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 หูมฺ
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 मणि पद्मे हूँ
Russian name
Russian Ом мани падме хум
Bengali name
Bengali ওঁ মণিপদ্মে হুঁ
Nepali name
Nepali ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ
Malayalam name
Malayalam ഓം മണി പദ്മേ ഹും
Burmese name
Burmese ဥုံမဏိပဒ္မေဟုံ
òʊɴ ma nḭ paʔ mè hòʊɴ
The biggest mantra of the World is located on Dogee mountain in Kyzyl

Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ[1] (Sanskrit: ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ, 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.

Listen: "Om mani padme hum"

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.

  • IAST (Roman alphabet): Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ
  • Tibetan: ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྂ༔ (Tibetan Pinyin：Om Mani Bêmê Hum; EWTS: oM ma Ni pad+me hU~M`:)
  • Mongolian:
    • Classical Mongolian: ᠣᠧᠮ
      ᠮᠠ
      ᠨᠢ
      ᠪᠠᠳ
      ᠮᠡᠢ
      ᠬᠤᠩ       (Oëm ma ni bad mei qung)
    • Khalkha: Ум мани бадмэ хум (Um mani badme khum)
    • Buryat: Ом маани бадмэ хум (Om maani badme khum)
  • Chinese: 唵嘛呢叭咪吽 (ǎn ma ne bā mī hōng) or 唵嘛呢叭𠺗吽 (ǎn ma ne bā miē hōng) or 唵嘛呢叭𡄣吽 (ǎn ma ne bā mí hōng) or 唵麼抳缽訥銘吽 (ǎn me nǐ bō nè míng)
  • Sanskrit: ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ (Om Manipadme Hum)
  • Korean: 옴 마니 반메 훔 (Om Mani Banme Hum) or 옴 마니 파드메 훔 (Om Mani Padeume Hum)
  • Japanese: オーム・マニ・パドメー・フーム (Ōmu Mani Padomē Fūmu) or オムマニペメフム (Omu Mani Peme Fumu)
  • Bengali: ওঁ মণিপদ্মে হুঁ (Om Monipôdde hum)
  • Malayalam: ഓം മണി പദ്മേ ഹും
  • Burmese language: ဥုံမဏိပဒ္မေဟုံ (òʊɴ ma nḭ paʔ mè hòʊɴ)
  • Nepali language: ॐ मणि पद्मे हुँ
  • Vietnamese: Án ma ni bát mê hồng
  • Thai: โอมฺ มณิ ปทฺเม หูมฺ
  • 'Phags pa: ’om ma ni pad me hung ꡝꡡꡏ
    ꡏ
    ꡋꡞ
    ꡌꡊ
    ꡏꡠ
    ꡜꡟꡃ
  • Sinhalese: ඕම් මනි පද්මේ හූම්
  • Tagalog (Filipino): ᜂᜋ᜔ᜋᜈᜒᜉᜇ᜔ᜋᜒᜑᜓᜋ᜔ Um mani pad mi hum
  • Telugu: ఓం మణి పద్మే హుం
  • Tangut: 𗙫𗏵𗐱𗴟𗘺𗦀 ·a mja nji pja mjij xo
  • Old Uyghur: oom mani badmi xung
  • Jurchen: am ma ni ba mi xu
  • Tamil: ஓம் மணி பத்மே ஹூம்

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]

SyllableSix PāramitāsPurifiesSamsaric realmColorsSymbol of the Deity(Wish them) To be born in
Om GenerosityPride / EgoDevasWhiteWisdomPerfect Realm of Potala
Ma EthicsJealousy / Lust for entertainmentAsurasGreenCompassionPerfect Realm of Potala
Ni PatiencePassion / desireHumansYellowBody, speech, mind
quality and activity		Dewachen
Pad DiligenceIgnorance / prejudiceAnimalsBlueEquanimitythe presence of Protector (Chenrezig)
Me RenunciationGreed / possessivenessPretas (hungry ghosts)RedBlissPerfect Realm of Potala
Hum WisdomAggression / hatredNarakaBlackQuality of Compassionthe 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]

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.

Bibliography

  • Teachings from the Mani retreat, Chenrezig Institute, December 2000 (2001) by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, ISBN 978-1-891868-10-8, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive downloadable
  • Bucknell, Roderick & Stuart-Fox, Martin (1986). The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism. Curzon Press: London. ISBN 0-312-82540-4
  • Lopez, Donald (1998). Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. ISBN 0-226-49311-3.

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.

Further reading

  • Alexander Studholme: The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum. Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 2002 ISBN 0-7914-5389-8 (incl. Table of Contents)
  • Mark Unno: Shingon Refractions: Myōe and the Mantra of Light. Somerville MA, USA: Wisdom Publications, 2004 ISBN 0-86171-390-7
  • Bucknell, Roderick & Stuart-Fox, Martin (1986). The Twilight Language: Explorations in Buddhist Meditation and Symbolism. Curzon Press: London. ISBN 0-312-82540-4
  • Buswell, Robert E. Jr. & Lopez, Donald S. Jr.. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ., 2014(p. 603).
  • A.H. Francke: The Meaning of Om Mani Padme-Hum, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1915
  • Lama Anagarika Govinda: Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, 1969. Samuel Weiser, Inc: NYC, NY. ISBN 0-87728-064-9.
  • Lopez, D. S. (jr.) Prisoners of Shangri-la : Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago University Press, 1988. (p. 114ff.)
  • Rodger Kamenetz: The Jew in the Lotus (PLUS) with an afterword by the author. (HarperOne, 2007) non-fiction. Table of Contents
  • Sogyal Rinpoche: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Appendix 4 pg. 396–398, Rider, 10th Anniversary Edition, 2002 ISBN 0-7126-1569-5
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