Om mani padme hum

• 1. Introduction

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  Om mani padme hum appears engraved on rocks scattered across the Himalayan plateau. It is inscribed on prayer flags and prayer wheels throughout Tibet, and its Chinese transliteration is painted on the walls of Buddhist temples across East Asia. The phrase is the most widely recited mantra in Tibetan Buddhism, practiced daily by monks and laypeople in equal measure. It is associated most closely with Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. A text from roughly the fourth or fifth century calls it the innermost heart of that figure. The same text describes it as the condensed form of all Buddhist teachings.

  Those six syllables have never had one agreed-upon meaning. Scholars have debated the central words for over a millennium. The question of what the phrase originally invoked has been answered in contradictory ways by Tibetan commentators, Chinese monks, and modern linguists. That earliest written account came with a specific prohibition: the mantra was not to be passed to anyone who had not first witnessed a mandala.

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• 2. What the Words Mean

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  Padma is the Sanskrit word for the Indian lotus, a flower known to botanists as Nelumbo nucifera. Mani means jewel, specifically the spiritual jewel widely invoked in Buddhist tradition. Together they form the heart of a phrase whose literal English rendering is sometimes given as "praise to the jewel in the lotus." Other translations read it as a declarative aspiration meaning "I in the jewel-lotus."

  Donald Lopez draws on Tibetan grammatical sources to argue that the central portion is most likely a noun of address. In his reading, manipadme is an epithet in the vocative case, addressing Avalokitesvara directly as "jewel-lotus." A 9th-century Tibetan grammatical treatise supports this position.

  Damien Keown points to evidence in texts including the Karandavyuha Sutra, where the mantra is depicted as a female deity. He raises the possibility that the phrase invokes a goddess named Manipadmi. Studholme adds that if the central word is a noun of address, its most likely grammatical gender is feminine. In that case, the original meaning could be "she of the lotus jewel," an invocation of the wisdom figure who serves as consort of Avalokitesvara.

  Sten Konow examined the imagery of the jewel and the lotus and identified possible Shaivite influence. He argued that the pairing could refer to "a jewel in the lotus," echoing the symbolism of the lingam and the yoni. Studholme's own preferred reading treats the compound as a locative, meaning "in the jewel-lotus." He connects this to rebirth in Sukhavati, the pure land of Amitabha. Reciting the mantra, on his account, is a declaration of how one expects to be reborn there.

  Om, the opening syllable, is a sacred sound shared across multiple Indian religious traditions. Hum represents the spirit of enlightenment. The fifth Dalai Lama's prime minister, writing in the 17th century, cut through the debate with a simpler reading: "O, you who have the jewel and the lotus." The text that first set down the mantra in writing did not attempt to settle its grammatical meaning. Its focus was on what the phrase could do.

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• 3. The Founding Scripture

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  Shakyamuni Buddha, according to the Karandavyuha Sutra, called it "the most beneficial mantra." He stated that even he had made an aspiration before a million Buddhas and received the teaching from Amitabha. The sutra, whose title translates as "The Basket's Display," dates to roughly the fourth or fifth century. It was incorporated into both the Chinese and Tibetan Mahayana canons.

  The sutra treats the mantra as the condensed expression of all eighty-four thousand Dharmas. Because of this, it calls the phrase "the grain of rice of the Mahayana." Reciting it once is said to equal reciting numerous sutras. The sutra also states that whoever truly knows the mantra will attain liberation as a fully enlightened Buddha.

  Access required initiation by a qualified teacher: either a lay dharmabhāṇaka, a vidyadhara, or a mahasiddha. The mantra was not to be given to anyone who had not first seen a mandala, and it was withheld from non-Buddhists known as tirthikas. Those conditions aside, initiation was open to all Buddhists regardless of class or gender, with no distinction between Mahayana and Hinayana practitioners.

  Alexander Studholme describes the mantra's primary significance in the sutra as being the innermost heart of Avalokitesvara. This makes it a means both of entering the Bodhisattva's presence and of drawing on his power. Practitioners were promised they would see the Bodhisattva's thousand-fold form. They were promised rebirth into the myriad worlds within the pores of his body. They were also offered entry into the samadhi of "rejoicing in loving kindness and compassion," called maitri-karuna-mudito.

  The six syllables, in the Karandavyuha Sutra, also appear in personified form: a goddess called the sadaksari mahavidya, described as autumn yellow in color and four-armed. Two of her hands hold a lotus and prayer beads; the other two are pressed together in anjali mudra. Studholme notes a parallel with Shaiva tradition, where Om nama shivaya is similarly described as the heart of its deity and a universally available path to liberation.

  Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna, an 11th-century Bengali master influential in bringing Buddhism to Tibet, composed his own treatise on the mantra, the Arya-sad-aksari-sadhana.

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• 4. Voices from Tibet

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  Peter Alan Roberts identifies the Mani Kambum as the primary source for Tibetan Avalokitesvara practices, a text that also dates from the 11th century. Some scholars have argued instead that the practice drew primarily on the Sadhanamala, a 12th-century collection of sadhana texts.

  Donald Lopez observes that most Tibetan Buddhist texts treated the question of translation as secondary. What mattered more was the correspondence between the six syllables and other groupings of six in Buddhist thought. In the Chenrezig Sadhana, Tsangsar Tulku Rinpoche assigns each syllable to one of the six realms of existence and one of the six perfections. Om corresponds to generosity and the realm of the gods. Ma corresponds to ethics and the realm of the titans. Ni corresponds to patience and the human realm. Pad corresponds to diligence and the animal realm. Me corresponds to renunciation and the realm of hungry ghosts. Hum corresponds to wisdom and the realm of hell. Colors and symbols accompany each entry in this system.

  Trijang Rinpoche lived from 1901 to 1981 and served as tutor to the present Dalai Lama. He wrote a commentary explaining why Avalokitesvara holds a white lotus. Just as the lotus grows unstained by the mud, he wrote, the Bodhisattva has abandoned the root of samsara through wisdom. The white lotus in his hand signals his freedom from the extreme of mundane existence. His two upper hands are joined as if holding a jewel, symbolizing his power to eliminate suffering and grant benefit to all beings.

  The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso has explained the mantra syllable by syllable. Om, he states, symbolizes both the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind and the pure body, speech, and mind of a Buddha. Mani symbolizes the method aspect of the path: altruism, compassion, and love. Padme symbolizes wisdom. Hum symbolizes the indivisibility of method and wisdom. In his teaching, the mantra enacts the complete path from ordinary confusion to enlightenment.

  Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, in his book Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones, maps the same six syllables to the six perfections. He asks what could be more meaningful than a phrase that enacts the path of all the Buddhas, syllable by syllable.

  Sam Van Schaik notes that Tibetan texts from Dunhuang, a major cult center of Avalokitesvara, preserve numerous mantra variations. The six-syllable form was only one among them; lesser-known variants include Om vajra yaksa mani padme hum and, as noted by Peter Alan Roberts, Om manipadme hum mitra svaha. The mantra's Chinese form arrived in 983, when the Karandavyuha Sutra was first translated for Chinese readers.

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• 5. Across East Asia

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  Guanyin, the Chinese name for Avalokitesvara, is the figure with whom the mantra is primarily associated in East Asian Buddhist practice. The Song dynasty ran from 960 to 1279. The mantra grew more prominent throughout this period as Chinese Buddhists had increasing contact with those from Tibet and Mongolia.

  In the Yujia Yankou rite, an esoteric ceremony still practiced in Chinese Buddhism, the mantra is recited up to 108 times in the section where the ritual space is visualized. It also forms part of the Aryavalokitesvara Bodhisattva Vikurvana Dharani, known in Chinese as Guanyin Lingguan Zhenyan. This text belongs to the Ten Small Mantras recited every morning at most Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese Obaku Zen temples.

  Chinese hanzi transliterations of the mantra are painted on the walls and entrances of temples and stitched into the fabric of certain ritual vestments. Two prominent monastics, Chan Master Hsuan Hua and Venerable Chin Kung, both delivered teachings on the mantra. Hsuan Hua is noted as one of the first monks to transmit Chan Buddhism to the West. Chin Kung was an influential Pure Land teacher. In a lecture printed in Vajra Bodhi Sea, issue eleven, Hsuan Hua explained the mantra syllable by syllable. Om, he stated, causes all spirits to conform to proper conduct. Mani means "silent wisdom" and the state of "separating from filth." Padme means "light perfectly illuminating" and refers to the mind of Avalokitesvara. Hum means to give rise, to protect, and to eradicate disasters.

  Both Shakyamuni Buddha and Avalokitesvara were absorbed into the Taoist pantheon, and the mantra accompanied them.

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• 6. Into Taoism

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  Taoist practitioners write the mantra into fulus, the charms inscribed in talismanic script that carry ritual power. The mantra is also used in a chanting exercise that assigns each syllable to a specific area of the body. The practitioner combines particular intonations with focused visualizations to reach a transcendental state. Its use in Taoism is considered part of mainstream practice, not an esoteric specialty.

  The syllabic mandala of the mantra, as depicted in the ceiling decoration of the Potala Palace, places a seed syllable called hrih at its center. This syllable is not always sounded audibly; according to Bucknell and others, it may be resonated internally or secretly through intentionality alone.

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