Mantras in the context of Tantric Buddhism
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Mantras in the context of Tantric Buddhism
Mantras are instrument of the mind. Hence, for a mantra to be effective, both mind and thinking are required. If one is just to repeat the syllables and words, which are also likely to be unintelligible and waiting for something to happen, we will surely and certainly going to be disappointed. Mantras are not magical formula. It has an inherent meaning and significance, which cannot always be expressed in words. It reveals connections which go far beyond possible explanation with words. It can be compared with the melody of music. Just as music has an inner significance and meaning which cannot be express in words, so also mantra has a deep inner significance and meaning which we have to take into account to understand.
There are differences between seed, mixed and dharanis mantras, with each forms referring to different things. For example, each of the seed mantra is an expression of a certain direction of movement. When we chant the mantra OM and sense something all-embracing, universal, round, like our arms moving in a circle, we get the sense of the direction of movement this sound has. In Buddhism the sound OM can only be used at the beginning and HUM at the end of a combined mantra. OM always precedes a combined mantra, and HUM closes it. OM stands for the all-inclusive universal level, whereas HUM leads into the depth of our heart. The sound moved from the universal level down to the individual level. It is an experience of the universal in an individual. In Buddhism each seed mantra is also associated with a certain color and form.
Mantras which contain other mantric words beside these seed mantras and are located between OM and HUM or SVAHA such as OM MANI PADME HUM is called a ‘combined’ mantra. MANI and PADME have various meaning at different levels. In a literally sense it is translated as ‘jewels in the lotus flower’, with the word ‘jewel’ representing the three jewel of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. It transcends the meaning associated with a precious stone. It can also represent the Buddha as embodiment of realized enlightenment, a potentiality in all of us. PADME stand for our spiritual centre, in this case our ‘heart’. It is a locative meaning ‘within the lotus flower’, i.e. our innermost spiritual center. The lotus is a symbol of spiritual unfoldment of the holy and the pure. This symbolism may be seen in the following simile: Just as a lotus grows from the darkness of the mud to the surface of the water, only opening its blossom after it has raised itself beyond the surface, and remaining unsullied from earth and water which nourished it; in the same way our mind, born in the human body, unfolds its true qualities, represented by its petals, after it has raised itself beyond the turbid floods of passions and ignorance, and transforming the dark powers of the depths into the radiant pure nectar of enlightenment consciousness (bobdhicitta), the incomparable jewel (mani) in the lotus blossoms (padme). The mantra OM MANI PADME HUM is also associated with such other Buddhist teaching as the six paramitas, the six Samsaric realms, colors of the five Dhyani Buddhas and the wisdoms they represent.
Mixed mantra refers to certain aspects of Buddhahood or to specific functions such as compassion, or discriminative wisdom. Dharanis are formulas which attempt to allow for a concentration or fixation of the mind. It is used in order to direct the mind to something and to increasingly concentrate it in this way. It is different from pure mantra as it can be translated word by word.
We need to know the meaning of a certain mantric sound, which direction it is pointing, what it stand for, before we can have confidence in a specific mantra. In chanting a certain mantra, we are suppose to use our inner eye to visualize the figure, color, movement and gesture which all together form a total unity. Without this knowledge, the mantra is without meaning. If we are to start chanting a mantra without first understanding the meaning behind it, it is a meaningless action as it is without life. One need to know the significance of the mantra; the background against which it stands and with which it is closely connected such as colors, visualizations, mundra, etc.
This basis has to be established first, and for that, a personal spiritual teacher is required to impart the knowledge so that one can understand the mantra, and to fill it full of life when chanting it and also using it in our daily meditation.
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Who say the above and where do you get it from ? Please post the details.
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Originally posted by Wiser:
Who say the above and where do you get it from ? Please post the details.
If you have other views, why not let us all know and share?
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Did you write this article ?
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Originally posted by Wiser:
Did you write this article ?
Yes, with reference materials from such personalities as HH the Dalai Lama, Lama Govinda and other sources which I have come across before. You can share your opinion too, as other interpretation can be difference as well.
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"We need to know the meaning of a certain mantric sound, which direction it is pointing, what it stand for, before we can have confidence in a specific mantra. In chanting a certain mantra, we are suppose to use our inner eye to visualize the figure, color, movement and gesture which all together form a total unity"
This is the part that i do not understand. Can you clarify with an example?
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Originally posted by Wiser:
"We need to know the meaning of a certain mantric sound, which direction it is pointing, what it stand for, before we can have confidence in a specific mantra. In chanting a certain mantra, we are suppose to use our inner eye to visualize the figure, color, movement and gesture which all together form a total unity"
This is the part that i do not understand. Can you clarify with an example?
I am not sure whether the below example answers your question. It is rather lengthy and not fully detailed, but I hope it will be of some help.
If you look at the mandala of the five Dhyani Buddhas, it is represented in a clockwise direction from the East by the Buddha Aksobhya, South by Ratnasambhava, West by Amitabha, North by Amoghasiddhi and in the centre by the Buddha Vairocana embodying the wisdoms of all Buddhas. Each of these Buddha is also represented by the color blue, yellow, red, green and white respectively and also the seed mantras of HUM, TRAM, HRIH, AH and the universal sound OM.
