Om mani padme hum

Om mani padme hum

The mantra in Tibetan
with the six syllables colored
Chinese name
Chinese 唵嘛呢叭咪吽
Karandavyuha Sutra name
Chinese 唵麼抳缽訥銘吽
Tibetan name
Tibetan ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese Úm ma ni bát ni hồng
Án ma ni bát mê hồng
Thai name
Thai โอมฺ มณิ ปทฺเม หูํ
Korean name
Hangul 옴 마니 반메 훔
옴 마니 파드메 훔
Mongolian name
Mongolian ᠣᠧᠮ
ᠮᠠ
ᠨᠢ
ᠪᠠᠳ
ᠮᠡᠢ
ᠬᠤᠩ
Oëm ma ni bad mei qung
Ум мани бадмэ хум
Japanese name
Kana オーム マニ パドメー フーム
オム マニ ペメ フム
Tamil name
Tamil ஓம் மணி பத்மே ஹூம்
Sanskrit name
Sanskrit ॐ मणिपद्मे हुम्
Russian name
Russian Ом мани падме хум
Bengali name
Bengali ওঁ মণিপদ্মে হুঁ
Nepali name
Nepali ॐ मणि पद्मे हुम्
Malayalam name
Malayalam ഓം മണി പദ്മേ ഹം
Burmese name
Burmese ဥုံမဏိပဒ္မေဟုံ
òʊɴ ma nḭ paʔ mè hòʊɴ

Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ[1] (Sanskrit: ॐ मणिपद्मे हुम्, IPA: [õːː məɳipəd̪meː ɦũː]) is the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara (Tibetan: སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ Chenrezig, Chinese: 觀音 Guanyin, Japanese: 観音（かんのん） Kannon or Kanzeon, Mongolian: Мэгжид Жанрайсиг Migjid Janraisig), the bodhisattva of compassion.

The first word Om is a sacred syllable found in Indian religions. The word Mani means "jewel" or "bead", Padme is the "lotus flower" (the Buddhist sacred flower), and Hum represents the spirit of enlightenment.[2][3]

It is commonly carved onto rocks, known as mani stones, or else it is written on paper which is inserted into prayer wheels. When an individual spins the wheel, it is said that the effect is the same as reciting the mantra as many times as it is duplicated within the wheel.

Transliterations

In English, the mantra is variously transliterated, depending on the schools of Buddhism as well as individual teachers.

Most authorities consider maṇipadme to be one compound word rather than two simple words.[4] Sanskrit writing does not have capital letters and this means that capitalisation of transliterated mantras varies from all caps, to initial caps, to no caps. The all-caps rendering is typical of older scholarly works, and Tibetan Sadhana texts.

Meaning

"om mani padme hūṃ hrīḥ"

Mantras may be interpreted by practitioners in many ways, or even as mere sequences of sound whose effects lie beyond strict meaning.

The middle part of the mantra, maṇipadme, is often interpreted as "jewel in the lotus," Sanskrit maṇí "jewel, gem, cintamani" and the locative of padma "lotus", but according to Donald Lopez it is much more likely that maṇipadme is in fact a vocative, not a locative, addressing a bodhisattva called maṇipadma, "Jewel-Lotus"- an alternate epithet of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.[5] It is preceded by the oṃ syllable and followed by the hūṃ syllable, both interjections without linguistic meaning.

Lopez also notes that the majority of Tibetan Buddhist texts have regarded the translation of the mantra as secondary, focusing instead on the correspondence of the six syllables of the mantra to various other groupings of six in the Buddhist tradition.[6] For example, in the Chenrezig Sadhana, Tsangsar Tulku Rinpoche expands upon the mantra's meaning, taking its six syllables to represent the purification of the six realms of existence:[7]

Syllable Six Pāramitās Purifies Samsaric realm Colors Symbol of the Deity (Wish them) To be born in
Om Generosity Pride / Ego Devas White Wisdom Perfect Realm of Potala
Ma Ethics Jealousy / Lust for entertainment Asuras Green Compassion Perfect Realm of Potala
Ni Patience Passion / desire Humans Yellow Body, speech, mind
quality and activity 		Dewachen
Pad Diligence Ignorance / prejudice Animals Blue Equanimity the presence of Protector (Chenrezig)
Me Renunciation Greed / possessiveness Pretas (hungry ghosts) Red Bliss Perfect Realm of Potala
Hum Wisdom Aggression / hatred Naraka Black Quality of Compassion the presence of the Lotus Throne (of Chenrezig)

