Om Mani Padme Hum

Title

Om Mani Padme Hum

Artist

Stephen Humphries

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

The lotus flower the symbol of the Padma family of Buddha's. Avalokiteshvara's mantra om mani padme hum. Avalokiteshvara (or Avalokitesvara) is a Bodhisattva who represents compassion, and his mantra also symbolizes that quality. Avalokiteshvara means "The Lord Who Looks Down (in compassion)".
There are various forms of Avalokitesvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan). The four-armed form is shown here. There is also a 1000-armed form � the many arms symbolizing compassion in action. And in the far east, Avalokiteshvara turned into the female Bodhisattva, Kuan Yin.

Just as the lotus can exist in muddy water without being soiled, so wisdom can exist in an impure world without becoming contaminated.

The mantra is often �translated� as �Hail to the jewel in the lotus� but the Sanskrit simply can�t mean that. The central element, manipadme, seems properly to be a name, Manipadma (�The Jewel Lotus One�) with the -e ending signifying the vocative case, meaning that Manipadma � is being invoked (�O Jewel Lotus One�). If this is the case, assuming that the mantra is in classical Sanskrit, then Manipadma would have to be a feminine figure, but it�s unknown which figure that would be! Some have suggested that it might be an invisible consort of Avalokiteshvara. If the mantra was originally in a non-Sanskrit language with different grammatical rules, however, and the vocative -e ending was applicable in that language to a masculine figure, then Manipadma could be Avalokiteshvara himself. The mantra would them mean �Om, O Jewel Lotus One, Hum� � the �Jewel Lotus One� being Avalokiteshvara.

This is probably the best known Buddhist mantra.

Uploaded

August 14th, 2015

Statistics

Viewed 5,130 Times  -  Last Visitor from Romeo, MI on 04/23/2024 at 3:55 AM

Colors

Embed

Sales Sheet