With the Patriots big win (congrats Super Bowl LIII Champs!), Om Namo Manager and teacher Tom Hogan revisits the time that Coach Bill Belichik used a mantra to deal with a tough situation and how we can emulate Belichik by using mantras in our daily life. Originally published November 2014
On To Cincinnati: An Introduction to Mantra
I could not believe what I was hearing. I was in my car driving home from a morning yoga class, listening to sports talk radio. Seemingly overnight, the city of Boston had turned against the New England Patriots. The perennial powerhouse and highly exalted team was suddenly labelled mediocre. Caller after caller complained about how poor the Pats were, lamenting their precipitous fall from grace.
For 13 years prior, the Patriots were at the top of the sports world. They were a model franchise, armed with superstar players, Grade-A coaching, and invested ownership. They were skilled on the field and in the community and were beloved by all. They reached the Super Bowl five times in that 13 years, winning the AFC division a record 11 of those 13 years. Head Coach Bill Belichik and quarterback Tom Brady were the best in the biz and were ready to go down in history as the best ever.
All of this changed quickly and dramatically on September 29th during a nationally televised Monday Night Football Game. The opponent was the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were a mediocre team, but they were hosting the game at the loud and unwelcoming Arrowhead Stadium. Football experts were split in their pregame predictions – some favored the Patriots because of their skill, and others favored the Chiefs because of the home field advantage.
The Chiefs won in a blowout. The final score was 41-14, and the Patriots were outplayed in every phase of the game. In a game that was never close, the Patriots stumbled to their worst loss in a decade. Fans and media analysts were unified in their criticism. “Brady is too old,” one said. “Belichik has ruined this team with bad draft picks,” said another. One even went so far as to say the Patriots were “weak…bullied…and just not that good anymore.” With their next game against the then-undefeated Cincinnati Bengals, things looked bleak.
It was upon this tenuous backdrop that Bill Belichik walked to the podium two days later to answer questions from the media. The coach was known for not saying much to the media. What transpired is one of the greatest sports-Zen moments I have witnessed:
Q: Your team has been successful for so long. How difficult is it to adjust to the adversity of Monday night’s game and get back on track? This team and organization hasn’t had these sort of issues in the past.
BB: We’re on to Cincinnati.
Q: You mentioned Tom Brady’s age at the draft –
BB: We’re on to Cincinnati.
Q: Do you think having a 37-year old –
BB: We’re on to Cincinnati. It’s nothing about the past, nothing about the future. Right now we’re preparing for Cincinnati.
Q: Do you think the talent you have here is good?
BB: We’re getting ready for Cincinnati.
Q: Do you think you’ve done enough to help Tom Brady?
BB: We’re getting ready for Cincinnati. That’s what we’re doing.
Q: As you get ready for Cincinnati, does Tom Brady have the talent and protection around him?
BB: We’re going to game plan, do the best we can to be ready to go Sunday night – same as we always do. Nothing’s changed.
Mantra
A mantra is a short word or phrase that is repeated over and over again, mentally or verbally. Through life’s ups and downs, it is easy to loose focus. It is easy to get wrapped up in the whirlpool of inner dialogue, outer dialogue, or both. The practice of mantra has three main benefits: to improve concentration, to protect the mind from negativity, and to infuse the conscious and subconscious mind with a specific vibration. Whether he knew it or not, as Bill Belichik faced the rocky waters of the reporters’ questions, he used mantra to steady the ship.
1.) Improved concentration
The untamed mind is very whimsical. It has a tendency to jump around from thought to thought with no rhyme and little reason. The Sanskirt word for this is vikshepa and is sometimes called “monkey mind.” Anyone who has every tried to meditate knows this truth – sitting for one minute is VERY DIFFICULT! Thoughts jump from your last meal to your next meal, to your last email to your next email. This mental movement diminishes the mind’s power. The mind starts to pull on the soul, instead of the soul leading the mind in a “cart before the horse” kind of way. Just as the tributaries of a river have a weaker current than the unified river, the fragmented mind has a much weaker power.
Swami Sivananda explains further: “If you focus the rays of the sun through a lens, they can burn cotton or a piece of paper; but, the scattered rays cannot do this act. If you want to talk to a man at a distance, you make a funnel of your hand and speak…. If you collect the dissipated rays of the mind and focus the at a point, you will have wonderful concentration. The concentrated mind will serve as a potent searchlight to find out the treasures of the soul.”
2.) Protection from negative thoughts
As the mind jumps around, it is very easy to jump to a negative thought. Despite their allure, negative thoughts are rarely uplifting. The practice of mantra provides a shield around the mechanics of thought through which negativity cannot pass. It has been said that you can only be aware of one thought at a time. If you consciously decide which vibration to focus on, negativity will be unable to take root.
As Ram Dass explains, “A mantra protects the mind by preventing it from going into its usual mechanics, which often are not our desired or optimal conscious perspective. Mantra is a powerful spiritual practice for centering, and for letting go of strong emotions such as fear, anxiety and anger.”
3.) Introduction of Specific Vibration
Everything in the universe is vibration. The words we use and the thoughts we think are the fabric of our lives. Our thoughts become words, our words become actions, our actions become habits, and our habits become reality. By saying something over and over, we consciously bring that vibration into our reality.
There is a story about a seeker who went to meditate in a cave in India. He wanted to learn concentration, so he sat down in his cave and said the word “moose” over and over because that was the last thing he had seen. He did this for five years and to his pleasure developed amazing concentration. He decided it was enough, but when he tried to leave the cave he could not. He had grown antlers!
Many spiritual traditions use this concept and specific Sanskrit mantras to bring out the best part of our psyche. Some of these mantras are “locked” meaning their power must be activated through initiation from a qualified teacher.
New England 43, Cincinnati 17
The next week, the Patriots dismantled the Cincinnati Bengals. In a shocking reversal, the Patriots looked as poised, confident, and focused as the Chiefs had the week earlier. As a team, they were concentrated, free from negativity, and had a specific unified goal and directives, which undoubtedly came from their coach. The lesson here is powerful. We don’t have to answer every reporter. We don’t have to reply to every email or respond to every insulting social media post. We don’t have to honk back at every car that honks at us. Our inner peace is not found in fixing the outer world or satisfying the hungry reporters. Mantra is a powerful technique to protect and nurture the garden of our own mind.
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