Mantra · Skt: mantra

A mantra is a sound to be practised rather than a sentence to be parsed. The word is Sanskrit, and of esoteric Buddhism the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes: “The word mantra signifies a secret teaching inexpressible in ordinary words or linguistic formulations.” Kūkai named his Japanese school Shingon, which means “the word of truth” and is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese chen-yen and the Sanskrit mantra; the tradition he brought back from China was Mantrayāna, the mantra vehicle, better known now as Vajrayāna. In that setting, “The mantra’s power is in its incomprehensibility to human understanding. Its significance cannot be explained analytically or understood conceptually; it is instead to be experienced in ritual.”

Use differs by tradition. In Tibetan Buddhism the best known is “the six-syllable mantra of Avalokiteshvara”, Om mani padmé hung. The 14th Dalai Lama says of Avalokiteshvara, “He is the supreme deity of compassion and he is Tibet’s patron deity”, and adds that “Everyone, laypeople and monastics, can recite his mantra”. He also warns against treating the sound as sufficient: “There is great purpose in reciting the six-syllable mantra, but what is most important is to reflect on the altruistic awakening mind of bodhichitta and to try to gain insight into emptiness.”

Close to mantra practice, though not the same thing, is the Pure Land recitation of a buddha’s name. Hōnen taught that “simply uttering the Name of Amida Buddha”, the “Namu-amida-butsu”, while “entrusting oneself to his vow to save all beings, results in birth into Amida’s buddha-field of enlightened activity”.