We recite many mantras but certainly we don’t know who can create mantras? So friends, let us learn.
Mantras are features of the language that require particular capabilities for their creation.
An ordinary being does not have, in any way, the ability to create a mantra.
Let us consider someone who has reached a stage superior to common people, the first stage of a bodhisattva. This being possesses twelve hundred-fold powers, such as the ability of knowing events of one hundred past lives and one hundred future lives, to simultaneously visit one hundred pure lands, to simultaneously listen to the teaching of one hundred Buddhas, to dwell at the same time in one hundred meditative states, and so on. Nevertheless, even such a being cannot create a mantra.
As soon as the bodhisattva crosses the next stage, the energy of the twelve powers is multiplied by ten. Arriving at the seventh stage, the bodhisattva is totally free of the veil of conflicting emotions. However, ability to create a mantra is still denied.
On the eighth stage, a new step occurs in the progression of a bodhisattva, conferring upon the mind the ten masteries on life span, states of meditative absorption, and so on, and, especially, mastery over the meaning of words. Once a being in this stage, the composition of mantras is possible.
It is only in the last three stages of a bodhisattva, the three pure stages, and with Buddhahood that the vision of all elements that compose samsara and nirvana is vast enough for the implications of sounds and words to be perfectly understood. This makes the creation of a mantra possible.
These created mantras carry the power of purifying the mind from faults and veils and making its true nature obvious. Their function is therefore extremely beneficial.
Let us take, for example, the mantra of Avalokita (Chenrezig), called the mantra of six syllables, ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྂ་ཧྲཱིཿ (OM MANI PADME HUNG).
To each syllable one attributes the following powers.
- They close the door of rebirth in the six classes of beings in samsara.
- They eliminate the six basic conflicting emotions, desire-attachment, hatred-aversion, blindness, possessiveness, jealousy, and pride.
- They allow one to achieve the six wisdoms.
They lead to perfect practice of the six paramitas, and so on.
These extraordinary qualities of the mantra of six syllables have been described by the Buddha himself and by Guru Padmasambhava.
As there are many Mantras created for different deity for different purposes, so try to explore more Mantras learn its meaning and recite it to gain blessing alleviate sentient beings from samsara.
Reference: Secret Buddhism, Vajrayana Practices by Kalu Rinpoche
