Manjushri mantra
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The Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Variant spellings: Manjushri / Manjusri)
Manjushri is a Bodhisattva who represents wisdom. Along with Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani, he is one of a trinity of family protectors. The family that Manjushri protects is known as the Tathagata family, which includes the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, as well as Vairochana, the central figure in the Five Buddha Mandala.
"Tathagata," the name of Manjushri’s family, means "The one thus gone [to Nirvana]" or (because of the ambiguities in Sanskrit) "The one thus come [to this world]" and is an epithet of the historical Buddha.
Of all the Bodhisattvas, Manjushri has perhaps the closest association with the Buddha, and could be said to represent his genius (in the sense of his attendant deity) or daimon (attending spirit or inspiring force).
Manjushri is depicted as a beautiful young prince, usually said to be sixteen years old. His freshness and beauty represent the fresh way that the awakened mind sees the world. While the unelightened mind typically sees life as being ordinary, to those who are awakened life is magic, extraordinary, and full of potential.
The name Manjushri means "Gently Auspicious One." He is also known as Manjughosha, or "Gentle Voiced One."
Like most Bodhisattva figures, he is seated on a lotus flower. Because the lotus grows from mud in often foul water, and yet remains unstained, it is considered to represent the purity of wisdom, which can exist in the midst of delusion without being affected by it.
Comments
Comment from Jayarava
Time: December 14, 2007, 10:52 am
Funny. I see this mantra as more packed with conceptual meaning than any other. The letters may be associated with the Avatamsaka Sutra, but the I think the locus Classicus is the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra where each letter of the Gandhari alphabet (which is in the order a ra pa ca na etc) is associated with a quality of emptiness - a = anutpana, ra = rajas, pa = paramartha etc. The mantra includes the first five of these 44 letters. The alphabet in the LPWS is clearly intended as a series of meditative reflections on emptiness.
There are earlier versions - especially from the Bajaur collection of texts dug up in Swat in 1999 dating from the 1st century CE, but also in the Lalitavistara Sutra (where two versions exist, one using the Sanskrit alphabet, and one using the more familiar Gandhari). Going forward in time the alphabet does occur in the Gandhavyuha (a chapter of the Avatamsaka) but the letters are not linked to a concept starting with that letter anymore. The main line of development seems to be into the Mahavairocana Tantra where it features a number of times. In the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha Tantra it is reduced to the letter a - probably the Sutra in one letter derives from this. Versions appear in the Hevajra Tantra as well although the focus is very different. The first line of the verse from the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra has been encapsulated in seed syllables and become a mantra in its own right.
Om does leave the intellect hanging, but dhii.h is the nominative form of the dhii which means wise, visionary, intelligent etc.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: December 14, 2007, 7:52 pm
Welcome, Jayarava! For those who don’t know, Jayarava is an expert on mantras who runs an amazing site called Visible Mantra. I’ve been planning for ages to link each of the articles here to his site.
Anyway I meant by “no conceptual meaning” was just that you can’t read the mantra as a sentence. Sohcahtoa, for example, doesn’t have a conceptual meaning in itself, but it does help to encode the main trigonometric functions. A Ra Pa Ca Na, from what you say, seems to work in a similar, acrostic-like manner, which is very interesting. I didn’t know about that, and I’m grateful for your injection of expertise. I’ve amended the article a little to take account of your comments.
Svaha, dude!
Comment from Arpad Joo
Time: December 15, 2007, 11:15 am
On Dhih….
This seed sound is supremely important in traditional Indian(Vedic/Tantric) astrology, or Jyotish as well as in Vajrayana. The very first appearance of Dhih is in the Rg Veda, in the well know Gayatri Mantra…
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhi- mahi
DHI you yo nah Prachodayat!
Dhi here is intelligence, intellect,vision,drishti etc.
In Vedic Astrology there are 4 DHI-s:
BuDHI (the first house)-Intelligence
Shud-DHI (4th house)- Purification of the mind
Vrid-DHI (7th house)- Increase
Sid-DHI (10th house)- Accomplishment, Siddhi. These 4 houses are collatively known as “Vishnu shtana”, the seat of Vishnu (That which preserves, sustains)
DHI therefore is very important since early vedic times. However, in Tibetan Vajrayana it receives an added emphasis. Many Tibetan yogis meditate and even recite this seed Sound for months at a time.It is said to confer good memory, wisdom, intelligence, power of study and concentration and intellectual brilliance.The exact method (complete with breathing excercises) must be learned from a competent Guru.
Comment from Alistair (Jamyang Gyaltsen)
Time: February 25, 2008, 5:08 am
Thank you for this. I am a practising tibetan Buddhist with the Dechen School and I was given the spiritual name of ‘Banner of Manjushri’ on my taking refuge.
I really needed to know exactly how the Manushri mantra sounded as I need to build a spiritual bridge to draw me out of negative mental effluvia.
Regards, Alistair: http://www.alistairiwcampbell.com
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