to help others and the courage to face their multinational oppressors. They knew that moments of unity and oneness are gifts of love from God's mystery. The Transpersonal Self is the World-Spirit that lives in our hearts, in our life-world, and in nature and that comes together in a moment of grace—the I-Thou, the love that moves the universe.

References

Alsup, R. E, and Alsup, P. S. (1996). Liberation Psychology: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Beloved Community as a Model of Social Creativity. In A. Montouri and R. Purser (Eds.), Social Creativity: Prospects and Possibilities (Vol. 3). Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Easwaran, E. (1994). The Unstruck Bell: Powerful New Strategies for Using a Mantram. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press.

King, C. S. (1983). The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Newmarket Press.