Visible Mantra Blog

Tibetan Cymbal Symbols

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:53:00 +0000

A friend recently wrote to me:

Please could you tell me what my cymbals say?

I've been taking these cymbals into prison for over 15 years, to ding meditation stages. Occasionally, someone asks me what the symbols mean. I confidently reply that it is the Avalokiteshvara mantra.

Only, last week a bright spark asked if it says "om mani padme hum" how come there are seven symbols rather than six?

The answer is quite simple. It is the Avalokiteśvara mantra written in a Tibetan script called dbu-can (pronounced uchen) - the main formal script they use for texts and printing. The extra symbol is a paragraph marker, known as a 'shed' in Tibetan. It's more often a simple vertical stroke, but sometimes a colon-like thing as you have here.

oṃ ma ṇi pad me hūṃ :

I've added the letters onto your image so you can see which is which. While we're on the subject there is no word break in maṇipadme - it is a single compound word meaning, most likely "in the jewelled lotus" (but clearly not "the jewel in the lotus" as Sanskrit grammar does not allow this meaning, despite it's popularity). I've written about this on my blog post "The Meaning of oṃ maṇipadme hūṃ".

Note the Tibetans write "pa dme" as "pad me" because it looks more Tibetan. In the image below the top line is what is on your bells, and the bottom line is the proper Sanskrit, but still using the same script.

One also sees the mantra on these kinds of bells written in the Lantsa script (below).

My compliments to the bright spark who spotted that there were seven symbols!

Manuscript of Early Vajrasattva Mantra

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:59:00 +0000

stts-ms contract enhanced
Originally uploaded by jayarava

This is a page from the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṅgraha (STTS), a 7th century Buddhist text concerning Tantric rituals. The STTS is classed as a Yoga Tantra by Tibetan Buddhists. Here we have the verso of the 15th palm leaf in the mantra containing what became the Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra. This is the oldest occurrence of the Vajrasattva Mantra (as far as the Chinese Canon is concerned).

This image is modified from the facsimile edition of a 10th century Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript using the Siddhaṃ script, published by Candra and Snellgrove. You will note that the Siddhaṃ script is significantly different from contemporary Siddhaṃ calligraphy (and much more difficult to read!)

If you want to have a go at reading it - note that you read from left to right right across the leaf (i.e. ignore the columns). The transliteration shows subtle differences from the well known 100 syllable mantra.

oṁ vajra sattvasamayamanupālaya vajrasattvatvenopatiṣṭha dṛḍho me bhava sutoṣyo me bhavānurakto me bhava supoṣyo me bhava sarvasiddhiñca me prayaccha sarvakarmasu ca me cittaśreyaḥ kuru hūṁ ha ha ha ha hoḥ bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra mā me muṁca vajrībhava mahāsamayasatva āḥ||

To see where the mantra is look at the version with the mantra highlihghted
See the text inverted as well - this sometimes improves readability

New Essay on oṃ

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:14:00 +0000

My Jayarava's Rave blog post this week is on oṃ: Mystical Grammar.

I try to sort out the oṃ/auṃ thing, and look at the process of oṃ becoming an esoteric symbol. A few comments on oṃ in Buddhism, but I still find very little say about it.

An Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:01:00 +0000

Click on the button to donate 50p to Visible Mantra

Over the years I've made a trickle of money from Amazon ads (about £50 a year). I'm still waiting to hit the threshold for a Google ads payout. But I've continued to put in as many hours as I could to create this resource and write my blog - sometimes to the detriment of my health. This website has become very popular (nearly half a million page views this year!) and yet it could be so much more, and indeed is part of a bigger plan to create resources for Buddhists who use mantra as part of their practice.

This year I'm asking each person who visits the site for a one off donation of 50p (about US$0.80) to the website. This would provide me with enough income to work on the Visible Mantra project full-time.

I hope to bring out the book of the website in 2010 - with high definition images of all the mantras on the site and a few more - and to eventually bring the website up to the same standard: e.g. to have all mantras and bījas in four scripts: Siddhaṃ, Devanāgarī, Tibetan (dbu-can) and Lantsa. I also have planned a Siddhaṃ primer and have made a start on a history of mantra in Buddhism. My aim is that Visible Mantra will also become a publishing house and will attract manuscripts from authors from a range of traditions on the subject of Buddhist mantra. I also regularly help individuals who want inscriptions transcribed and identified, or calligraphy of mantras (though I seldom do tattoos).

