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 arid 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
forth 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 an 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 tantric, 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.
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