OM MANI PADME HUM: THE MEANING BEHIND THE POPULAR MANTRA

A Talk On Om Mani Padme Hum

By His Holiness the Dalai Lama

It is very good khổng lồ 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.

Om

The first, Om is composed of three letters. A, U, và M. These symbolize the practitioner"s impure body, speech, and mind; they also symbolize the pure exalted body toàn thân, speech, và mind of a Buddha.

Can impure body, speech, và mind be transformed inkhổng lồ pure toàn thân, speech, và mind, or are they entirely separate?

All Buddhas are cases of beings who were lượt thích ourselves và then in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from faults & possesses all good qualities. The development of pure body toàn thân, speech, & mind comes from gradually leaving the impure states & their being transformed into lớn the pure.

How is this done?

The path is indicated by the next four syllables.

Mani

Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method—the altruistic intention lớn become enlightened, compassion, and love sầu.

Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence và of solitary peace.

Similarly, just as a jewel fulfills the wishes of sentient beings, so the altruistic intention to become enlightened fulfills the wishes of sentient beings.

Padme

The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom, just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation of non-contradiction whereas there would be contradiction if you did not have sầu wisdom.

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There is wisdom realizing impermanence, wisdom realizing that persons are empty of being self-sufficient or substantially existent, wisdom that realizes the emptiness of duality—that is to lớn say, of difference of entity between subject an object—and wisdom that realizes the emptiness of inherent existence.

Though there are many different types of wisdom, the main of all these is the wisdom realizing emptiness.

Hum

Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method & wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility. According lớn the sutra system, this indivisibility of method & wisdom refers to lớn wisdom affected by method & method affected by wisdom.

In the mantra or tantric, vehicle, it refers lớn one consciousness in which there is the full form of both wisdom và method as one undifferentiable entity.

In terms of the seed syllables of the five sầu Conqueror Buddhas, hum is the seed syllable of Akshobhya—the immovable, the unfluctuating, that which cannot be disturbed by anything.

The six syllables: Om Mani Padme Hum

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 transsize your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted toàn thân, speech, and mind of a Buddha.

It is said that you should not seek for Buddhahood outside of yourself; the substances for the achievement of Buddhahood are within.

As Maitreya says in his Sublime Continuum of the Great Vehicle (Uttaratantra), all beings naturally have the Buddha nature in their own continuum. We have sầu within us the seed of purity, the essence of a One Gone Thus (Tathagatagarbha), that is to be transformed and fully developed into Buddhahood.