A Practitioner's Guide to Mantra (3/3)

A Complete Guide to Buddhist Mantra Yana Practice. 

Precious guru, embodiment of all buddhas of the three times; Great bliss, the lord of all accomplishments; wrathful power, who dispels all hindrances and subdues demons; Pray and bestow your blessings. 

Please remove the outer, inner, and secret obstacles and grant your blessings to accomplish your wishes spontaneously.

A devoted Buddhist of faith chants mantras. The important points of practice are the foundations of faith and compassion.

How do we correctly chant mantras for maximum benefit? What are the rules for guiding the mantrayana practice? What are the prerequisites for mantra practice? 

Guru Rinpoche, the great Lotus-born Padmasambhava, advised his great disciple, Lady Yeshe Tsogyal, on how to practice the mantrayana:

“You must possess the key point of faith free from fluctuation, like a river. 

You must possess the key point of compassion, free from enmity, like the sun.

You must possess the key point of generosity, free from prejudice, like a spring of drinking water.

You must possess the key point of samaya free from flaws, like a crystal ball.” This is the foundation for practicing the mantra yana. All four of these are far more important than mechanics like “proper pronunciation.” 

Faith and compassion are indispensible. What did Guru Rinpoche mean when he talked about the key points of faith and compassion? 

For a mantra, or any other Buddhist practice, to have a profound impact on our lives, we have to start from the right place—before we even worry about how to pronounce the mantra.

For example, every location on a map needs two coordinates. For the mantra, the two coordinates are faith and compassion. In Buddhism, faith arises from wisdom, not blind adherence to doctrine. 

For this reason, in the Mantrayana, the two wings of the bird of enlightenment are wisdom and compassion.

Put another way, to practice Mantrayana in a worthwhile way, we have to be motivated by Bodhichitta, the intention to benefit all sentient beings. 

Without that motivation, it is not a Mahayana Buddhist practice. Once we have the motivation, we have to have the wisdom of faith.

We have faith in the correctness of the teachings, the Dharma, the Budhda, and our lineages of teachers. With that faith, motivated by our compassion and Bodhichitta, we have all the qualifications we need to practice the mantrayana.

His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, in Guidelines for Mantra Practice, wrote, "The main requirement for mantra chanting of any Enlightened Deity according to the teachings, is Bodhichitta intention.

Donations for our Buddhist research and development. 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in 2008, we have been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 16 years. 

We have exceptionally constrained support and do not receive subsidies or funding from people in general.

Please help us develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you but all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us enhance our work and accomplish more for a better and brighter future.

Thank you for reading. May you find peace and great bliss. With your support, it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turn the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease.

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit, may we then obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrongdoings

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright on the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and/or studios

The picture(s) are intended for editorial use only.