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--- Dharma Online : The Meaning of Om Mani Padme Hum ---
by H.H. the
Fourteenth 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 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 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.
Extracted from Compassion and Wisdom, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, 1991.
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