The Great Compassion Mantra

[DarkCosmoz]

Hello Fabienne,

I see that I started this thread back in 2003 when I was a teenager in high school! Nice!

Personally, I find Sanskrit much easier to memorize and chant along to since the Chinese dialect tones are difficult to pronounce (and I am Chinese). Sipak Anthony said the same thing at the start of the thread and I definitely agree with him.

Also, chanting in Sanskrit has its own merits:

The Sanskrit alphabet consists of fifty letters, with each one corresponding to a particular petal of a chakra. When a mantra built from the language is chanted, our chakras vibrate in tune with the Sanskrit sounds because Sanskrit is specifically vibrationally tuned to the activity of our chakras. Sanskrit is an energy-based language first and a meaning-based language second. It is not only the language of our chakras, it is a language that the feminine-based power within us understands, and to which it also responds.

Ashley-Farrand, Thomas. Shakti Mantras: Tapping into the Great Goddess Energy Within (p. 16).

The Great Compassion Mantra in Sanskrit

For shorter Buddhist mantras, I like Deva Premal's rendition of Om Mani Padme Hum.

I have seen her live in concert before with Krishna Das, and their voices are sublime for kirtan and chanting.

Om Mani Padme Hum

Krishna Das chants and sings mostly Hindu kirtan, which is a call-and-response devotional music for the different names of God.

The names of God are usually in Sanskrit.

I was at the concert last October in the video below:

However, he has one rendition for Tara who is popular in both Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. Personally, I view Tara as another manifestation of Kuan Yin.

Best wishes,
Stephen

[Fabienne]

Dear brothers,

@Andrew: True that, I'm hopeless with Chinese ... Thank you so much for all your input!

@Stephen: Time truly does fly . I was 13 years old back then... AWWW ! And wow, thank you for your explanations and for providing videos. I figured that Sanskrit would be "closer" to mantras and sutras, but your explanation of the merits sounds truly wonderful and are more than I expected!

Thank you all! I'm off to go sing a tune or two !

Shaolin greeting
Fabienne

[Andrew R]

Good input, Señor Stephen.

While the three golden rules of Shaolin are important in this practice, it wouldn't hurt to read a bit about Sanskrit and its pronunciations.

http://www.sanskritsounds.com/about-sanskrit/46/index.html

http://www.kriya.org/resources__sanskrit.php

Andrew

[mping]

Dear Fabienne,

It's nice to hear (read) from you. Personally, I trust only in respected Buddhist sources for Buddhist mantras. Besides, as far as I know, the translations of Buddhist texts must be certified so I think the matter of proper translation is important.

Actually, most of my Buddhist readings come from Venerable Hsuan Hua; I specially like his style, although I'm sure there are other good teachings by other masters available. Here's a link to a text where Master Hua explains about the efficacy of mantra recitation: http://cttbusa.org/buddhism_brief_in...n/chapter8.asp It certainly has shed some light for me.

All the best,
Miguel

[Fabienne]

Hey there !

Thank you very much for your input. Seeing as I'm only getting into this now, I appreciate all information and tips that you guys can give me . I will check out the website and learn from it all I can.

Btw, I discovered which "version" the mantra is that I feel so drawn to. It's not actually the Great Compassion Mantra, but the Eleven-faced Avalokiteshvara Heart Dharani Sutra.
Here's a link to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleven-..._Dharani_Sutra

I think it's an absolutely wonderful text and the meaning behind it sends shivers down my spine. To me, it seems really, really powerful because everytime I practice even only a small part of it (I'm studying and practicing the pronunciation now with the links Andrew provided me with), I feel a lot of Chi filling me up and I feel very, very happy !

Is there anything else I should look out for or be careful with?

Thank you very much and Shaolin greeting!
Fabienne

[Andrew R]

Interesting, I had not heard of that Dharani before. Enjoy!

With Love,
Andrew

[Maxime]

Thanks to all for your links and input