A Commentary on "Daily Mantras"

Mantra to Bless the Rosary

It is very good to recite these mantras first thing in the morning to make your life meaningful and to increase all the merits you collect during the day.

ༀ་རུ་ཙི་ར་མ་ཎི་པྲ་ཝརྟ་ཡ་ཧཱུཾ། 

OṂ RUTSIRA MAṆI PRAWARTAYA HŪṂ   (7x)

Recite this mantra seven times and then blow on your rosary. All the recitations you do of the secret mantras taught by the Tathagata are multiplied one hundred sextillion times (10²³). This is taught in Unfathomable Mansion of Increasing Jewels.

If you recite OṂ RUTSIRA MAṆI PRAWARTAYA HŪṂ seven times and then blow on your rosary, the power of any mantra taught by Buddha that you recite, such as OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ or the Vajrasattva mantra, is increased ten million times one hundred billion times a hundred thousand. Although other mantras can be used to bless the rosary in order to increase the power of mantra recitation, the benefits of this one are unbelievable.

This mantra was taught in the sutra Unfathomable Mansion of Increasing Jewels. The name of the sutra is mentioned here to show that this mantra came from Buddha. Buddha taught it so that sentient beings’ merits could be increased. Due to the power of Buddha’s compassionate wish to bring sentient beings to enlightenment, reciting even one mantra can become very powerful.

I asked a Sanskrit expert how the Sanskrit syllable HŪṂ should be pronounced. He said that although it can be pronounced HŪṂ, it is better to say HŪNG, as if it had the Tibetan letter NGA at the end rather than the letter MA. However, I don’t know what other people who know Sanskrit would say about that.

A Commentary on "Daily Mantras"

Mantra to Multiply Virtue

ༀ་སམྦྷ་ར་སམྦྷ་ར་བི་མ་ན་ས་ར་མཧཱ་ཛ་བ་ཧཱུཾ།   ༀ་སྨ་ར་སྨ་ར་བི་མ་ན་སྐ་ར་མཧཱ་ཛ་བ་ཧཱུཾ།

OṂ SAMBHARA SAMBHARA BIMANA SARA MAHĀ DZAWA HŪṂ / OṂ SMARA SMARA BIMANA SKARA MAHĀ DZAWA HŪṂ   (7x)

If you recite this mantra seven times, any virtuous activity you do is multiplied by a hundred thousand. This is taught in the Sutra of the Wheel of Complete Dedication.

There are many different mantras to increase the merits that you collect during the day. If you recite this particular mantra seven times, any virtuous activity you do with your body, speech, or mind during the day will increase one hundred thousand times. Buddha taught this mantra in the Sutra of the Wheel of Complete Dedication.

In your daily life, because you don’t want suffering and want only happiness, you need to make the fewest mistakes—nonvirtues—possible and create the most merits—virtues—possible. This is because suffering comes from nonvirtue and happiness comes from virtue. Therefore, reciting this mantra is very important; it makes the way you live your life very wise.

A Commentary on "Daily Mantras"

Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light Mantra

ན་མཿན་བ་ན་བ་ཏཱི་ནཱཾ། ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་གཾ་གཱ་ནཾ་དཱི་བཱ་ལུ་ཀཱ་ནཾ།  ཀོ་ཊི་ནི་ཡུ་ཏ་ཤ་ཏ་ས་ཧ་སྲཱ་ཎཱཾ།  ༀ་བོ་བོ་རི།  ཙ་རི་ཎི་ཙ་རི།  མོ་རི་གོ་རི་ཙ་ལ་བཱ་རི་སྭཱཧཱ།

NAMAḤ NAWA NAWA TĪNÄN / TATHĀGATA GANG GĀNAṂ DĪWĀ LUKĀ NÄN / KOṬI NIYUTA ŚHATA SAHASRĀṆÄN / OṂ BO BO RI / TSARI ṆI TSARI / MORI GOrI TSALA WĀRI SWĀHĀ   (21, 10, or a few times) 

This mantra, one of the dharmakaya relic mantras, is from the Kangyur, Buddha’s teachings. I received the oral transmission of all four mantras and their benefits from Kyabje Kyongla Rato Rinpoche in San Jose, California. It is good to recite the Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light Mantra after blessing your speech in the morning, before you begin to talk and engage in impure speech. You can recite it twenty-one times, ten times, or even just three, four, or five times.

