Monday, October 18, 2010

Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra(Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuniye svaha)

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.(chant one mala – 108 times a day)

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’s mantra is a play on his name. Muni means sage. Mahameans 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.”

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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