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Mantras & Their Meanings
Buddha_Fan22
Explorer
I've experimented with mantras, but, I always find myself going back to the Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra for my personal practice. For those who practice mantras, do you use one or more? I heard that different mantras serve a different purpose for practice, is this true or not? Example (Chenrezig=for compassion, Manjushri=for wisdom, Green Tara= for overcoming fear, ego, etc).
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Use several. Initially they may be a point of focus, bringing the attention back to a point of awareness.
Particular mantras are used in Vajrayana as complete paths in themselves, using a whole liturgy of teaching, associated visualisation and the emotional backup of a supporting lineage of fellow practitioners. This sadhana aspect of mantrayana is both transformative and can be done on a variety of turnings or wheels of understanding. From the Hinyana [a technical NOT a derogatory term] right through to inner communion with the particular essence of dharma invoked.
example:
http://kunzang.org/kplblog/2012/02/09/outer-and-inner-guru-rinpoche/
practice:
http://welcomingbuddhist.org/archives/category/sadhana
http://www.quietmountain.org/links/teachings/7_Line_Prayer_To_Guru_Rinpoche/7lnpryr.htm
Yes as Lobster> @lobster said: "Use several"
I personally use specific ones for different situations as you suggest Buddha_Fan22. I do find myself using Chenrezig a lot, i.e if i get a mental judgement manifest on a person, I internally say "Cancel!" then 3 X Om Mani Padme Hung, as a small blessing on them. I do this mainly for the wrong thinking as well as a way to change my habitual judgments
I only give respect to the Buddha before meditation using
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa (3x)
I pay homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Fully Enlightened One
I learned this recently from Theravada tradition.
I used to chant the refuges and precepts but these days I can't be bothered. I am very naughty.
@Talis That's good, using mantra to change habit energies. The reason I feel connected to the Shakyamuni mantra is because of awakening Boddhichitta, or Buddha nature. Visualizing the Buddha during the mantra meditation helps to and lets me remember that Buddha isn't a seperate reality. That I'm not doing the mantra to pray to the Buddha, but, to awaken Buddha nature within myself.
We use them in some practices, and I use them with my preliminary practices, but I'm not at a point, at least yet, that I use them regularly. I think it is a matter of learning what they mean and their purpose, which I am doing. I have a problem chanting things when I don't know what they are supposed to represent. It seems pointless. Though part of my preliminary practice is the 100 syllable mantra and we say it in Tibetan, which wow, is that slow going for me. It takes me a very long time to sound out everything. I know it'll get faster in time, but it's comical in the mean time. My teacher goes SO fast when he reads it. I'm lucky if I can keep up with like 5 syllables. But on the flip side, he speaks very good English but cannot read English well, so he sounds the same reading English as we do reading Tibetan, lol. And that's with the Tibetan written as English sounds, not in Tibetan written language.
Me: Om Sum....what is that word? benz...siddhi...karma (yay! I know those!) benzi...what? I give up.
My teacher: May all sentient beings have happiness and....mumblemumble suffering and the causes of suffering...sub...mumble...silence. lol
I like the short mantras. We do that one in Tibetan, but then we do the short one in Sanskrit. Go figure. I have a much easier time with Sanskrit than Tibetan. Om vajrasattva hum, I can do. lol.
@karasti I can't keep up with the vajrasattva mantra, the hundered syllable one haha.
I used to quite like the 100 syllable mantra, I did about 25,000 repetitions as part of a preliminary practice.
we have to do 100,000 of each preliminary. I'll be working on preliminaries for 10 years at this rate.
I got to a certain point where I'd managed to do about a quarter of all the 100,000 preliminaries, and I calculated I'd be dead before I finished them, so I gave up! I'm not sure I ever really understood the point of doing them though. A lot of people just gabbled through them at break-neck speed to rack up the number of repetitions, but I couldn't really see the point of that.
Yeah, I think some people do that in our group but our teacher recommends against it. I have the time, so I do 108 reps of each preliminary every day. It'll take a total of about 2.5 years to complete them if I manage to not miss significant chunks. I have about 10,000 done so far. My understanding is it is somewhat to express the dedication to that path. I think it kind of weeds out people who perhaps aren't serious about wanting to receive vajrayana teachings. Some we do as a group like phowa and guru yoga but for the most part the teachings are imparted one-on-one from teacher to student. But most of it (as I understand) is about correcting motivation and setting intention. I can see some results in that way, the more I do it the more engrained it becomes and I find myself being able to, say, arise bodhicitta much more easily with connection to the words rather than feeling like I am saying the words the way I used to say the pledge of allegiance...because we had to but with no real understanding of what it was or what it meant. We'll see. I'm still on the fence as far as how much I really understand about the process. I'm trying to trust the process even if I don't fully understand it and hop the rest comes in time. One lady in our group has done the full preliminaries 3 times :O Yikes. My teacher I'm sure has done them countless times, but at this point I think he is one that blows through them incredibly quickly. It is much slower going for me because memorizing the mantras in Tibetan has not been terribly easy, lol.
Wot no help? You could get 100 000 Bodhisatvas to do one mantra with you, this would count . . .
I recently wrote a mantra repetition piece of code in bash script. Type in the mantra. Type in the number. Job done. Not quite the same? M m m . . . . enlightenment by effort, anyone found that working?
It is the cessation of effort that is key . . .
Mantras are pretty meaningless for me, but depending on which mantra I am chanting, I get certain types of relief. Medicine buddha mantra makes me weep uncontrollably for instance, especially when thinking of someone who I know who is really ill....
Somebody could run a nice little business doing mantra accumulations for other people, maybe even meditating for them!
( sound of hedgehog writing business plan )
( sound of hedgehog writing business plan )
LOL
I feel that sponsored sangha and Catholic indulgences (making a comeback incidentally, might even be available on line shortly) are not so far apart . . .
It ain't the numbers, it is the attitude . . . good luck on the business plan, no tithing but you might consider cutting in you local sangha . . .
Anybody need a mantra hedgehog?
When I was running the local Buddhist group, we didn't make a charge, just asked for a donation if we were hiring a room. A couple of people assumed that since we weren't charging it wasn't very good and they stopped coming. That weird western attitude of viewing everything as a product, the assumption that if it's free it's not really very good.
My sangha lists a suggested donation but it always balances out. Some cannot afford to give much, and others always give more.
Something I have always found very inspiring and insightful is this write-up on the meaning of OM MANI PADME HUM by His Holiness
locatable here http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/omph.htm
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Also recently this came into awareness:
https://vajratool.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/a-true-account-of-an-accomplished-practitioner-of-the-vajra-guru-mantra-in-recent-times/
A True Account of an Accomplished Practitioner of the Vajra Guru Mantra in Recent Times
Just a small excerpt from the article:
Om A Hum!
That's funny, for me if you charge a fee that make me think that, you're not the real thing and just there for the money... as for donation, that makes sense.