When you recite it you should say NAMAḤ NAWA NAWA TĪNÄN, not TĪNĀṂ, because the NĀ with a circle on top of it (the Tibetan form of Ṃ) comes at the end of a set of syllables, where there is a line in the Tibetan.^[1] If it were to come in the middle of a set of syllables, then it would be NĀṂ. For example, it is TATHĀGATA GANG GĀNAṂ, not GĀNÄN, because NAṂ is in the middle, without a break after it.

Generally, it is mentioned that the circle on top of a syllable is sometimes pronounced NGA, sometimes NA, and sometimes MA. The first row of the Sanskrit alphabet is KA KHA GA GHA NGA. If KA, KHA, GA, or GHA were to have a circle on top of it and the syllable were to come at the end, it would be pronounced KANG, KHANG, GANG, or GHANG. If NGA had a circle on top, I’m not sure what it would be, but I haven’t seen that yet. The vowels with a small A, འ, on the bottom are supposed to be pronounced with a longer sound.^[2]

The Ritual for Blessing Stupas: Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light Mantra says that if someone recites this mantra after blessing their speech in the morning, the five heavy negative karmas without break of anyone who talks to them get purified. What does “without break” mean? Without the break of another life. Because these negative karmas are very powerful, the results of other negative karmas are delayed and right after you die you are reborn in the lowest hell, Inexhaustible, where the suffering is the heaviest in samsara and experienced for the longest time—one intermediate eon. And if your karma to be there is not finished when this world ends, you will be reborn in that hell in another universe. The five heavy negative karmas without break are killing your father, killing your mother, killing an arhat, causing a buddha to bleed, and creating disunity in the sangha. Whether someone has committed these negative karmas in this life or in their past lives, these karmas get purified by talking to someone who has recited this mantra. Therefore, if you recite this mantra in the morning, because the heavy negative karmas without break of all the people who talk to you that day get purified, they won’t have to experience their suffering results. Can you imagine the benefit? It is incredible. Although it is not exactly liberation, they are freed from having to experience very heavy suffering for a very long time. You can give this freedom to anyone who talks to you

Also, after you have recited this mantra, there is unbelievable  benefit for anyone who hears your voice, on whom the shadow of your body falls, and who touches your body (for example, a person who shakes your hand or an insect, such as a fly or mosquito, that lands on your body). Not only are their negative karmas of this life purified, but also their negative karmas of past lives. Because even their very heavy negative karmas without break are purified, there is no doubt that their ten nonvirtuous actions are also purified. Therefore, whether you are doing counseling, teaching in a school, or just engaging in conversation, reciting this mantra becomes beneficial for others when they hear your voice. Even if someone is blind and cannot see you, you can speak to them so that they hear your voice and you can touch their body, hands, or face and bring them unimaginable benefit. You should remember this when you are talking to and touching others.

Also, due to reciting this mantra you won’t be harmed by poison, such as the bites of poisonous animals. You won’t be harmed by spirits. You won’t experience danger to your life from lightning and so forth. You will be protected by all the buddhas. You will be supported and helped by Chenrezig. All the devas and all those living in samaya will be happy with you. You won’t be harmed by others’ black magic mantras, rituals, and substances.

If this mantra is put inside a stupa, the negative karmas are purified of anyone who sees the stupa, hears about it, touches it (including the insects that land on it), or is touched by earth, dust, or wind that has touched the stupa, and they won’t be reborn in the lower realms. Instead they will be reborn as happy transmigratory beings, as devas or human beings. In short, it will be impossible for those who are in the lower realms to be born back there again.

