Mantra · Buddhist practice
Vajra Guru Mantra
Oṃ āḥ hūṃ — O adamantine teacher, lotus-born, grant attainment — hūṃ
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ་བཛྲ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ།
Oṃ āḥ hūṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ
The mantra of Padmasambhava, the eighth-century master Tibetans call Guru Rinpoche, who is held to have established Buddhism in Tibet. In the Nyingma school it is the mantra recited above all others, and it is said especially in difficult times.
Source: Nyingma terma tradition; commentary attributed to Jamgön Kongtrül, Light of Wisdom
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ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ་བཛྲ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ།
Oṃ āḥ hūṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ
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What the words say
Oṃ āḥ hūṃ are the three syllables of body, speech and mind. Vajra is the indestructible; guru, the teacher; padma, lotus — naming him as the lotus-born. Siddhi is attainment, and hūṃ closes. Read together: a request to the adamantine lotus-born teacher for accomplishment.
Where it comes from
Padmasambhava is a historical figure of the eighth century around whom a very large body of later tradition gathered, including the terma — treasure texts held to have been concealed by him and rediscovered over subsequent centuries. The twelve-syllable mantra is expounded in that literature.
How it is practised
Counted on a mala, and recited in large accumulations on the tenth day of the lunar month, which is kept as Guru Rinpoche day. Elaborate practice asks for transmission from a teacher; the mantra is widely recited without one.
References
- Jamgön Kongtrül, The Light of Wisdom, commentary on the Vajra Guru mantra
- Nyingma terma literature of the Padmasambhava cycles
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