Clean-Clear: Refuge, Bodhicitta and the Nature of the Mind brings together introductory teachings given in England in 1976 and the Netherlands in 1980, as Lama Yeshe guides students in exploring the foundations of the Buddhist path with his characteristic warmth, clarity and wisdom. Compiled and edited by Nicholas Ribush, this is the second volume in a series of Lama Yeshe's collected teachings, following Knowledge-Wisdom: The Peaceful Path to Liberation.
3. Mantra
[Lama leads the group in reciting the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha mantra many times: TA YA THA OM MUNÉ MUNÉ MAHAMUNAYÉ SOHA.]
Mantra recitation is very useful.9 We should recite mantras instead of indulging in our usual ridiculous mundane chatter, which neither helps nor benefits us. Useless speech merely results in conflict. When we engage in useless, mundane, worldly speech, we’re visualizing at the same time. Words create pictures; words symbolize existent phenomena. So, whenever we converse, we’re visualizing a kind of hallucinated picture of the world. That automatically brings a conflicted reaction.
So mantra is very useful, especially this very powerful Guru Shakyamuni mantra. When we recite mantras our mind is automatically integrated rather than split. Furthermore, our speech becomes blessed and positive.
Simply put, since the time of our birth up until now we’ve been living under the influence of a disordered mental imagination. Everything we see is through that lens and it brings the reaction of further mentally disordered imagination. Whatever we visualize in the world brings more confusion and disorder into our mind. Our speech and our actions also contribute to this and it all conspires to bring us down; our entire everyday life is brought down, torn down, like this. It’s so simple. The whole thing is just our own samsaric trip.
When we recite mantra we elevate ourselves, we get ourselves together instead of constantly destroying ourselves. The meaning of mantra is profound, and since it does not have delusion as its source, mantra itself is in the nature of supreme wisdom energy. With mantra, our mind’s vision is positive, divine and holy, and our speech transcends ordinary, useless conversation, becoming tranquil and healing.
When we chant the prayers we do, it’s not just for the emotional sensations they might bring. Take, for example, the lamrim prayer, the Foundation of All Good Qualities.10 When we recite it, we bring to mind its essence, the three principal aspects of the path to liberation: renunciation, bodhicitta and the right view of emptiness.11 That’s what it signifies. When we recite it, we automatically visualize its meaning, which displaces the usual garbage that normally fills our mind and brings a negative reaction. It automatically elevates our mind. So prayers are not just the words or something we sing simply to experience some kind of sensory pleasure. It’s possible we sometimes do that, isn’t it?
If we allow our minds to degenerate, we finish up using prayers merely for the sentimental pleasure of a samsaric trip. If we lose their profound essence, they become completely devoid of meaning and we transform a deeply meaningful thing into kaka. If, instead, we recite prayers and mantras with a profound understanding of their incredible meaning, our mind can transcend its normal worldly existence and attain a state of bliss. Thus, such recitations are very, very useful.
What happens when we recite mantras is that our speech is slowly, slowly rectified until it finally becomes mantra—and so does our mind. Normally we think that for our speech to become profound, to attract people, it depends on the words we use and nothing else. We think, “In order to get people to listen to me and to attract others, I have to have a fantastic vocabulary and a great delivery.” But I’m saying it’s not just the words we use that attract others. The words help a bit, but besides the words, beyond the words, there’s some force, or power, that makes other people take an interest in what we’re saying. It’s not just the words. When through recitation of mantra we attain a certain state, whatever we say becomes like a mantra. It’s possible. Automatically, whatever sound we make is a divine reflection and gives others a positive vibration. It becomes a mantra. Possible. Anyway, our speech becomes very powerful.
The Mahayana tradition holds that by reciting millions of mantras we can purify ourselves to where, for example, we suddenly get a flash of telepathic power and can almost see the whole world right there in front of us. We can hardly believe it’s happening. That kind of thing can happen. Also, we can read others’ minds. All that is possible.
Notes
9. See The Power of Mantra. [Return to text]
10. See the text and Khunu Lama Rinpoche’s commentary on it in Teachings from Tibet, p. 189 ff. [Return to text]
11. See Lama Yeshe’s teachings on the three principal aspects in The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism. [Return to text]