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Shakyamuni mantra

Sacred Sound: Mantra Meditations for Centeredness and Inspiration

Sacred Sound: Mantra Meditations for Centeredness and Inspiration

Bodhipaksa and Sunada combine forces to bring you Wildmind's first audiobook -- a complete guide to mantra meditation. In it you'll find everything you need to get started with a mantra chanting practice. The audio course leads you through chanting seven mantras, and the running time of the program is over two hours. Click here to learn more...

Oṃ muni muni mahāmuni śākyamuni svāhā

Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuni svaha

Shakyamuni (the sage of the Shakyan clan) is the historical Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama.

Shakyamuni was almost certainly the first enlightened figure to be visualized. There’s a beautiful passage in the Sutta Nipata (an early Buddhist text) where Pingiya talks about how he is never separated from the Buddha. He says that at any time he wishes he can see and hear his teacher, even though he lives hundreds of miles from where the Buddha dwells.

Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha
Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha

Shakyamuni’s mantra is a play on his name. Muni means sage. Maha means great. So the mantra reads "Om wise one, wise one, greatly wise one, wise one of the Shakyans, Hail!"

Also this mantra is commonly found in the following form:

Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuniye svaha

This form has the name of Shakyamuni in the dative form, so that it reads “Om wise one, wise one, great wise one, to the wise one of the Shakyans hail!”

This is actually the more common form of the mantra in Sanskrit, although in Tibetan the mantra is in the “Tibeticized” version of the shorter form given above: Om muni muni maha muni shakyamuni soha – “soha” being the Tibetan rendering of “svaha.”

Click here for the chant in RealAudio.

Or click below to hear an MP3 version:

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Pronunciation notes:

  • a is pronounced as u in cut
  • ā is like a in father
  • u is like the sound in put or foot
  • v is pronounced halfway between English v and w. If in doubt, then a w sound will do
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Comments

Vicki

Comment from Vicki
Time: August 9, 2007, 12:45 pm

Only page 1 of this article will print.

Bodhipaksa

Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: August 9, 2007, 4:02 pm

Hi Vicki,

Have you tried clicking on the “print this page” at the top right of the page? That formats the entire article for printing, including all the pages.

All the best,
Bodhipaksa

Dr. Waldemar C. Sailer

Comment from Dr. Waldemar C. Sailer
Time: January 23, 2008, 8:42 pm

I find your site attractive and interesting. I think I would appreciate your reaction to The World of Buddha Footprints. I will await your reply.

Dr. Sailer

Bodhipaksa

Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 24, 2008, 8:38 pm

The World of Buddha Footprints looks very interesting. Thanks for suggesting it. I haven’t had time to do more than glance at it as yet, but I’m looking forward to reading it at leisure.

Varsha

Comment from Varsha
Time: April 30, 2008, 5:17 am

Please also add the detail of Vipassana
Technic. It is use for our mind and body
healthy and happy wich Buddha taught us.
Thanks
http://www.vri.dhamma.org.

White magic | Wildmind Buddhist Meditation

Pingback from White magic | Wildmind Buddhist Meditation
Time: August 28, 2009, 9:59 am

[...] the Buddha’s lifetime the year was measured by the phases of the moon. Key events of the Buddha’s life — his birth, his attainment of Enlightenment, his first communication of the Dharma and his [...]

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