My calculations are based on an income of £15,000 per year - this would enable me to pay all my bills and get on retreat a couple of times a year. It's comfortable given that I live communally and fairly frugally (and eco friendly) - by comparison the median annual income in the UK is about £25,000 before tax (UK National Stats). It assumes that about 20% of approximately 150,000 visitors per year (in 2009) will make a donation. Because a lot of people visit the website each person need only give a tiny amount for this to work.

I hope you feel inclined to support me in this venture.

Best Wishes
Jayarava

Statistics for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:39:00 +0000

visits to the site - 154,519; up 62% from 2008
page loads - 484,360; up 30% from 2008
Most popular mantra - Vajrasattva - 22,315 pageloads. Also no.1 2008.

The Facebook Visible Mantra page now also has 1003 fans.

Thanks everyone for making this website a success.

Offering Mantra

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Gino recently asked about the offering mantra used during the maṇḍala offering practice. I thought other people might be interested in this as well.

The mantra reads:

idaṃ guru-ratna-maṇḍalakaṃ niryātayāmi
इदं गुरुरत्नमण्डलकं निर्यातयामि
(above in dbu-can)

If we take this to be a Sanskrit sentence then the words guru and ratna are undeclined suggesting that they are part of a compound: gururatnamaṇḍalakaṃ. So how should be parse this compound? Firstly the individual words: guru = teacher; ratna = jewel; maṇḍalaka is a variant of maṇḍala. The -ṃ ending would appear to match the idaṃ and be an accusative making idaṃ gururatnamaṇḍalakaṃ the object of the verb. I suggest that we take ratnamaṇḍalaka to be a tatpuruṣa - maṇḍala of jewels. Then it would make some sense for this to make a tatpuruṣa with 'guru', but perhaps of the dative kind, 'to or for the guru' rather than the standard genitive 'of the guru'. Looking at the context I think this fits what is being done in practice.

The verb comes from the root √yat 'to stretch'. What we have here is a causative form: yātayati which can mean 'to suffer', or in this case 'to yield up' or 'surrender'. The first person singular is yātayāmi 'I surrender'. The addition of the prefix nir- here indicates that one is giving up to others. Of Monier-Williams' suggestions 'to give back, to restore' seem to fit the context, he notes the sense of 'to give as a present' in the Lalitavistara Sūtra.

So we could render the phrase

idaṃ guru-ratna-maṇḍalakaṃ niryātayāmi
I offer up this jewel-maṇḍala to the guru

Tendai Studies and Art Symposium

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Tendai Studies and Art Symposium.

If you live in California then this is an amazing opportunity to hear and meet some of the great names in Buddhist studies including John Stevens author of Sacred Calligraphy of the East (without which none of this website would exist!). There will be an exhibit of Tendai calligraphy from April 1 to June 1 2010.

Stryi and the Karaṇḍamudrā Dhāraṇī

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:41:00 +0000

Back in Feb 2009 I was intrigued by a complex seed-syllable seen carved on the side of a Japanese stūpa. I could see the Siddhaṃ elements but wanted to understand the context. Eventually, with a little luck, I managed to identify the bīja as stryi which is associated with an important Japanese liturgical text: the Karaṇḍamudrā Dhāraṇī. I put some notes into this blog, but have now put this material on its own page: Karaṇḍamudrā Dhāraṇī and stryi.

At some point I want to do some Siddhaṃ calligraphy of the dhāraṇī itself, but here at least you can see where the syllable stryi originates from.

Some other versions of stryi can be seen in this Flickr Gallery: Stone Siddhaṃ.

oṃ

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Seed-syllable oṃ
in Siddhaṃ

I upgraded the oṃ page.

I don't whether to be pleased that my calligraphy and other methods have improved, or horrified at how poor some of my earlier work was. Hopefully the whole site will gradually be brought up to a higher level.

Tadyathā in the Heart Sūtra

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:30:00 +0000

tadyathā

My Jayarava's Rave blog post today is about tadyathā especially in relation to the Heart Sutra mantra.

http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2009/10/tadyatha-in-heart-sutra.html

Men who stare at calligraphy

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:14:00 +0000

In the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats Jeff Bridges character is twice seen wearing a singlet with a large Siddhaṃ oṃ on it - see left.

See also my version of oṃ on Flickr.

Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:06:00 +0000

The Visible Mantra Facebook page has seen a massive increase in fans recently. After sitting around 50-60 for most of the year suddenly there are more than 500 heading for 600! I did send out an invitation to friends, but I suspect a lot of the increase is down to a woman called Ka Lyana who is very enthusiastic about Siddhaṃ.

One interesting observation is that there seem to be quite a number of Theravādin bhikkhus amongst the fans - can't figure that out!

I've been posting little titbits on Facebook to keep it interesting. So that is another place to keep an eye on for Buddhist calligraphy.

Visible Mantra on Facebook

Mystery Amulet

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:37:00 +0000

Nigel sent in this image of his amulet and asked about the mantra on it. The mantra is in the Tibetan Uchen (dbu-can) script. In the centre is the seed-syllable (bījākṣara) oṃ. The mantra starts at 6 c'clock and goes clockwise. It reads

oṃ sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasitātapatre hūṃ phaṭ hūṃ mama hūṃ ni svāhā

If we break the sandhi and add dashes for compounds it reads:

oṃ sarva-tathāgataḥ
uṣṇīṣa-sita-ātapatre hūṃ phaṭ hūṃ mama hūṃ ni svāhā

So now it becomes clear that this is a mantra for Uṣṇīṣa-sitātapatra (also spelt Uṣṇīṣa-sitātapattra) a Tantric goddess with 1000 heads, 1000 arms, and 1000 legs! Her name means something like 'crowned with a white parasol'. Her iconography is very complex, though apart from her multiple limbs she does carry a white (sita) umbrella/parasol (ātapatra) or sometimes a Tibetan victory banner. Robert Thurman tells us that she is a special form of Tārā and a counter part to the 100o armed form of Avalokiteśvara (The Sacred Art of Tibet p.319-321).

Here's the mantra written out in dbu-can.

Try here for an image of Uṣṇīṣa-sitātapatra.

Nigel made a generous donation for receiving this information - thanks again!

YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Just found a new cache of Siddhaṃ calligraphy on YouTube (thanks to Riccardo's Facebook page Bonji 梵字 - Riccardo is a bit naughty and has been taking images from here without asking, but I'm sure we can sort something out). These are quite interesting examples which from the accompanying text and commentary are from Japan.

The Fudō Bīja hāmmāṃ

The Mahāvairocana Seed Syllable vāṃḥ

Note here that the calligrapher makes an error. He writes ba instead of va. The two are very similar. In ba the curve curls back to meet the stem on the up-stroke, whereas on the va it continues down to the stem on the down-stroke. These letters are similar in most Indic scripts: cf Devanāgarī ब व. Indeed they are often confused in pronunciation as well.

Arapacana Monogram

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Arapacana Monogram
Originally uploaded by jayarava

I was asked about doing a Kalacakra style monogram by someone and so have been playing around. Arapacana seemed the obvious choice to do. Seeing all those tails hanging down it seemed like a good idea to braid them.

I quite like the result and may do more - though it's quite painstaking getting it to fit.

The Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:51:00 +0000

My latest post on Jayarava's Raves is some notes on a translation of the 100 Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra. I also offer some commentary on the words, though I plan to write a longer piece on this. I've also replaced the translation on the Visible Mantra Vajrasattva page.

I worked on this for my book project (still lumbering on) but couldn't wait to share it. The version of the mantra I'm commenting on is the one in the FWBO Puja Book.

On the 12th of Dec I'm running a workshop at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre where we will study the Sanskrit text and then chant the mantra. Book online by visiting the CBC Website.

Happy Halloween - the Vajrasattva mantra is just what you need to keep the ghouls and ghosts away!

oṃ vajrasattvasamayamanupālaya vajrasattvatvenopatiṣṭha dṛḍho me bhava sutoṣyo me bhava supoṣyo me bhava anurakto me bhava sarva siddhiṃ me prayaccha sarvakarmasu ca me cittaṃ śreyaḥ kuru hūṃ ha ha ha ha hoḥ bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra mā me muñca vajrī bhava mahāsamayasattva āḥ

Unwise Tattoo?

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:52:00 +0000

Wisdom
Originally uploaded by Jaspreet Dhillon

Saw this on Flickr. The word for wisdom is prajñā - a feminine noun in -ā.

This person has: प्रज्ञाः prajñāḥ

Prajñāḥ is the nominative plural: wisdoms. Whoops.

Karanīya Mettā Sutta

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Karanīya Mettā Sutta
Originally uploaded by jayarava

This is the well known Karanīya Mettā Sutta from the Suttanipāta (Sn 143-152). More info on my Flickr Site - click the image to find it.

