What is mantram meditation?

Mantram meditation is one of many types of meditation. A mantram is a specific word or phrase.  This word or phrase is the object of focus during meditation. You may also have heard of the word mantra before. The word mantram/mantra originally comes from the ancient language of Sanskrit, the language used in ancient religious texts from India. The reason there are two English spellings has to do with how the word is adapted into English. Both words have the same meaning, and this handout will use mantram.

Meditation practitioners in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism use mantrams. Hymns and chants in other traditions such as Christianity are often used in a similar way. One example is reciting the rosary. Modern teachers of meditation may include non-religious mantrams, using any word or phrase their student chooses. So, a mantram may have religious or spiritual meaning, but not always.

Dr. Herbert Benson, from Harvard Medical School, has studied what happens during meditation. He discovered that when people meditate, their heart rate slows, their blood pressure lowers, and their breathing rate also slows. He called this effect “the relaxation response.” The relaxation response is the opposite of the “stress response,” which is what the body does when it’s under stress. The stress response is often referred to as the “fight or flight” response.¹

Dr. Benson found that there are many ways to produce the relaxation response. Over the past 40 years, research has taught us more about how being in a state of relaxation improves health.2 Dr. Benson found that there are 4 basic parts to practicing the relaxation response:

1. A comfortable posture—for example, in a chair or on a cushion on the floor
2. A quiet environment—someplace where no one will bother you
3. Object of focus—this can be a word, sound, or phrase you say out loud or to yourself, the breath, or gazing steadily at something
4. Returning to the practice – when distracting thoughts enter the mind, you bring the mind gently back to the object of focus

Dr. Benson emphasized that it does not matter so much what the object of focus is. The important thing is how you use this object. All you need to do is bring the mind back to this object each time the mind “wanders off” in thought.