Each of these different Buddhas stands for various aspects of our consciousness. Thus the Buddha Aksobhya in the east is of the color blue that of the rising sun and holds a mirror and a vajra, the first step of our reflective thinking. If we are entering the mandala, we need first to regard the world like an image in a mirror, recognizing the nature of the world as it is, a continuous process of becoming and changing and we are also part of this stream of becoming as well. It is only when we regard the world as it is, can we than think and feel with other living beings. This is term the consciousness of the Mirror-like Wisdom. It is characterized by the earth touching mudra.
When self centred feeling is converted into the feeling for others, into the compassion for all that lives, it is the Wisdom of Equality, as embodied in the figure of Ratnasambhava. The right hand here is also touching the ground but with palm turned outwards, in the gesture of giving.
When we give ourselves totally, we recognized the sameness of all beings as well as appreciating their differences, we recognized the divine inherent in each individual. In acknowledge diversity, we no longer attempt to make others be the same way as we are. This is expressed in the gesture of meditation which is the mudra of the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, whose time is that of the setting sun. The mantra HRIH points to that area of infinite light which stands for the light of fully developed consciousness within the human mind. The sound HRIH has an ascending tendency from the level of speech up to the thousand-petaled lotus flower of the crown chakra of the seed mantra OM. The Wisdom that arises here is called the Wisdom of Discriminating Clear Vision.
On the basis of such vision, when the ego bound karma creating volition is converted into the karma free activity of the saint, where it is no more motivated by desire or attachment but by universal compassion, we have now reached a higher level in which we are raised above the world and are blessing it at the same time we are active within it, with all feeling of fear having fallen away. Here the gesture of prayer is raised to the level of the heart. The wisdom that arises here is term the All-accomplishing Wisdom.
In this way we slowly approach the center which is the pure light of Buddhahood, the light of Dharmakaya. Buddhahood can only be found in the realization of all those qualities which, taken all together form the Mandala of the Five Dhyani Buddha. The central Wisdom, represented by the Buddha Vairocana cannot be experienced immediately. It has to be approached step by step, learning initially to distinguish between different qualities, until finally we are able to experience wholeness in the unity of opposites. We need to circumambulate the center in a clockwise direction fully experiencing the periphery before the center can be understood. Therefore we go around the center again and again in a spiraling fashion until we can totally merge with it. It is like a kind of recurring movement in our meditation effort where we attain each kind of wisdom one after another until we arrive at the wisdom which complete all actions; the inner attitude of compassion for all sentient beings and finally approaching the wisdom of Dharmadhatu, i.e., the purified mind in its natural state, free of the obscuration rendered by dualism.
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I used to chant OM MANI PADME HUM.
I not sure If I pronouced the mantra correctly lah.
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i only know that HRIH is the seed mantra for Avalokitesavara Bodhisattva ( guan yin pusa). Not sure that it is the same for Amitbhva Buddha, that's why i ask you where you get the information from. To me, it seem that you have put bits and pieces of information and mix them together. This can be confusing to most readers as you didn't explain the concept from beginning to end. You just combine different sayings from different gurus to form an article.
After reading your article, i only have this feelings that you have not practised them yourselves and you are just putting the words of many others together without truly understanding what you are saying. This is different when the guru talks about what they have experienced personally firsthand.
Visualisation is important in Tantric Buddhism as a tool to focus your mind on the mantra but when it become complicated with too much detailed visualisation, it is not for the layperson.
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Lastly the paragraph in your article on the mantra of Om Mani padme hum is taken from a website that explain its meanings. You really do not need to know the full meanings of a mantra to chant it, especially for Om Mani Padme hum, you do not even need a spiritual teacher to teach you to do it.
I don't think you know what is a seed mantra and why you need a spiritual teacher to chant a seed mantra.
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If u want to practice visualisation, u need to receive empowerment from a guru If u just chant om mani padme hum then no need
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AEN said it all in his short comment. By the way Wiser, what is your take of what a seed mantra is? Another thing, the explanation of OM MANI PADME HUM is not taken from any website. Thanks for your opinion, anyway.
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if i ask you how you define seed mantra and why the need for a spiritual teacher for a seed mantra and you ask me back the same question instead of replying me,
what is the point of you putting up this self written article and yet you refuse to answer queries on it?
My question put to you leads to the same question put back to me , what's the point?
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Originally posted by Wiser:
i think you may have taken some sentences from here
It is not taken from this website. It is from Lama Govinda's writing.
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Ah...i google Lama Govinda and find his life interesting. Thanks.
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Originally posted by Wiser:
Ah...i google Lama Govinda and find his life interesting. Thanks.
Another monk whose writing I found make for interesting reading is that of Bhikkhu Sangharakshita. I found his book on his travel across India rather interesting and entertaining. He has also written many insightful books on Buddhism as well.
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This is a good story by Tulku Urgyen about how recognising mind essence is more crucial during mantra recitation than just simply reciting mantra.
Read pg 130-131.
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=7lKZXzQByhEC&lpg=PA131&ots=-xcVBBh44k&dq=pure%20mind%20kili%20kilaya&pg=PA130#v=onepage&q=pure%20mind%20kili%20kilaya&f=false
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Originally posted by Choiceless Awareness:
This is a good story by Tulku Urgyen about how recognising mind essence is more crucial during mantra recitation than just simply reciting mantra.
Read pg 130-131.
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=7lKZXzQByhEC&lpg=PA131&ots=-xcVBBh44k&dq=pure%20mind%20kili%20kilaya&pg=PA130#v=onepage&q=pure%20mind%20kili%20kilaya&f=false
If the pages are not too long, can you post it here as well? The take of what Mantras are for, and how they are to be used can be quite a controversial subject at times.