I offer this version to offset the unskilful things I've done, said and thought in the last couple of weeks. Please feel free to copy this and spread it around.

My website has the Roman text and my translation. I've done another more colloquial translation. Also I've done a partial commentary. There are many translations online, each with its own merits.

Tattoo - spot the mistakes!

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:37:00 +0000

sanskrit
Originally uploaded by Punkcore

Anyone who knows a little about Lantsa or Ranjana should be able to spot the mistakes in this man's tattoo - I spotted three errors in the characters visible, but then I've been typing up Lantsa mantras for a couple of weeks using the CBETA font and the SiddhaṃKey input system. My comments on the mantra are on the original site - click on the image to see them.

ye dharma hetu prabhava

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Replaced Tibetan, and added images of Lantsa (left), Sinhala (Pāli) scripts to the Ye dharma page. This phrase is often called the Buddhist credo (Latin: I believe)

Ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgataḥ hyavadat teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ

New Logo

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:05:00 +0000

Some of you will notice that I've created a new logo for the site - this is partly in preparation for the publication of the book of the website. The character is dma. In Sanskrit 'visible mantra' would be darśataḥ mantraḥ giving the initials D.M. Combined into one bīja you get dma.

Couple of Websites to Look at

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:55:00 +0000

These two websites may be of interest:

Mật Tông - Vietnamese Esoteric Buddhism
Some interesting Lantsa calligraphy here - most of the site is in Vietnamese but the visual stuff is good.

Siddham & Ranjana Keyboard
When this first launched I wasn't impressed. I don't like the CBETA Siddhaṃ font for start. But recently I re-visited the site and it seems to have come a long way. What really interested me was the input method for Ranjana and a decent Ranjana font. It's pretty good except for the spacing - it seems as though the letters are about 200% too wide so can't be grouped together to write words or mantras. (I used a character spacing of -20pts in Word and got a better, if slightly uneven, result). The Ranjana font isn't Unicode (I think conjuncts are displayed using individual characters rather than ligatures), and there are some gaps (dhīḥ and tāṃ can't be input for instance). However its a good start and the results are certainly better than my shakey calligraphy!

Evil Tattoo

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:41:00 +0000

A friend posted this on his Facebook page and I thought it would make a good cautionary tale:

A Buddhist, who’s more faith than reason, into all things tantric, spots the paṁ syllable in a purification practice. He goes along to the local tattoo parlour and has it tattooed on his shoulder blade.

He's showing it off to a friend who reads the practice and says: 'It says here that paṁ is the seed syllable for all evil.'

'Oh, I’ve got the seed syllable for all evil tattooed on my shoulder blade.' Sad, but true.

My response was that he might reassure his friend by reminding him that paṃ is also the bīja for Paṇḍāravāsinī, plus I think evil would have to be pāṃ (from the first syllable of the Sanskrit word pāpa). This is one case where diacritics matter!

12/9 Noticed this Kelly Osbourne interview today:

"I hate my tattoos. I saw someone about getting a couple removed, especially the keyboard, because I don't even know how to play the piano and I was drunk when I got it. I was a spiteful brat who got tattoos to piss off my mum and now I think they are ugly. People define you by tattoos and I don't want to be defined by an anchor on my arm! Unfortunately, having them removed is going to be painful."

Siddhaṃ 'a' bīja

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:43:00 +0000

Siddhaṃ 'a' bīja - raw
Originally uploaded by jayarava

Sometimes everything goes right.

Amitāyus

noreply@blogger.com (Jayarava) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:37:00 +0000

I have re-evaluated my Sanskrit re-creation of the Amitāyus mantra from the Tibetan, which is on the Amitābha page. The Tibetan reads (in Unicode)

ཨོཾ༌ཨཱ༌མ༌ར༌ནི༌ཛི༌ཝན༌ཏེ༌ཡེ༌སྭཱ༌ཧཱ།

This is usually transliterated: om amarani dziwantaye soha which reflects Tibetan pronunciation. The actual syllables are: oṃ ā ma ra ṇi dzi wan te ye svā hā, from which I have now reconstructed the Sanskrit:

oṃ amaraṇi jīvantaye svāhā
ओं अमरणि जीवन्ताये स्वाहा

More details and Siddhaṃ calligraphy on the Amitābha page. Ideally I'd find a Sanskrit source for this mantra to clarify the matter - if you know one please let me know.