The Karandavyuha Sutra

The first known description of the mantra appears in the Karandavyuha Sutra (Chinese: 佛說大乘莊嚴寶王經 [Taisho Tripitaka 1050];[8] English: Buddha speaks Mahayana Sublime Treasure King Sutra), which is part of certain Mahayana canons such as the Tibetan. In this sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha states, "This is the most beneficial mantra. Even I made this aspiration to all the million Buddhas and subsequently received this teaching from Buddha Amitabha."[9]

The Karandavyuha Sutra was published in the 11th century, where it appears in the Chinese Buddhist canon.[8] Some Buddhist scholars, however, argue that the mantra as practiced in Tibetan Buddhism was based on the Sadhanamala, a collection of sadhana published in the 12th century.[10]

The 14th Dalai Lama says

"om mani padme hūṃ", written in Tibetan script on a rock outside the Potala Palace in Tibet
Khyongla Rato Rinpoche teaching on "Om Mani Padme Hum" on September 22nd, 2014, at The Tibet Center, NYC
"It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast... The first, Om [...] symbolizes the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha[...]"
"The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: (the) altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love.[...]"
"The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom[...]"
"Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility[...]"
"Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha[...]"
—H.H. Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, "On the meaning of: OM MANI PADME HUM"[11]

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says

Carved stone tablets, each with the inscription "Om Mani Padme Hum" along the paths of Zangskar
"The mantra Om Mani Pädme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching. When you say the first syllable Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. Pä, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.
"So in this way recitation of the mantra helps achieve perfection in the six practices from generosity to wisdom. The path of these six perfections is the path walked by all the Buddhas of the three times. What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections?"
—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones[12]

Karma Thubten Trinley says

"These are the six syllables which prevent rebirth into the six realms of cyclic existence. It translates literally as 'OM the jewel in the lotus HUM'. OM prevents rebirth in the god realm, MA prevents rebirth in the Asura (Titan) Realm, NI prevents rebirth in the Human realm, PA prevents rebirth in the Animal realm, ME prevents rebirth in the Hungry ghost realm, and HUM prevents rebirth in the Hell realm."
—Karma Thubten Trinley

Variation

The mantra: Om Mani Peme Hum Hri

As Bucknell et al. (1986, p. 15.) say, the complete Avalokiteshvara Mantra includes a final hrīḥ (Sanskrit: ह्रीः, IPA: [ɦriːh]), which is iconographically depicted in the central space of the syllabic mandala as seen in the ceiling decoration of the Potala Palace.[13] The full mantra in Tibetan is thus: ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ་ཧྲཱིཿ The hrīḥ is not always vocalized audibly and may be resonated "internally" or "secretly" through intentionality.

Literature

Television

Cinema

Video games

Music

Bibliography

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Pronunciation of the mantra as chanted by a Tibetan: Wave Format and Real Audio Format.
  2. ↑ "Om Mani Padme Hum Meaning and Benefits". Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "Mantras associated with Avalokiteshvara (aka Quan Yin, Chenrezig) in Siddham, Tibetan (Uchen), Ranajana (Lantsa), Elvish, and Klingon". Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  4. ↑ Lopez, 131.
  5. ↑ Lopez, 331; the vocative would have to be feminine
  6. ↑ Lopez, 130
  7. ↑ Tsangsar Tulku Rinpoche, Chenrezig sadhana
  8. 1 2 Studholme, Alexander (2002). The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra. State University of New York Press. p. 256. ISBN 0-7914-5390-1.
  9. ↑ Khandro.net: Mantras
  10. ↑ Li, Yu. "Analysis of the Six Syllable practice – the relationship between The Six Syllable and Amitabha". Retrieved September 1, 2008.
  11. ↑ Gyatso, Tenzin. Om Mani Padme Hum
  12. ↑ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones. ISBN 0-87773-493-3
  13. ↑ Bucknell, Roderick & Stuart-Fox, Martin (1986). The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism. Curzon Press: London. ISBN 0-312-82540-4, p. 15.
  14. ↑ Baas, Jacquelynn Baa; Jacob, Mary Jane (2004). Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art. University of California Press. p. 149. ISBN 9780520243460.
  15. ↑ "Indie Music Reviews - Innocence Theory". theequalground.com.
  16. ↑ "Namewee courts controversy again with latest video". Free Malaysia Today.

Further reading

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