Have you ever thought about “thoughts” and what thoughts do to our life?
In general, we think over 50 thoughts a minute. What happens because of these thoughts? The mind is constantly working like a machine, and hence there is no silence, stillness or peace to actually go within and to introspect and see what lies within. Is it not true?
Try this: Stay still for exactly 60 seconds, just 1 minute, and observe your mind. Check whether your mind can stay still without thinking for just 1 minute. You will be amazed at the result! You will come to know the speed at which your mind produces thoughts.
Because of this frequent production of thoughts, we are unable to meditate, to contemplate, and to introspect on important questions of life: Who we are? What are we? Where did we come from? Where we will go? What is the goal and purpose of life? All these often-ridiculed questions remain unanswered only because the mind is in constant motion and constant action like a monkey. The mind doesn’t stay still; it keeps jumping from one thought to another. Therefore I believe that, the first goal of spiritual life – yes, you are thinking right – is to still the mind or to silence the mind and then you won’t need somebody else to tell you what the reality is. You will realize the truth yourself!
To the best of my understanding, “mantra” comes from the word “man” – which means mind and “tra” – which means instrument. A mantra is nothing but an instrument that is used to still the mind. So you are right! Mantras are efficient methods for halting mental traffic. Basically, the mantra forces one to stop thinking, and this slows down the mental hurricane inside us.
Any mantra will help make the mind still and calm. It doesn’t matter which religion one belongs to or which God one believes in or even if it is a nonreligious mantra, any instrument that can still the mind works to stop the mind from jumping and wandering.
The thoughts are info brought before the minds eye/focus, and when they enter that sphere they are then ‘our thoughts’. they are not our thoughts when leaving, arriving, and when no longer within the conscious experience. There are no ‘our + thoughts’ rushing around the mind like wild horses, when they are not in the conscious focus they are no longer your conscious thoughts! The problems arise when we stretch that focus to try to comprehend complex things, latching on to more information sources than would naturally flow through the focal gaze.
Consciousness is ‘one thing’ and not many, duality is an illusion therefore its product also is i.e. that there are many parts of the mind or worse, many whole minds.
Mantras work just like anything which focuses the mind onto simplicity. Monks equally don’t take anything which are stimulants, which is a practical side to the solution.