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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 is composed of three letters, A, U, and
M. These symbolize the practitioner's impure body, speech, and
mind; they also symbolize the pure exalted body, speech, and
mind of a Buddha.
Can impure body, speech, and mind be transformed
into pure body, speech, and mind, or are they entirely separate?
All Buddhas are cases of beings who were like ourselves and then
in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not
assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from
faults and possesses all good qualities. The development of pure
body, speech, and mind comes from gradually leaving the impure
states and their being transformed into the pure.
How is this done? 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. 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 and 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.
The two syllables, PADME, meaning lotus, symbolize
wisdom. Just as a lotus grows 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 wisdom. 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 say, of difference of entity between
subject and 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.
Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity
of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable HUM, which
indicates indivisibility. According to the sutra system, this
indivisibility of method and wisdom refers to wisdom affected
by method and method affected by wisdom. In the mantra, or vajrayana
vehicle, it refers to one consciousness in which there is the
full form of both wisdom and method as one undifferentiable entity.
In terms of the seed syllables of the Five Conqueror Buddhas,
HUM is the seed syllable of Akshobhya -- the immovable, the unfluctuating,
that which cannot be disturbed by anything.
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. It is said that you should not seek for Buddha hood
outside of yourself; the substances for the achievement of Buddha
hood 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 within us the seed
of purity, the essence of a One Gone Thus (Tathagatagarbha),
that is to be transformed and fully developed into Buddha hood.
By H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama |
OM