Padmasambhava mantra
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Oṃ Āh Hūṃ Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hūṃ
(Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum)
Padmasambhava was a historical teacher who is said to have finally converted Tibet to Buddhism. He was a renowned scholar, meditator, and magician, and his mantra suggests his rich and diverse nature.
Om Ah Hum, as we’ve seen, have no conceptual meaning. Often they’re associated with body, speech, and mind respectively (i.e. the whole of one’s being. So there’s a suggestion that we are saluting the qualities that Padmasambhava represents with all of our hearts (and minds, and bodies).
Vajra means thunderbolt, and represents the energy of the enlightened mind. It can also mean diamond. The implication is that the diamond/thunderbolt can cut through anything. The diamond is the indestructible object, while the thunderbolt is the unstoppable force. The vajra also stands for compassion. While it may seem odd to have such a “masculine” object representing compassion, this makes sense in esoteric Buddhism because compassion is active, and therefore aligned with this masculine symbol. (The term “masculine” does not of course imply that compassion is limited to males!)
Guru, of course, means a wise teacher. It comes from a root word, garu, which means “weighty.” So you can think of the guru as one who is a weighty teacher. Padmasambhava is so highly regarded in Tibetan Buddhism that he is often referred to as the second Buddha.
Padma means lotus, calling to mind the purity of the enlightened mind, because the lotus flower, although growing in muddy water, is completely stainless. In the same way the enlightened mind is surrounded by the greed, hatred, and delusion that is found in the world, and yet remains untouched by it. The lotus therefore represents wisdom. Again, while westerners would tend to assume that the flower represents compassion, the receptive nature of the flower gives it a “feminine” status in esoteric Buddhism, and to the lotus is aligned with the “feminine” quality of wisdom. And once again, there is no implication that wisdom is in any way limited to those who are female. The words masculine and feminine here are used in a technical sense that’s completely unrelated to biology.
And Siddhi means accomplishment or supernatural powers, suggesting the way in which those who are enlightened can act wisely, but in ways that we can’t necessarily understand. Padmasambhava is a magical figure, and in his biography there are many miracles and tussles with supernatural beings.
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Pronunciation notes:
- a is pronounced as u in cut
- aa (ā) is long, as in father
- m in hum is pronounced ng, as in long
- j is hard, like j in judge
- u is short, as in put
- ū is long, as in school
Comments
Comment from Aswad Munyir Abdul La’tif Strategic Martial Art Center
Time: January 28, 2008, 10:44 pm
Hotep Pu. Years ago I was in trance and this Archetype appeared to me. I did let it go, but now I know that it was a “coming of age” for me. I am opening Strategic Martial Art Center and I will be teaching meditaition as well as martial arts. If there are any tips, feel free to contact. I have studied meditaion since 1974. I studied with Richard Hickillman on KQED televiton when I was a kid. Hotep Pu.
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Time: September 1, 2008, 2:47 am
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Comment from Joshua
Time: October 15, 2008, 11:21 pm
If not mistaken, by the form of the mantra, is it possible that Tibetans pronounce this mantra more obscurely? Or is this not the same as the Guru Rinpoche Mantra:
“OM A HUM BENZA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUM”
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: October 16, 2008, 8:31 am
Hi Joshua.
Yes, Tibetan and Sanskrit are from different language groups, and so Tibetan has very different sounds in it. That makes it hard for Tibetans to pronounce Sanskrit words, and “Vajra” comes out as “Benza” and “Padma” as “Pema.” It’s the same mantra, but pronounced in a different way. Technically it’s incorrect, but since it’s the standard pronunciation in Tibet it doesn’t make much sense to take Tibetans to task over it, any more than it would make sense to correct English-speakers who say “Paris” rather than “Paree.”
Comment from Joshua
Time: October 16, 2008, 9:44 am
Thank you for your quick reply. I wish I knew of a handbook of some type that taught the general Tibetan pronunciation. I guess it will come with repeated listening, but not knowing what to expect makes it difficult to chant alongside a Tibetan monk, especially one who sings in polyphonic. I have noticed through studying the transliteration of the Tibetan scripts, that there are stark similarities to those of Sanskrit in structure and that some of the letters in the English transliteration are hit-or-miss. There’s probably a dialect thing going on as most of my instruction comes from the Gelukpa tradition. Thanks again for your help!
Comment from MarSon
Time: January 31, 2009, 4:13 am
Hi Is it okay to chant the Padmasambhava mantra mentaly? and or chant it even if I am not Initiated by a Guru?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 31, 2009, 8:44 am
Hi MarSon.
Yes, it’s fine to chant a mantra internally, and you can chant a mantra without initiation. To use these mantras as Tantric practices requires initiation (wong, or abhisheka), but they can also be done as straightforward Mahayana practices, which requires no initiation. Although no doubt many Tantric practitioners would disagree with this, I stick with the traditional Buddhist view that it’s the state of mind with which you perform a practice that makes it spiritually effective, and not external factors, so I don’t think that Tantric initiation in any way makes a mantra practice more effective.
Some people, of course, lacking confidence in themselves, may believe that they have to have some kind of external validation for their practice and so may be given a boost in confidence through knowing that they have initiation from a guru. I don’t in any way wish to suggest however that there’s no point in having a teacher; a teacher can give valuable guidance and advice and be a support in many ways and for most people progress requires this kind of wise and kind guidance. But ultimately practice is something that we do for ourselves. As the Buddha said on his death-bed, “Be a lamp unto yourselves.” We all have Buddha nature, and we all have the capacity to realize that Buddha nature, and practicing mantras — with or without a guru to provide initiation — can help us with that task.
