About the Mantra - Om Mani Padme Hum

By Tibet Arts

OM MANI PADME HUM,  (the Jewel in the Lotus) is the universal mantra of Love and Compasion. When we recite this mantra, we are in fact continually repeating the name of Chenrezig, the Buddha of all compassion and love. This mantra is invested by the grace and power of the mind of Chenrezig who himself gathers the grace of compassion of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. In this view, the mantra is endowed with the capacity to purify our mind from the veils that obscure it. The mantra opens the mind to love and compassion and leads it towards awakening.

Each syllable has a genuine purifying effect:

- OM   purifies the veils of body,
- MA   purifies the veils of speech,
- NI    purifies the veils of mind,
- PAD purifies the veils of conflicting emotions,
- ME    purifies the veils of latent conditioning,
- HUNG  purifies the veil that covers knowledge.

Likewise, each of the six syllables is itself a prayer, each syllable is itself the six perfections, each syllable is also related to the six Buddha families and each syllable also links them to the six wisdoms: the wisdom of equanimity, the wisdom of activity, the wisdom born of itself, the wisdom of dharmadhatu, the discriminating wisdom and mirror-like wisdom.

In Tibet, the mantra of Chenrezig was recited by everybody. Its popularity and simplicity, rather than lessening its greatness, conferred on it an even greater value. This was expressed in a humorous saying:

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