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The Mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum"
Article Courtesy of EasternHealingArts.com © 2003 Tibet Arts
OM MANI PADME HUM, (the Jewel in the Lotus) is the universal mantra of Love and Compasion. When we recite this mantra, we are in fact continually repeating the name of Chenrezig, the Buddha of all compassion and love. This mantra is invested by the grace and power of the mind of Chenrezig who himself gathers the grace of compassion of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. In this view, the mantra is endowed with the capacity to purify our mind from the veils that obscure it. The mantra opens the mind to love and compassion and leads it towards awakening.
Each syllable has a genuine purifying effect:
OM purifies the veils of body
MA purifies the veils of speech
NI purifies the veils of mind
PAD purifies the veils of conflicting emotions
ME purifies the veils of latent conditioning
HUNG purifies the veil that covers knowledge
Likewise, each of the six syllables is itself a prayer, each syllable is itself the six perfections, each syllable is also related to the six Buddha families and each syllable also links them to the six wisdoms: the wisdom of equanimity, the wisdom of activity, the wisdom born of itself, the wisdom of dharmadhatu, the discriminating wisdom and mirror-like wisdom.
In Tibet, the mantra of Chenrezig was recited by everybody. Its popularity and simplicity, rather than lessening its greatness, conferred on it an even greater value. This was expressed in a humorous saying:
"At the beginning, no suffering in not knowing it, in the middle, no pride in knowing it, at the end, no fear of forgetting it."