The 'Magical' Language of Mantra

Burchett, Patton E.

doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfn089

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…[63][64] Third, focusing the mind by repetition the word with or without spiritual meaning made the soul calmer, which is applied in mantra meditation, TM, dhikr, chanting, and dua'. [65][66][67] Forth, a specific movement during meditates or pray such as a movement of Salah and Kirtan Kirya. [68][69] Fifth, connection with God also contributed to the feeling of calmness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Spiritual Meditation on Drug Addiction Recovery and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

Kadri

Husain

Omar

2020

Int. J. Hum. Health Sci.

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It is well recognized throughout the history that religiosity, spirituality and the meditation practice have significant effects to the physical and mental health. Hence, this paper interested to evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual meditation on drug addiction recovery and its effects on psychological and mental health aspects. Three main databases in medicinal and psychology field were screened to identify the eligible studies which are PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus by using Boolean expression. Fourteen papers were included in this review. Standardized mean differences were calculated based on the intergroup mean difference and standard deviation followed by Cochran’s Q and I2 determination for heterogeneity analysis. The mean differences were statistically pooled in the meta-analysis and presented as a forest plot. The risk of bias was high for each study and assessed using the Jadad scale. The meta-analysis showed significant differences in across studies for addiction related outcome (I2=27%, 95% CI: -1.703, -0.454), anxiety (I2=0%, 95% CI: -0.874, -0.634) and stress (I2=100%, 95% CI: -0.874, -0.634). In general, spiritual meditation may promote the addiction recovery as well as improve the psychological and mental health outcomes by reducing the depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. In conclusion, randomized control trial on spiritual meditation gave positive impact on the addiction behavior as well as mental health and clarifies its reliability on addiction therapy problems.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 04 No. 04 October’20 Page : 237-250

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Spiritual Meditation on Drug Addiction Recovery and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

Kadri

Husain

Omar

2020

Int. J. Hum. Health Sci.

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“…The Sanskrit root of the word “mantra” is man , “to think,” and the - tra ending signifies “instrumentality.” Thus, a mantra is an instrument of the mind or a device “for producing (a special kind of) thought” (Burchett, 2008, p. 813), and it can consist of a single syllable or an entire hymn. Reviewing the academic literature on mantras reveals debates on whether the words composing mantras are meaningful or meaningless, and whether mantras are supposed to be recited orally or read textually (see Burchett, 2008). However, one of the most important questions for the purpose of this article is: Should mantras be used in a formal (ritualistic) way or can they also be used in a more informal manner?…”

Section: Mantras Communication and Organizational Materializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycling Stories: Mantras, Communication, and Organizational Materialization

Brummans

Hwang

Cheong

2019

Organization Studies

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Religious non-governmental organizations (RNGOs) are becoming powerful organizational actors, but how are these organizations enacted through the communicative practices of their members? To address this question, this article offers a conceptual framework for investigating how the terse retelling of an inspirational organizational story, encapsulated in a mantra, contributes to materializing a Buddhist NGO’s ethos and worldview. The value of this framework is subsequently demonstrated through an in-depth naturalistic case study of a mantra’s constitutive force in the enactment of a large international Buddhist NGO that is increasingly focused on environmental protection. By showing how a mantra acts as a textualization, substantiation, and invocation device in mass, social media, and face-to-face communication, this study makes important contributions to the literature on the intersection between religion and organization as well as the communicative constitution of organizations.

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“…There is a growing dissatisfaction with the explanation of Indian mantras as spells or charms, that is, as examples of magical practices (Gonda 1963a;Alper 1989;Staal 1996, p. 191;Burchett 2008;Cohen 2020). Yet a closer look at the development of scholarly ideas about the use of mantras reveals a strange picture: First of all, the debate is not new; in fact, early Orientalists had already suggested that mantras are prayers (and not spells, as some Christian missionaries claimed).…”

Section: Introduction: How To Understand Mantras?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We argue that, in the course of discussing criteria that would characterize mantras as magic, a deeper structure of theological beliefs of Christian origin comes to the surface. Although several scholars already pointed out this connection for analysis of the characteristics of magical practices (Thomas 1971(Thomas , 1975Tambiah 1990;Burchett 2008), it still has not been made clear what exactly is wrong with these characterizations being of theological origin. Recently, M. Keppens and J.…”

Section: Introduction: How To Understand Mantras?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Magic between Europe and India: On Mantras, Coercion of Gods, and the Limits of Current Debates

Fárek

Horák

2021

Religions

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Several scholars have criticized the efforts to explain Indian mantras as spells, but much is left to clarification. Why do submission-versus-coercion characterizations keep reoccurring, albeit disputed? Why does the difference between this-worldly and other-worldly goals also keep its important role in discussions about mantras? Furthermore, how are these ideas tied to analyses of the beliefs of practitioners? We identify three main positions concerning mantras: They are explained as spells, prayers, or both at the same time. However, the criteria for determining whether mantras are magical practices or religious practices apparently allow for characterizing the very same mantra as either of the two or even as ‘magico-religious’. The general theories of magic are not able to explain this problem. In the last part of this article, we analyse the role that the concept of supernatural powers plays in the debates. It was a whole structure of interconnected ideas, deeply rooted in Christian belief in a biblical God and fallen angels, which formulated the dominant characterization of magical practices in modern scholarship on India. We propose a three-step scheme which shows how the originally coherent account of Christian theology gradually dissolved into a set of problematic ideas that have typified discussions of Indian mantras over the last six or more decades.

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The 'Magical' Language of Mantra

Cited by 14 publications

References 3 publications

Impact of Spiritual Meditation on Drug Addiction Recovery and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

Impact of Spiritual Meditation on Drug Addiction Recovery and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

Recycling Stories: Mantras, Communication, and Organizational Materialization

Magic between Europe and India: On Mantras, Coercion of Gods, and the Limits of Current Debates

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