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha explained to Bodhisattva Great Sattva Eliminating All Obscurations, Lord of Secrets (Vajrapani), the Four Great Kings, and the gods, including Brahma, who is the lord of this unbearable suffering world, the devas of Brahma Type, and Maheshvara, “Holy beings, I am handing you the essence of the king of secret mantras. You should always respect and offer service to it. Keep it and put it inside a jewel container. Then announce it in all places and unceasingly show it to sentient beings. If you make them see and hear it, their five negative karmas without break will be purified.”^[3]

Because it is so good to put this mantra inside statues and stupas, I had it printed on separate sheets. I also had it printed on microfiche to put in tsatsas. Usually big statues and stupas have a life-tree inside them on which the four dharmakaya relic mantras are written in gold, but this mantra can be put in small statues and stupas instead of it. Even if there is just one Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light Mantra in a statue or stupa, there is unbelievable benefit—the negative karmas and obscurations of anyone who sees it get purified.

A Commentary on "Daily Mantras"

Mantra of Great Wisdom Bimala Ushnisha

ༀ་ཧྲི་ཡ་དྷེ་སརྦ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ཧྲི་ད་ཡ་གརྦྷེ།  ཛྭ་ལ་དྷརྨ་དྷ་ཏུ་གརྦྷེ།  སཾ་ཧ་ར་ཎ་ཨཱ་ཡུཿསཾ་ཤོ་དྷ་ཡ།  པཱ་པཾ་སརྦ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ས་མནྡྲ་ཨུཥྞཱི་ཥ་བི་མ་ལེ་བྷི་ཤུདྡྷེ་སྭཱཧཱ།

OṂ  HRIYADHE  SARWA  TATHĀGATA  HRIDAYA  GARBHE / DZOLA  DHARMADHATU  GARBHE  /  SANG  HARANA  ĀYUḤ  SANGŚHODHAYA  /  PĀPAṂ  SARWA  TATHĀGATA  SAMENDRA  UṢHṆĪKHA  BIMALE  BIŚHUDDHE  SWĀHĀ   (a few times)

 * This mantra has two major benefits. The first is that it purifies the five heavy negative karmas without break of anyone who hears it. The second is that because it is the most powerful mantra for consecration, it can be used to consecrate holy objects as well as rocks, trees, mountains, and so forth.

There are two versions of the Mantra of Great Wisdom Bimala Ushnisha.^[1] One version begins with OṂ HRIYADHE and the other with OṂ TRAIYADHVE. The rest of the mantra is the same. I found the first version in a book written by a very great and learned lama in Tibet to educate young incarnate lamas. It explains to them how to do prayers and practices in order to help people, for example, how to do powa, transference of consciousness, for the dying, what prayers to do for the sick, and so forth. There must be a valid source for this version of the mantra but so far I haven’t been able to find it in the Kangyur. I want to check with the organization in Tibet that published the book in which this mantra comes. The mantra that begins with OṂ TRAIYADHVE is found in the Kangyur.

The benefits of reciting this mantra are mentioned in the book from Tibet. There it says:

After you recite this mantra, if you make one stupa tsatsa, it becomes the same as having made ten million stupa tsatsas. Also after you have recited this mantra, if any of the four elements touches you, it becomes twice as powerful as a stupa, and anyone who sees or touches the element will be liberated, their five heavy negative karmas without break will be purified, they will be reborn in a high caste, have a long life and wealth, remember their past lives, be protected from all harm, and achieve enlightenment. This is taught by Drodren Gyalwa Cho.^[2]

If you recite this mantra and make a huge stupa, such as a billion-story stupa, or a small tsatsa stupa the size of a fingernail, you receive the same benefit, or the same amount of merit, as having made ten million huge or small stupas. Tibetans make a lot of tsatsa stupas, in which one tsatsa contains many small stupas, for people who have died and also for the preliminary practice of a hundred thousand tsatsas.

