What's your Zen Mantra?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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In all serious, what’s your mantra? Do you have one? Your mantra is what your repeat to yourself to focus, the white noise that runs through your head in moments of stress effort or concentration.

Up until my Sophomore year, my Mantra was quite unintentionally the Chorus to the “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Scaggs

“Lido! Whoa-whoa-whoa-Whoa-oh-oh-oh oh!”

Seeing as a mantra is basically your mission statement, ethics, philosophy as well as a simple summation of everything you know or ever will know, you can probably imagine that this one wasn’t particularly good.

Then I got into Archery and I got a deliberate one. It’s simply:

“The Arrow must fly.”

This is my call to action as well as my understanding of my place in the world, and I can pretty much apply it to everything.

It’s good to have a mantra.

I have a friend, and I swear his mantra must be “Oh shit!” I have still another friend, and I’m certain his mantra is “It’s not my fault,” which I guess is better than “It’s your fault,” or “not my problem” which are also mantras I’ve detected from certain other acquaintances.

There are some really bad mantras out there. When you consider that a Mantra is your main operating instruction for life, there’s really know excuse for going through life with something like " I don’t know," as your guiding principle.

It seems to me that if you don’t think about it, that’s what you end up with. You end up living your life to the Lido Shuffle, or end up on your deathbed looking back of 80 years of “Who me?”

At the very least, it seems to me you could at least grab one of the generic ready made ones like “Om Mani Padme Hum,” Which translates roughly as “The jewel is in the lotus.” What that really means to me is “The thing is in the thing,” or “the thing is the other thing.” While not the greatest operating principle in the world, hopefully you can at least go through life without losing your car keys with a mantra like “Om Mani Padme Hum.” And, if you do lose them, I suppose it can help you find them.

Do you have a mantra?

What’s your guiding principle, beleif or statement?

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When trying -really- hard to do something mental, “Nothing is invincible” (from the Police song ‘Synchronicity’)

When doing something physical, I actually shout out a random noise from one of those street-fighter-esque video games. I guess the equivalent in text would be “Hi-ay-pa-pa-day-aaaaaah!”

Oh, and my recent mantra when I’m stuck with indecision is just “Take the step”. It works really well.

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It’s not a mantra for me in terms of repeating it to gain focus, but it’s definitely a guiding principle, and it’s something that’s helped a lot to get me through some tough times.

Before enlightenment: chopping wood, carrying water.
After enlightenment: chopping wood, carrying water.

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Until recently it was “Uh, um, uh, hmmm.”

Now it is “He took a duck in the face at two hundred and fifty knots.”

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I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer.

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Mine: “No matter how many tools you carry or supplies you order, you can’t do jack shit if you can’t imagine it.”

Personally, I consider my imagination my sharpest tool.

Tripler
My motto? “Beer is the key to airpower.”

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Breathing in. Breathing out.

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Don’t remove those headphones, drastic. Not even at the hairdressers.

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Mine:

Yodel - ay - hee, yodel - ay - hee,
yodel - ay - hee, yodel - ay - hee!
Eedle eye eedle eye
ki yi yippie,
yodel - ay - hee, yodel - ay -hee - hoo.

Well, you did ask.

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Something along the lines of:

“If you can do something about it then there is no need to worry, if there is nothing you can about it then there is no need to worry”

It’s kind of like “don’t worry be happy” but there’s more to it. Basically if you can influence what’s going to happen then don’t sit around worrying about it, do whatever it is you can do. If it’s out of your hands completely then worrying won’t help so just let it go.

This mantra has saved me a lot of sleepless nights after handing in tests/term papers/going to job interviews and every other stressful situation I’ve ever been in. I like it.

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Interestingly, my mantra used to be “where the fuck are my headphones?”

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Easy life, jelly box.

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{sings}
I - like - big - butts and I cannot lie!
The other bothers can’t deny…

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Owah Tagu Siam.

-or-

Eye Yam Sofa King Wee Todd Did.

:smiley:

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Mine?

“When the bear gnaws, smile.”

But then, I’ve scared people with my smile. :rolleyes:

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Mine:

“Could be worse. Could be raining.”

Though I may have a new one after seeing Bulletproof Monk this evening:

“You can always have a hot dog.”

Side note:

I noticed, a few years back, that my Mom’s mantra was “Sally goes shopping alone.” She’d say it any time she was about to do something new, or difficult. Turns out, it was the title of a children’s book she’d read when she was small.

An extensive online search later, I turned up a copy of it, and gave it to her for Christmas. I enclosed a gift certificate for a concealed weapons certification course; she’d been wanting to take it, but hadn’t gotten up the courage as of yet.

I noticed recently that she keeps the book where she can see it every day.

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Mine: (Taken from the Matrix)

There is no spoon.

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Mine, for when then something scary/unpleasant to be done:

“One, two, three, go”

It’s surprisingly effective.

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“All things are temporary.”

Got me through many bouts of car-sickness and general pain.

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Listen to understand, understand what is important.

A mantra to find the focus in complicated situations or just days when you have been drinking to much coffee.