The Benefits of Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM

The Benefits of Reciting OM MANI PADME HUM

Date of Advice:
September 2015
Date Posted:
October 2017

Rinpoche sent this advice to a student about the amazing merit of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM, the mantra of Chenrezig [Skt: Avalokiteshvara].

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
How are you?

Please do this daily practice, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). That would be very good. I am requesting this, and you can relate it to your day-to-day life. Try to live with this motivation, bodhicitta. This is the best life, the happiest life which is most beneficial for all sentient beings, and by the way it brings you happiness. This would be extremely, extremely good.

If you can, recite OM MANI PADME HUM mantra. It purifies all the defilements collected from beginningless rebirth; it is unbelievable purification. It even purifies the karma of a fully ordained monk who has broken the four root vows: killing a human being, having sexual intercourse, telling lies about realizations and stealing. Having broken these four root vows creates the karma to be reborn in the hell realms, however, just reciting OM MANI PADME HUM purifies that negative karma. It is unbelievably powerful, unbelievably powerful, and we collect unbelievable merits, even if we recite the mantra without the motivation of bodhicitta.

By reciting OM MANI PADME HUM we collect more merit than the number of drops of water in the ocean; more than the number of snowflakes in a snowfall; more than the number of drops of water in rainfall; more than the number of sand grains in the Pacific Ocean. If we do it with bodhicitta then it creates the cause of happiness up to enlightenment and we are able to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment by purifying our negative karma and collecting more than skies of merit.

Whoever recites the Chenrezig mantra—long, middle and short—when we go in the ocean or wash with water, like in a river, then all the water that touches us, if that water then touches any creature, any sentient being—animals, fish, whales, snakes, even insects we can’t see with our eye, only with a machine, all those living beings—it is then the last rebirth that they will have from womb, egg, heat and moisture. They won’t have to experience that again and they will be reborn in a pure land. Like that, it’s a way to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Not only to free them from the lower realms but to go up to enlightenment, and in their future lives to be born in a pure land.

By reciting the Mani mantra one thousand times, any wind that touches our body and then goes away and touches other insects or people, that wind is able to purify the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirth. It gets purified and they don’t get reborn in the lower realms; they get reborn in a pure land instead. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. This means all the water in the oceans, not just the ocean at Aptos, but all the oceans and even the deepest, deepest oceans where people have not yet been.

Also, if we stand on a hill or tower so that many people can see us—if one thousand or ten thousand or a billion people look at us—then they all get purified and they don’t get reborn in the lower realms. The benefit they get is unbelievable.

It’s the same when other sentient beings touch us—they get purified.

One time at Land of Calm Abiding there were lots of flies that landed on me while I was reciting a text to some horses. This was to purify the horses and to leave positive imprints. A lot of flies landed on my head, so I tried to think that they would get benefit as I had recited many Mani mantras. I tried to think that they would get purified due to the benefits of the Mani mantra. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable; it brings great success and unbelievable merits. 

This is what brings happiness in our life and it’s a way to create unbelievable merits and to benefit sentient beings. Generating great compassion for all sentient beings is a quick way to achieve enlightenment. Without compassion there is no enlightenment, therefore this is a quick way to achieve enlightenment. How quickly we achieve enlightenment depends on how deep our compassion is, so it all depends on our compassion. This is why Maitreya Buddha became a bodhisattva, but Guru Shakyamuni Buddha became a buddha first.

In the past life of Shakyamuni Buddha, when he was a bodhisattva, in Namo Buddha, in Nepal, he was walking with the bodhisattva Maitreya and they saw a starving mother tiger with her four cubs. Guru Shakyamuni, who was a bodhisattva at that time, saw this and generated bodhicitta. Later he came back to offer his body to the starving tiger and her cubs, but the tiger was very weak and she could not even eat him, so he took a blade of grass and cut his own neck so the blood would flow out for the tiger and her cubs. This was due to Guru Shakyamuni’s bodhicitta, which was very strong, and that is why he became a buddha before Maitreya Buddha. The five tigers became the first five disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha when he first turned the wheel of Dharma, after attaining enlightenment.

Therefore, generating compassion and bodhicitta is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment. By realizing this, it is so incredible. Of course, this is the cause of all success, including all temporary success and liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, and all temporary happiness up to enlightenment. By developing compassion for all sentient beings our life becomes very beneficial, amazing, amazing.

Also if you can, recite the Medicine Buddha mantra, recite the seven Medicine Buddhas mantra. Recite each name mantra for success. People think this practice is only for healing, but it is for all the success including enlightenment. How it helps is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, for all the success, temporary and ultimate—ultimate freedom, liberation from the oceans of samsaric sufferings for ourselves and for all sentient beings, and full enlightenment—and then to bring all others to full enlightenment, so it brings all the success. It is amazing, amazing, unbelievable. While there is a method, if we don’t do what the Buddha taught then there is so much suffering, therefore we must do it while we can.

Thank you very much. If you have any questions you can contact me. This is best way to take care of your life. Other than that, live your life with a good heart as much as possible. When you are eating, walking or doing your job, do it for the benefit of all sentient beings as much as possible.

With much love and prayers ...