thomblake comments on Beware of Other-Optimizing - Less Wrong
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Um, no. That's a koan.
A mantra is a sequence of sounds that is considered capable of causing transformation - it's often a meaningful expression relating to spirituality.
A koan is intended to be inaccessible to rational thought - meditating upon a koan sufficiently should cause you to stop thinking and instead 'become one with the koan', arriving at its meaning entirely through intuition.
Some schools regard koans as actually containing teachings, while others regard them as meaningless statements to be repeated over and over to remove thoughts from the mind.
I'm not sure whether my use of the word 'mantra' is correct, but I am reasonably certain that koans are not suitable for the purpose I described.