Comment from Michele
Time: April 2, 2009, 12:22 pm
Whenever I chant this mantra to myself, I heal. I dont know why. If I feel anxious- I become calm. Once -very wierdly- I had a terrible hangover and a headache- and I chanted this mantra and the hangover with symptoms just disappeared. The headache went ((poof)) and was gone. I actually could jump out of bed and felt fine. How can this be?
Comment from Michele
Time: April 5, 2009, 2:24 pm
Sorry- maybe I should explain myself. I am not a buddhist. I do not meditate. I cannot “talk shop” with anyone here. I read about this mantra and I said it. At first- it just felt good. Later I found it to be truely healing- and I think what I am asking is: why? How does it work? How can saying some words in a language that I dont even understand make a headache dissappear? Now I have read the other pages on this site – but it still doesnt make sense to me. And I am a medical doctor so I dont take something like this lightly. Can anyone explain to me why saying these words in a foreign language about a man who lived during the 800s in Asia make my headache go away? And does this work for everybody?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 5, 2009, 2:48 pm
Hi Michele,
Sorry, I’d assumed that your previous question was rhetorical. My bad
I’m not big on mystical explanations, so what I’d suggest is that headaches often arise because we’re (largely unconsciously) doing things like worrying, feeling anxious, tensing up, focusing in a narrow way, etc, that cause tension. When you repeat a mantra there’s less mental space available to keep doing the headache-generating activities, and so your mind and body start to relax. In theory I don’t think it would matter much which words you used, although commonly-used words probably take less “bandwidth” to repeat and so you probably would be able to multitask and recite the “mantra” and keep doing the things that cause headaches. Repeating foreign words takes more attention, and so you have to let go of a lot more mental activity in order to do that. Similar things happen when we pay attention to the breath, for example. Because we’re using up our inner bandwidth noticing the sensations of the breath we expend less energy thinking unhelpful thoughts connected with anger, depression, anxiety, etc.
Does this make sense?
Comment from Michele
Time: April 6, 2009, 1:08 am
I don`t know. Like- the hangover I had was chemical. I had the alcohol in my blood and whatever makes a wine give you a hangover (probably bad wine and/or too much of it! lol). I dont see how my symptoms in such a case could just go “poof* and disappear by concentrating on some words. I have to add that my buddhist cousin talked me into seeing Mother Meera, and since then, things have been somehow different. Maybe I have to try paying attention to my breath as well- as you say- and see what happens then.
I live in Zurich. Do you know of any good teachers of meditation over here? Perhaps I should start that journey.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 6, 2009, 8:39 am
I think that no one can actually “explain” this in any detailed way. But I’d suggest that everything that happens in your brain is chemical, so it’s perhaps not unexpected that meditation can cure a hangover. If, for example, you happened to get into a concentrated and blissful state of mind (what we call dhyana) then this is going to result in chemical changes in the brain. I don’t know what those would be exactly, because although research is being carried out on the effects of meditation on the brain it’s mostly involved using fMRI, which studies which parts of the brain are active but not what’s going on at a chemical level. But lets assume that there was a strong release of endorphins and other chemicals associated with very positive states of mind — those natural opiates may well have been able to overcome the unpleasant (chemical) effects of the hangover. And part of just about any pain we feel isn’t the “pure” pain itself, but the tension that arises around it (to go back to my earlier suggestion), and if you stop generating that secondary pain then that’s going to help too.
I don’t want to downplay the sheer amazingness that is the mind, and the astonishing things that meditation can accomplish. I heartily celebrate all this, along with the mystery of how exactly this thing we call consciousness manages to exist at all, and how it interacts with the brain. It’s all marvelous and mysterious and miraculous (in a very loose sense of that word). Maybe we’ll never entirely understand it. I’m just very wary about the tendency to reach for mystical/miraculous explanations because I don’t think they really explain much. Just as the answer “God did it” in response to the question of why lightening happens didn’t ultimately lead to any real understanding of the world, I’d rather not search for any “miraculous” component in meditation or mantras.
There seem to be a lot of meditation/Buddhism centers in Zürich, according to Google. In some cases I know a little about the organizations that run the centers, but I’m afraid I don’t know anything about the people who would be doing the face-to-face teaching. Sorry I can’t be of more help. If you want to explore breath-based meditation your best bets would be either some kind of Theravadin/Insight group, or a Zen center.
Comment from Michele
Time: April 7, 2009, 1:25 am
Thanks. I agree with you. I also believe more in scientifically based explanations than the purely mystical, because so much corruption can occur with the latter. And the last thing mankind needs are more “false prophets”.
I`ll google “Theravadin”. I once went to a Buddhist center here and although the people were very kind, I felt there was no guidance.
Wishing you well!
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 7, 2009, 4:16 am
Good luck with your searches. A Theravadin (or Theravada — the terms are synonyms) center might be called a “vihara” or a “wat,” so watch out for those terms.
Comment from urgyen tsering
Time: July 3, 2009, 12:57 am
good explaination on VAJRA GURU MANTRA.keep on gathering more information.
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