Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [66]
PURIFIED INTENTIONS:
COMPASSION AS A WAY OF LIFE
All the happiness there is in this world comes from thinking about others, and all the suffering comes from preoccupation with yourself.
—SHANTIDEVA
As a child, I remember hearing adults refer to some people as having “good hearts.” They were not talking about the aerobically inclined. The world over, “good heart” refers to someone who is compassionate and has a loving, caring, and generous spirit. In the Tibetan language, compassion is translated as “nobility or greatness of heart,” a phrase that includes open-hearted wisdom and discernment as well as empathy, unselfishness, and abundant kindness. The most exalted compassionate archetype in Tibet is the greathearted Buddha of unconditional love, known as Chenresig.
Although in Tibet, the Buddha of Compassion, Chenresig, is given the male pronoun “he,” the archetype is intrinsically androgynous and embraces the sacred feminine principle along with the sacred male. The name Chenresig has several meanings including the compassionate eye that sees with the heart, or one who cares for and looks after us. Chenresig is considered Tibet’s national protector; Tibetans feel with all their hearts that this archetype is their special protector and embodies unconditional divine love, empathy, and tenderhearted compassion.
Typically the first Tibetan mantra that Westerners hear or learn about is Chenresig’s mantra “Om Mani Pedmé Hung.” This mantra literally translates as “The jewel is in the lotus.” What it means is that wisdom and compassion—the jewels that we all seek—are inherently within us all, like pure seeds blossoming and unfolding within our own tender unguarded hearts. What we seek, we are.
“Om Mani Pedmé Hung,” commonly called the six-syllable mantra, can legitimately be referred to as the national mantra of Tibet. Always on the lips of Tibetans, the six syllables create a constant background sound wherever one travels. Lay people, adults and children, holding their malas and twirling prayer wheels, mutter it while doing daily chores, while lamas, nuns, and monks chant it prayerfully as part of their meditative and contemplative practices and visualizations.
“Om Mani Pedmé Hung” is the Dalai Lama’s mantra; it was Kalu Rinpoche’s mantra, and Karmapa’s too; for all of these great teachers are considered to be reincarnations, or embodiments on earth of the transcendent Buddha of Compassion, Chenresig (Avalokitesvara). Almost everyone who has ever spent time in the presence of masters such as these Buddha-lamas agrees that they carried their own spiritually awakened atmosphere with them, wherever they went. I have certainly felt it. I feel them and that atmosphere of blessings with me today wherever I go and can enhance such presence by chanting the mantra.
The Six-syllable Mantra Meditation:
Om Mani Pedmé Hung
To yourself enter into that sacred dimension of the sound of loving-kindness, you only need to stop for a moment. Right now, take a break; take a breath. Visualize the most genuinely exalted loving image of unconditional love and compassion you can imagine. It might be Buddha, Padma Sambhava, Tara, Jesus, Mary, a personal saint or archangel, or your own spiritual teacher or guide. Toward this image, cultivate thoughts of gratitude, devotion, trust, faith, and appreciation.
With that thought or image in your mind, chant Om Mani Pedmé Hung softly, regularly. Use this mantra of love and compassion to soften, to ease and gentle your mind, energy, and spirit. Use it to dissolve any hardness or constriction around your heart, to warm up and loosen your gut. Chant it again and again, awakening to the presence of that exalted being, that sacred reality or spiritual dimension. Sense where you are, what you are, and who you are and can be. Let everything dissolve into that purring, stream, that songlike repetitive sound of Great Compassion’s mantra.
Om Mani Pedmé Hung … Om Mani Pedmé Hung …
Om Mani Pedmé Hung
Now think of someone