QUESTION
Dear Venerable,
I hope you are well. Thank you for your teachings, your clarity, and your passion. I listen to your videos on YouTube almost every day, think about your teachings and try to apply them in my life. It is hard, but I’m beginning to see that when I do think/act in accordance with them, I bring about my own peace and happiness.
Your talks on Buddhist philosophy and psychology I am able to understand and in fact seem so logical and clear. But I’m struggling to see how certain things like mantras or stupas work. How can reciting a mantra whose meaning I don’t know or doesn’t make sense to me, possibly help me? For example, I found on the internet that the meaning of ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ is ‘praise to the jewel in the lotus.’ But these words don’t mean anything to me. So how does chanting them help? Stupas are inanimate structures made by man. How can visiting them lead to enlightenment?
I know I was drawn to your teachings because they are based on logic and analysis. I could apply them (attempt to, at any rate) and see the difference they made to me. Most importantly, they did not ask me to blindly believe. But I can’t see that this applies to chanting mantras and doing pujas. I feel confused and unhappy. I would be so grateful if you could help me see what I’m missing or not understanding.
Love and good wishes for you always,
V
ANSWER
Happy to hear from you, V.
Yes, it’s a common question you have.
Let me answer this way: if there is no logic to reciting mantras, saying prayers, etc., then we’d be idiotic to do them, wouldn’t we? And that, in general, is the view of what religion is from the philosophical materialist point of view: that these practices are superstition, blind belief, etc.
So, what’s the logic? It’s based solely on the view of how the mind works from the Buddhist perspective, insofar as every tiny thing we think and do and say just naturally leaves an impression in our mind, programs our mind, trains our mind in a certain direction, and remains in our memory.
So why would we want to leave the impression of saying om mani pedme hung, for example, in our mind?
They’re words, right? Words ought to have meaning — if not, then indeed we are being ridiculous! The words here are Sanskrit and, in general, it is said that they are related to compassion, love, kindness, etc.
So, my buying into that meaning, if you like, and saying those words leaves the imprints of compassion in my mind. I want that!
Same with the image of the buddha of compassion: I’m buying into the meaning of the particular image representing the qualities of compassion — just like the words are representations in sound form of compassion — and then I visualize him in front of me, imagining light going out and blessing all sentient beings as I say the mantra. Wow! A pretty nice way to program my mind with compassion, with the thought to be of benefit to others.
If when I buy into the meaning of the word “hate” and I say, “I hate you,” am I not leaving that impression in my mind?
If when I buy into the meaning of the words, “one plus one is two,” am I not leaving that impression in my mind? It’s called learning!
So in the same way that programing my mind with mathematical thoughts can grow and grow my knowledge of math, so too does programing my mind with compassionate thoughts grow and grow my compassion. It’s not a static thing.
Everything we think and do and say counts.
What do you think, V?
Much love,
Robina
QUESTION
Dear Venerable,
Thank you so much for your reply. Thank you for pointing to how I should think about this stuff.
You’re right, the materialist philosophical view is very strong in me. I’ve observed how people do things that are morally wrong and then perform pujas or donate money to a religious place or light candles etc. And of course go on doing their unethical acts. I see now that this has led me to band all those practices as silly/ superstitious. A case of throwing the baby out with the bath water! Something that you’re always cautioning us about in your talks.
I’m going to think about what you’ve written.
With gratitude and wishing you good health and good cheer always.
Warmly,
V