Mantra

Mantras are invocations to buddhas...prayers, or a combination of these. Tantric practitioners repeat them in order to forge karmic connections between themselves and meditational deities and to effect cognitive restructuring through internalizing the divine attributes that the mantra represents. A person who wishes to develop greater compassion, for instance, might recite the mantra of Avalokitesvara, who embodies this quality: om mani padme hum...[a] mantra [that] is well known to Tibetans. It represents for them the perfect compassion of Avalokitesvara, who they believe has taken a special interest in the spiritual welfare of the Tibetan people. He epitomizes universal compassion that is unsullied by any trace of negative emotions or mental afflictions. Among ordinary beings there are, of course, many acts of compassion, but these are generally tinged by self-interest, pride, or desire for recognition. Avalokitesvara' s compassion, by contrast, is completely free from all afflictions and is so vast that it encompasses all sentient beings without exception and without distinction. People who wish to develop such a perspective recite Avalokitesvara' s mantra over and over, meditating on its significance, and in so doing they try to restructure their minds in accordance with the cultivation of his exalted qualities. According to the Dalai Lama, mani... symbolizes the factors of method--the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love. Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary peace.... The two syllables, padme...symbolize wisdom. Just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation of non-contradiction whereas there would be contradiction if you did not have wisdom.... Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility. ... Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.