SESSION 5 - Mantra / ‘Thought Preservers’

DESCRIPTION

A mantra (Pali: manta) or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is an utterance, a sound, a syllable, word, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages considered to have religious, magical or spiritual power. Some mantras have a literal meaning, while others seemingly do not. The root of the word is man (thought), thus a mantra is an ‘instrument of thought’ or a ‘thought preserver.’

The use, structure, function, importance, and types of mantras vary according to the school and philosophy of Buddhism. In the Japanese Shingon tradition, the word Shingon means ‘True Words’, a translation of mantra, and Vajrayāna Buddhism in East Asia is often referred to as the Mantrayāna.

PART ONE: Siddham

Siddhaṃ or Siddhāṃ, also known in its later evolved form as Siddhamātṛkā, is a medieval Indian script derived from the Gupta Script. The word Siddhaṃ means "accomplished" or "perfected," as in the Siddha, ‘The Accomplished Ones.’

The mantras throughout the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra and most other Buddhist tantric texts are presented in Siddhaṃ.
Kūkai Kōbō Daishi, founder of Shingon Buddhism, has traditionally been credited with inventing the Japanese kana syllabary in order to transliterate the Siddham mantras he learned while studying in China, and there is a famous poem from at least the 10th Century, called ‘The Iroha,’ (also attributed to Kūkai) that is a perfect pangram, containing each character of the Japanese syllabary exactly once.

PART TWO: The Arapacana Syllabary

The Arapacana Syllabary is a Buddhist magical alphabet consisting of 42 syllables loosely corresponding to the modern Sanskrit alphabet, however, it is traditionally written in Siddhaṃ rather than Devanagari or other script, and it has a specific order that begins with the five syllables: A - Ra - Pa -Ca - Na, from whence its name. There is an ancient Buddhist 'wisdom poem' found within the Prajñāpāramita sutras and the Avatamsaka Sutra that uses the Arapacana Syllabary in a way similar to the English learning technique wherein letters are associated with words, such as: 'A is for Apple, B is for Banana, etc.,'

This poem uses essential concepts from the Prajñāpāramita philosophical lexicon to teach each 'Letter of Law,' beginning with the syllable A, for all things (dharmas) are birthless (anutpanna) from the beginning.

The first syllable becomes the Ajikan - ‘Meditation on the Letter A’ - a Japanese Shingon practice of contemplating an image of the letter A, written in Siddhaṃ.

PART THREE: Bīja / ‘Seed Syllables’

A bīja is a monosyllabic combinations of two or more sounds from the foundational 42 syllables, chanted aloud or silently to cultivate concentration, mindfulness, and a state of meditation. Bījas are often associated with specific Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or deities.

The classic mantra sound ‘Oṃ’ or ‘Aum is most often represented as the single syllable bīja ॐ, rather than the more formal ओम्

PART FOUR: Mantra / ‘True Words’

In addition to bijas, there are longer chants or prayers associated with Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and/or their attributes or accolades (supreme, foremost, etc.) also chanted aloud or silently to cultivate concentration.

A traditional Buddhist mantra is ‘Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ’

PART FIVE: Dhāraṇī / Mnemonics

Dhāraṇī are similar to mantras, and the two terms are often used interchangeably, however the function of the dhāraṇī appears to be something akin to a mnemonic device whereby the bodhisattva recalls aspects of the ‘Inexhaustible Treasury of the Dharma.’ Dhāraṇī also appear to have been used for more traditional magical purposes, such as exorcisms and purification rites, thus coming to be translated as ‘spells’ and even ‘curses’ in Chinese.

PART SIX: The Sacrament of Language

“The performative speech act is a linguistic enunciation that does not describe a state of affairs but immediately produces a fact, actualizes its meaning. … [It] represents in language the remnant of a stage (or, rather, the co-originarity of a structure) in which the connection between words and things is not of a semantico-denotive type but performative, in the sense that, as in the oath, the verbal act brings being into truth.”

- Giorgio Agamben, The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath (Homo Sacer II, 3)