Mantras

It's all done with words!

In traditional Hindu teachings mantras are used to invoke and bring about spiritual transformation. A mantra according to Hinduism is “a mystical formula of invocation or incantation.” The Hindu word mantra means “sacred Counsel” and comes from the word manyate which means “he thinks.”  We, in the Western world, have adopted the word to mean “a word or phrase that is repeated often or that expresses someone's basic beliefs.” For example, I read the statement the other day, “This businessman’s mantra is, ‘Bigger is better’.”

Whether we recognize it or not we all have mantras or habitual ways of thinking that guide our actions. That’s why it is powerful to analyze our actions and determine if those habitual ways of thinking are bringing us closer to God or keeping us from Him. It is also powerful to put our healthy ways of thinking into sentences or mantras that we can repeat over and over to ourselves to solidify and help us remember what we really want to be and do.

As I’ve so often said here, words have power, especially the words we repeat and use to guide our lives.  By selecting and often repeating to yourself a simple mantra such as,

“I behave in any situation like a child of God”  

you help yourself stay on the straight and narrow path that will take you back to Him.

Joy Is Spreading Its Warmth

Come this next August I will have been teaching here at BYU for twelve years now. I’ve had between one hundred and fifty and two hundred students each semester and taught three semesters a years. That’s a lot of students, and it has been delightful. But lately the delight has been intensified as I’ve encountered some of those students and seen them walking in the ways of the Lord and doing the things the Lord would want them to do. That has brought me a delight and joy that I can’t even begin to put into words. 

A few months ago in Maryland I met a woman who had been my student when I was first teaching. She is now a mother of many, a bishop’s wife, and doing many things to promote good in the world. This last Sunday I was in another ward speaking and a woman cuddling a five month old baby introduced herself as a past student. The baby was her third child and she too is doing great things to serve the Lord. Also last week I received an email from a young man that was in my class two semesters before Grizelda. He left BYU shortly after that and attended another university, but wrote to tell me all he had been doing since he left BYU and he has done well.

I’ve felt this same joy a lot with my own children and know what John was talking about when he said, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). However, I wasn’t expecting to find that kind of joy with students who I’m not as connected to. But it is there. I absolutely love hearing from past students, especially when I hear that they are Living in Truth and following the path of righteousness. Yes, joy is contagious. We can give it to others. Righteousness spreads its sunshine on others in many ways!

Looking for the Words, the Power, and the Deeds

As Nephi concludes his account of his great vision, he explains that in the last days “if the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks “ (1 Nephi 14:1). Sometimes I think we take for granted all that the Lord does for us. We consider it coincidence or don’t even stop to realize what blessings we have been given. Sometimes we need to be jolted into realizing what we have. To help me be more aware, I am going about my day looking for the words, the power, the deeds that the Lord is sending my way and especially I am watching for the ways that He is taking away my stumbling blocks. I am trying to be more alert and able to acknowledge His hand in my life. And I have been surprised. Just when I need it someone tells me the words I need to hear or does something for me just when I need a deed done. I’m getting better at remembering that the Lord often works through others and recognizing that He put those people and it is a manifestation of his power and love for me.

I think being aware and being more grateful are keys to receiving another blessing Nephi talks about a few verses later. In that verse Nephi says that he “beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14).

I want to be armed at all times with righteousness and the power of God. I think being more aware of the Lord working in my life will help me in that quest.

"Bespeaketh"

There is an interesting verse in the Doctrine and Covenants that’s meaning has escaped me until recently when I finally stopped to look up a word in it. The verse is D&C 60:4, “For I, the Lord, rule in the heavens above, and among the armies of the earth; and in the day when I shall make up my jewels, all men shall know what it is that bespeaketh the power of God.” Always before I had assumed that the word bespeaketh meant speaks, but this time I realized that “what it is that speaks the power of God” didn’t make much sense. So as I instruct my students to do, I went to my dictionary and looked up bespeaketh. A definition about speak (to speak to with formality) is the second definition of the word, but the first definition is “to hire, engage, or claim beforehand.” The third definition is “to request” and the last definition is “to indicate; signify.”

The two definitions that fit best here are the first and last. So the phrase can be read as “what it is that engages the power of God” or “what it is that signifies the power of God.” Both of these make sense and give us beautiful insights as to what is to come. When the Lord gathers His righteous people—His jewels—all people will know that righteousness engages the power of God and all people will know that righteousness signifies the power of God. There will be such an obvious connection that no one will be left wondering how one obtains the power of God.

This is a beautiful promise. Right now so many people deny the power of God, but some day not only will no one deny the power of God, but they will all know what it is that brings the power of God into a person’s life. I can’t wait for the day!