A Maddening Mantra

Several years ago, we had a Tibetan Buddhist client – I’ll call him ‘Jan’ – who’d been given a mantra by his lama, to be recited the traditional  100,000 times. In fact, all this lama’s novice disciples – of whom there are many – were given the same mantra to be recited the same number of times.

The reason Jan made an Energy Solutions appointment was that after he’d chanted the mantra many times for several weeks, he’d had a nervous breakdown. Then he was hospitalised and put on medication. This pattern had happened twice already, and he felt he was going downhill again. The Buddhist organisation to which he belonged said he should carry on regardless – he was just undergoing a ‘spiritual cleansing’ process.

Jan said he’d recently attended a Buddhist training camp where he’d met a visiting lama. The visiting lama had suggested he practise another mantra instead of the one his root lama had given him. Jan was confused – should he practise the mantra ‘given’ by his root lama? Or should he practise the one suggested by the visiting lama? Continue reading →