The merits you receive from making one stupa, which are inconceivable, are multiplied by ten million by reciting this mantra. Because it has this unbelievable benefit, it is important to recite this mantra before you begin the work of building a stupa, but you should also recite it every day during its construction. You can use it to bless the bricks, cement, and any other material that you are going to use. If you were to actually make ten million stupas, even small ones, can you imagine how many years it would take? If you were to build ten million big stupas the size of Lama Yeshe’s stupa at Chenrezig Institute, can you imagine how many lifetimes it would take? But if you recite this mantra when you start to build a stupa, you get the same benefit as having built ten million stupas without needing to undergo all the hardship. For this reason you should also recite this mantra when making statues and tsatsas. The whole point is that the more merit you are able to collect, the more easily and quickly you will be able to achieve enlightenment, which means that you will be able to liberate sentient beings from the sufferings of samsara and bring them to enlightenment more quickly. That is the whole point of doing these practices.

By reciting this mantra, if any element—earth, water, fire, or wind—touches your body, it gets blessed. It gains the power to liberate other sentient beings by purifying their negative karmas. For example, if you recite this mantra and then swim in water, the water becomes blessed and when it touches the numberless creatures living in it—from the largest whale down to the tiniest microscopic insect—and when it touches the human beings who are diving and playing in it, they are liberated from their negative karmas and the lower realms. It’s the same for the rest of the elements; by your reciting this mantra and touching them, the elements gain the power, double that of a stupa, to purify other sentient beings.

I think that if you recite this mantra, your body also becomes meaningful to behold and touch. Anyone who sees or touches you is liberated from the lower realms and their five heavy negative karmas without break are purified. Therefore, there is no doubt that their ten nonvirtuous actions are also purified. This means that after you have recited this mantra, if you go to places where there are a lot of people, such as a department store or train station, or you just walk along a busy street, even if you have no particular purpose for being there, other sentient beings’ minds will get purified by seeing you. You could even do something strange, such as make a loud noise, so that everyone looks at you, since just by seeing you they will be purified! Also if, having recited this mantra, you give other people a massage, it becomes very beneficial to them because their negative karmas get purified when you touch their bodies.

If you recite this mantra, anyone who sees or touches you or an element that you have touched will be reborn in a high caste, will have a long life and wealth, will remember their past lives, will be protected from all harm, and will achieve enlightenment. All these benefits are similar to those of the Exalted Stainless Beam Totally Pure Light Mantra.

This advice was taught by Drodren Gyalwa Cho, which might be the name of one of Buddha’s past lives. However, the term drodren is confusing. Dro means “transmigratory being” and dren means “guide.” I’m not sure whether Drodren Gyalwa Cho is the name of a buddha or it is simply talking about the function of a buddha, which is to guide transmigratory beings to enlightenment.

This mantra can be recited a few times at the beginning of each day along with other morning prayers and mantras, as well as before making statues, stupas, or tsatsas. The people who, in particular, can use this mantra to benefit others are those who are seen by and touch many people or animals, such as performers, models, public speakers, teachers, nurses, doctors, veterinarians, and so forth, as well as those who touch objects or elements that other sentient beings see or touch, such as cooks, bakers, potters, artists, painters, factory workers, dry cleaners, swimmers, and so forth.

There are also two major benefits of this mantra. The first is that reciting it purifies the five heavy negative karmas without break of anyone who hears it, whether they created these negative karmas in this life or in past lives. As I mentioned before, if someone does any of these five, as soon as they die they will be reborn in Inexhaustible Hell Realm where their body is completely oneness with fire. Only by the sound of their screaming can you tell that there is a sentient being there. Because this mantra purifies other sentient beings’ heavy negative karmas, I try to chant it, along with Maitreya Buddha’s mantra, whenever I recite mantras for people and animals. Hearing Maitreya Buddha’s mantra makes it impossible for that sentient being to be reborn in the lower realms. Also, if they do not become enlightened during Buddha Shakyamuni’s time, when Maitreya Buddha descends they will be among his first disciples and will receive teachings from him and a prediction regarding their enlightenment.

