The Benefits of Chanting OM MANI PADME HUM
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
[[Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche's invitation to join the Chenrezig Institute
mani retreat, composed by Rinpoche during a stay at Deer Park Buddhist Center
in Madison, Wisconsin, USA in July 2000, scribed and edited by Ven. Lhundup Damchö;
excerpt edited by Dr. Nick Ribush. Rinpoche's entire teachings at the retreat
have been edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron and will be published for free distribution
by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in Teachings from the Mani Retreat, due in late
2001.]]
The benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha mantra are infinite,
like the limitless sky.
Even if you don't have much intellectual understanding
of Dharma, even if the only thing you know is OM MANI PADME HUM, still the happiest
life is one lived with an attitude free of the eight worldly concerns. If you
live your life with the pure attitude free of attachment clinging to this life
and simply spend your life chanting OM MANI PADME HUM-this six-syllable mantra
that is the essence of all Dharma-that's the purest Dharma.
It looks very
simple, very easy to recite. But if you think of the benefits, it's not at all
simple. Here, I'd to mention just the essence of its infinite benefits.
Reciting
the Compassion Buddha mantra just once completely purifies the four defeats of
breaking the four root vows of self-liberation and the five uninterrupted negative
karmas1.
It is also mentioned in the tantras that by reciting this mantra
you achieve the four qualities of being born in the Amitabha Buddha pure land
and other pure lands; at the time of death, seeing Buddha and lights appearing
in the sky; the devas making you offerings; and never being reborn in the hell,
hungry ghost or animals realms. You will be reborn in the pure land of Buddha
or as a happy transmigratory being.
When one who recites ten malas a day goes
swimming, whether in a river, an ocean or some other body of water, the water
that touches that person's body gets blessed.
It is said that up to seven
generations of that person's descendents won't get reborn in the lower realms.
The reason for this is that due to the power of mantra, the body is blessed by
the person reciting the mantra and visualizing their body in form of the holy
body of Chenrezig. Therefore, the body becomes so powerful, so blessed that this
affects the consciousness up to seven generations and has the effect that if one
dies with a non-virtuous thought, one is not reborn in a lower realm.
Thus,
when a person who has recited ten malas of OM MANI PADME HUM a day goes into a
river or an ocean, the water that touches the person's body gets blessed, and
this blessed water then purifies all the billions and billions of sentient beings
in the water. So it's unbelievably beneficial; this person saves the animals in
that water from the most unbelievable suffering of the lower realms.
When
such a person walks down a road and the wind touches his or her body and then
goes on to touch insects, their negative karma gets purified and causes them to
have a good rebirth. Similarly, when such a person does massage or otherwise touches
others' bodies, those people's negative karma also gets purified.
Such a person
becomes meaningful to behold; being seen and touched becomes a means of liberating
other sentient beings. This means that even the person's breath touching the bodies
of other sentient beings purifies their negative karma. Anybody who drinks the
water in which such a person has swum gets purified.
We are unbelievably
fortunate to have met the Dharma and to have the opportunity to do recitation
and meditation on the Compassion Buddha. It is an easy way of purifying whatever
negative karma we have collected, in not only this life but in many previous lives
as well.
Because we have met the Buddhadharma, and especially this method
the practice of Compassion Buddha and recitation of his mantra it is easy to purify
negative karma and collect extensive merit and thus to achieve enlightenment.
We are unbelievably fortunate.
Therefore, there is nothing more foolish than
not taking advantage of this great opportunity. Normally, we get continuously
distracted and waste our lives. Not only that, but all the actions done with ego
and with the three poisonous minds of anger, attachment and ignorance create negative
karma, the cause of suffering. In all existence, there is nothing more foolish
than using this perfect human body to create only suffering.
In places such
as Tibet, Nepal, India and Ladakh, there's a well-established tradition of doing
the Compassion Buddha retreat and reciting 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantras.
The one held at Chenrezig Institute was the first such retreat held in the West
and the first in the FPMT organization. This is to happen there once each year-only
once each year!
If you're feeling guilt in your life, you can overcome this
through the purification of attending this retreat.
The retreat is not just
chanting mantras with sadhanas, but also includes taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts,
if not every day, at least frequently. Whatever merit you collect that day increases
100,000 times. This becomes such an easy and quick way to purify, collect extensive
merit, achieve enlightenment and liberate sentient beings from unimaginable suffering
and bring them to enlightenment quickly.
Whoever attends a mani retreat is
unbelievably fortunate. Even if you can't attend the whole retreat, you can participate
for two months, one month or at least a few weeks. You can do even just one week.
I especially hope this retreat will also be established in Mongolia, since their
main food is meat and so many animals are killed there every day. This practice
helps purify that. After our temple in Mongolia has been built, I hope that thousands
of people will attend mani retreats there. Gradually too, I would like this retreat
to be established in other parts of the West.
This retreat also blesses the
country where it is held and brings so much peace, happiness and prosperity.
Even if you know the teachings on how to meditate on bodhicitta, you still need
to receive the special blessings of the deity, Compassion Buddha. You receive
these by doing the meditation and recitation we practice in the mani retreat.
Therefore, recitation of OM MANI PADME HUM is one way to actualize bodhicitta
to transform your mind into bodhicitta and make your meditation on bodhicitta
effective.
Generally, according to my experience, in my home of Solu Khumbu
in the Himalayas of Nepal, there are people who live their lives chanting OM MANI
PADME HUM but have no idea of the three principal aspects of the path renunciation,
bodhicitta and the right view of emptiness not even the words. Even though they
can't read and don't even know the alphabet, they have great devotion to compassion
and bodhicitta and live their lives reciting OM MANI PADME HUM. Such people are
warm-hearted, very kind, very compassionate. This is proof from my experience
that it has the effect of transforming the mind into a good heart and compassion.
Without bodhicitta, you cannot cause all the happiness for all sentient beings.
You cannot do perfect work for all sentient beings, and you cannot achieve the
complete qualities of the realizations and cessation, even for yourself.
Thus,
everyone is most welcome to join the 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantra retreat.
Footnotes
1. These are karmas so heavy that they ripen immediately as
a rebirth in the hell realm upon the exhaustion of the karma of this life. The
five are: killing one's mother, killing one's father, drawing the blood of a Buddha,
killing an arhat and causing disunity among the Sangha.
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