Om mani padme hum
the Spoken Word
Om mani padme hum: “O thou jewel in the heart of the lotus!”
According to Indian legend, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara was born (bearing a lotus flower) from a ray of light that sprang from Amitabha Buddha’s right eye. Immediately upon birth, Avalokiteśvara uttered the six sacred syllables OM MANI PADME HUM. In Buddhist tradition, the mantra is used to invoke his compassionate intercession or that of his feminine counterpart, Kuan Yin (China and Japan).
Throughout Tibet and Ladakh, Buddhists have inscribed OM MANI PADME HUM on flat prayer stones called “mani-stones” as votive offerings in praise of Avalokitesvara. Thousands of these stones have been used to build mani-walls that line the roads entering villages and monasteries.
The ascended lady master Amaryllis, Goddess of Spring, has described the Om mani padme hum as “the hum of the universe.... The flowering of the spiritual lotus portends the opening of the soul who yearns to drink in God and his compassion.”[1]
Gautama Buddha says:
Give the simple mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. This wondrous mantra, also known of Kuan Yin, celebrates your soul, your spirit, your Atman, as the jewel in the heart of the lotus, the chakra of the heart.[2]
Padma Sambhava’s teaching on the mantra
The following is Padma Sambhava’s teaching on this mantra:
OM MANI PADME HUM is the quintessence of the Great Compassionate One, so the merit of uttering it just once is incalculable....
These six syllables are the quintessence of the mind of noble Avalokiteshvara. If you recite this mantra 108 times a day, you will not take rebirth in the three lower realms. In the following life you will attain a human body and in actuality you will have a vision of noble Avalokiteshvara. If you recite daily the mantra correctly twenty-one times, you will be intelligent and able to retain whatever you learn. You will have a melodious voice and become adept in the meaning of all the Buddhadharma....
When someone is afflicted by disease or an evil influence, compared to any mundane ritual of healing or of repelling obstacles, the merit of the Six Syllables is much more effective for warding off obstacles or disease. Compared to any medical treatment or cure, the Six Syllables are the strongest remedy against sickness and evil.
The virtues of the Six Syllables are immeasurable and cannot be fully described even by the buddhas of the three times. Why is that? It is because this mantra is the quintessence of the mind of the noble bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who continuously looks upon the six classes of sentient beings with compassion. Thus, recitation of this mantra liberates all beings from samsara.
Kings and disciples of future generations,
Take the Great Compassionate One as your yidam.[3]
Recite the Six Syllables as the essence mantra.
Be free from the fear of going to the lower realms.Avalokiteshvara is the destined deity of Tibet,
So supplicate him with faith and devotion.
You will receive blessings and attainments
And be free from doubt and hesitation.Upon hearing Master Padma’s word, the king of Tibet and the close disciples were all overjoyed and paid homage to the master, prostrating themselves to the ground.<ref>Yeshe Tsogyal, The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava, trans. Erik Pema Kunsang (Kathmandu, Nepal: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1998), pp. 195, 196–97.</ref
Sources
Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 27, no. 27, June 1, 1984.
Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 26, no. 21, May 22, 1983.
Kuan Yin Rosary booklet.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, August 23, 1994.