 Spiritual: July 10, 2024 Issue [#12639] |
This week: Mantras & Life Verses Edited by: Jeff  
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"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."
— C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the official Spiritual Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 400 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter! 
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Mantras & Life Verses
In certain Christian circles, an emphasis is placed on life verses, a particular verse or short passage from the Bible, which a believer finds particularly instructive, informative, or thematic to their lives. It's often meant to be something that is reflected on throughout a person's entire life, and as such often is either aspirational, contemplative, or personally signficant in nature. Some of the most common life verses include:
"Do everything in love." (1 Corinthians 16:14)
"I can do all this through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13)
"Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31)
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5)
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." (Colossians 3:2)
Life verses aren't unique to Christianity, though. The practice of meditating on a particular verse or short piece of Scripture is essentially creating a mantra. And mantras date all the way back to the Vedas in ancient India and Iran (circa 1500 BC). Some form of a mantra (i.e., using a short phrase, passage, sound, etc. to aid in concentration during times of meditation or prayer) is present in many world religions, including among Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians, and others.
Since mantras are used so extensively by so many different groups in so many different cultures, there's no universal definition of what they are, although generally speaking the components of a mantra include a specific verse, phrase, word, sound, etc. that is believed to have religious, spiritual, or magical power and are meditated upon, recited, contemplated, etc. over and over again. Mantras can be as simple as the "Om" sound in Hinduism (known as the pranava mantra) designed to focus your thoughts, to an except as complicated as the Lord's Prayer in Christianity ("Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven..."), which is often used to guide an extended prayer rhythm.
Over the years, I've found meditation and mantras to be a particularly helpful practice, especially when there's such a wealth of information available. The Bible is somewhere around 750,000 words which in and of itself is a massive amount of text to consume and consider. And that's not even including all the commentaries, essays, academic papers, devotionals, and other supplemental materials based on that content. And while exposure to a breadth of information and material has its own benefits and merits, there's also something to be said about processing a limited amount of information on a deeper level. And as someone who naturally likes to consume a higher volume of material to process, I've found it really helps to sometimes go in the other direction and focus intensely on a smaller piece of content and really take the time to gain familiarity and deep understanding of it.
If you're not familiar with mantras or haven't tried using them in your own spiritual pursuits yet, I'd highly recommend giving it a try. It's easy to do! Using whatever spiritual text or practice is meaningful to you, take some time to discern which smaller component or aspect you'd like to dwell on, and then build a process of prayer, contemplation, and/or meditation around that small component. Use it to guide your spiritual practices and, if you're the kind of person who benefits from deep learning, really get into the nuances of the element you've chosen and seek to gain a better understanding of it.
In a world that seems to ever be making more demands on your time and attention, it can be a really powerful practice to go back to basics and spend some time focusing on just one simple thing. Especially if the goal is to gain clarity, insight, or a deeper understanding.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
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EXCERPT: Trembling hands gripped the rock until a straining face peeked over. He managed to slowly heft his heavy body over the ledge and, with a grunt and a sigh, rolled to safety. Sweat dripped off his wrinkled face as he forced himself to his knees. Thrusting out a hand he grasped a forearm and yanked a man over the precipice. The two fell, sprawling awkwardly atop each other.
EXCERPT: So begins the story of Adam, the first man, the first human being. God created Adam from a handful of soil containing portions from all its varieties on Earth. Angels were sent to earth to collect the soil that was to become Adam. It was red, white, brown, and black; it was soft and malleable, hard and gritty; it came from the mountains and the valleys; from infertile deserts and lush fertile plains and all the natural varieties in between. The descendants of Adam were destined to be as diverse as the handful of soil from which their ancestor was created; all have different appearances, attributes and qualities.
EXCERPT: Recently arriving from England, Erica Riley, who lost her fiancé two years earlier, had the afternoon off from her duties. After her betrothed's death, Erica threw herself into war work, and thanks to the Royal Army Nursing Corps, discovered she had a talent as a theatre nurse. With the weather improving, she thought a walk might break the melancholy she was experiencing.
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