OM MANI PADME HUM
By His Holiness the Dalai
Lama
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 arid 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 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 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 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.
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 tantric, 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 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 within us the seed of purity, the
essence of a One Gone Thus (Tathagatagarbha), that is to be
transformed and fully developed into Buddhahood.
