You can only hear one thought at a time... "RAM"

 

Neem Karoli Baba used to hand write the mantra RAM over and over... this picture is a copy of one of his many pages filled with just the sanskrit word Ram. He was known to tell his students... 

"Anything can be achieved in the name of Ram"...

 He is the Guru that introduced this mantra to Ram Dass (BE HERE NOW) and Ram Dass shared it with me... now I am sharing it with you! 

What is a mantra?
It is a sacred sound that is used to withdraw our attention away from repetitive and useless thought patterns... It can act as a reset button... as soon as you realize that your attention is fully submersed in the thinking mind than you can practice repeating a mantra to pull you back into this present moment and to let go of all the unnecessary negative thoughts... which coincidentally allows you to calm down and experience more joy and peace and refreshes your mind so that when it is time to use the tool of thinking again, it will find a solution much more effectively and efficiently.

There are many mantras in our present day... They can be in any language however often they are correlated with an ancient language like sanskrit... which holds its power in the fact that this sound has been repeated billions of times over the span of human history and each mantra holds a specific meaning that the individual uses to replace the unwanted thought. For example... " OM MANI PADME HUM"... this is a popular one and it means to find the jewel in the lotus... to find the wisdom in our life lessons which arise out of suffering and into peace.

One of my favorites is "RAM" its short and easy to remember... pronounced raw-mmm ...  it means many things... God, Bliss, to serve, Divine, Joy... which ever meaning you feel it has is the one for you... the important thing is to remember to say it when you catch yourself thinking to much...

At first repeat the mantra out loud... " ram ram ram ram ram ram" then start to recite it within your mind... this will force out all other thought because... you can only hear one thought at a time...
Traditionally a mantra is repeated 108 times... which is how many beads are on a mala... or they will repeat the mantra from a factor of 9... 18, 27, 54 108, 1008... etc

It is also very powerful to use around spiritual friends... my friends at work all pass it back and forth when we get sucked into the shallow drama of stressful restaurant work... it has a powerful ability to shift the energy of a group :)

Enjoy!

RAM