The second benefit of this mantra is that it can be used for consecration. In the Kangyur, Buddha said that among the many different prayers for consecration this mantra is the most powerful. If you chant this mantra on a holy object, all the buddhas’ wisdom absorbs into it. But even if you chant this mantra on a tree, rock, mountain, and so forth, all the buddhas’ wisdom absorbs into it and then you and other sentient beings can circumambulate it. Because of this benefit, I often add this mantra to the usual short consecration ritual. Since this mantra is not common and most people don’t know it, when I do consecration with others I usually end up being the only one saying the mantra!

Because all the buddhas’ wisdom abides in any object on which this mantra is recited, I only recite it on holy objects since they will be treated with respect. I don’t recite it on rosaries that people give me to bless because people treat them as ornaments and put them everywhere. I just recite OṂ PADMO UṢHṆĪṢHA VIMALE HŪṂ PHAṬ a few times and then blow on the rosary. If that mantra is recited on a rosary, when the person touches and uses it, all their negative karmas, and especially their five heavy negative karmas without break, get purified.^[3]

In short, because this is a very powerful mantra for consecration, you can use it even if you don’t know any other prayers for consecration. Also, when you don’t have much time, you can do a short consecration by reciting the mantra of Bimala Ushnisha three times. Then, do the two prayers: “Please, Bhagavan, the destroyer qualified gone beyond one, abide until this world ends,” and “Please grant all sentient beings the common and sublime realizations.” When there is time you can do a longer version. The most elaborate consecration ritual involves doing sessions for seven days with a lot of offerings and a fire puja at the end. There is another ritual that involves reciting the Yamantaka sadhana, which takes about two hours to do. Then there is a very short consecration that has seven outlines and includes offering a torma to the interferers and a bath offering. However, the mantra of Bimala Ushnisha is the most important one. It is mentioned in the Kangyur that if you chant this mantra, other mantras are not so important. There are mantras that are a little bit different from this that can be used to consecrate the ocean and the sky.

A Commentary on "Daily Mantras"

Holy Name Mantra that Fulfills Wishes

* Recite the homage and mantra together for each recitation:

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ས་འཛིན་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

DE ZHIN SHEG PA SA DZIN GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

   To Tathagata Earth-Holder King, I prostrate.

ཏདྱཐཱ།  ༀ་དྷ་རེ་དྷ་རེ། དྷ་ར་ཎི་བནྡྷེ་སྭཱཧཱ།

TAYATHĀ / OṂ DHARE DHARE / DHARAṆI BÄNDHE SWĀHĀ  (108x, 54x, or 21x)

Whoever memorizes the name of this tathagata and the words of this mantra will have all their wishes fulfilled without exception.

This mantra is found in the Kangyur. You can recite the buddha’s name, Sadzin Gyalpo (Earth-Holder King), and the mantra together for one rosary, for half a rosary, or twenty-one times. Although there are other mantras to achieve success, those who are able to and would like to can recite this one. It is not difficult to recite and even if you recite it just a few times, it will be very helpful.

Colophon

Commentary to “Daily Mantras”: Compiled and edited by Ven. Joan Nicell from explanations given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during nyung ne teachings at Lawudo Retreat Centre, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, in April 1978 (LYWA 133); during Lama Chopa and Six Yogas of Naropa teachings at Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, in April-May 1990 (LYWA 510); during the 100 million mani retreat at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Australia, in 2000 (LYWA 1261); during the Mitrugpa retreat at O.Sel.Ling, Bubion, Spain, in April 2001 (LYWA 1379); in dictation to Ven. Matthew Frum, Kachoe Dechen Ling, February, 2005; during the 100 million mani retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini, Lavaur, France, in May 2009; at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, 2010 and 2016; at Light of the Path 2009, 2014, and 2016 in North Carolina, USA; at Great Stupa for Universal Compassion, Australia in September-October 2014; in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015; during the November course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in December 2015; during the Medicine Buddha retreat at Rinchen Jangsem Ling, Triang, Malaysia, in 2016. Lightly edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron, March 2018.