Buddha Shakyamuni Mantra – Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Soha – Meaning & Benefits

Buddha Shakyamuni Mantra lyrics:

Thab Khey Thuk Ji Sakyai Rig Su Trug
Shen Gyi Mi Thup Due Kyi Pung Jom Pa
Ser Gyi Lhun Po Ta Bur Jepai Ku
Shakyal Gyal Po Kyo La Chak Tsel Lo
TAYATHA OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNI YE SVOHA

Another version used in sadhanas:

TAYATHA OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNI YE SVOHA

Translation in English:

The ordinary body, ordinary speech, ordinary mind we transform in the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha.

Another English transliteration:

Om Wise One, Wise One, Great (or Supreme) One, Wise One of the Shakyans, Hail!

Buddha Shakyamuni was born in the Shakya republic in the Himalayan foothills.

He was a spiritual master who lived and taught mostly in eastern India, somewhere between the 6th and the 4th century BCE.

Shakyamuni is the honorific name; literally, translation means “Sage of the Shakyans.”

Buddha is also an honorific name and means “awakened one” or “the enlightened one.” His real name was Siddhartha Gautama (Pāli Gotama).

Siddhartha is known by many different names: Tathagatha, (The One-thus-come or The One-thus-gone), Sugata (Well-Gone One), Bhagavan (Blessed One), and the Jina (Conqueror).

Buddha Shakyamuni once said:

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.”

Siddhartha Gautama is the main figure in Buddhism, and the story of his life, discourses, spiritual teachings, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers.

Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

“After his awakening, Buddha Shakyamuni spent the next seven weeks quietly digesting what had happened. His initial assessment was that no one else could possibly understand what he had discovered.

Eventually, however, the Buddha decided he had a responsibility to try to communicate his understanding to others.” from Ken McLeod’s book, Wake Up To Your Life.

Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Soha meaning and explanation on syllables:

• TAYATHA – It is similar to OM and can typically be reflective of an awareness of the surrounding universe. It is used at the start of many mantras and can be thought of as opening yourself up to the truth of what is coming next with the recital of the mantra.
• MUNI –means sage or wise one.
• MAHA –means great or supreme.
• SVOHA–means hail or greetings.

Buddha Shakyamuni mantra benefits and meaning, explained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

“TADYATHA means “like that” – how to achieve enlightenment. SVAHA means establishing the base in your heart by having devotion.

If you have that, you actualize the meaning of MUNE MUNE. This is the graduated path of the lower capable being, the graduated path of the middle capable being, and the graduated path of the higher capable being. This also includes that tantric path.

The first MUNE refers to completing the graduated path of the lower capable being by having ceased attachment to this life, all the superstitious concepts. The second MUNE means having accomplished the graduated path of the middle capable being, having ceased attachment to samsaric perfection.

The second MUNE can also mean ceasing ignorance through realizing emptiness, and this can also contain the paramitayana and also the tantra teaching.

All three vehicles are in the MUNE MUNE. MAHA MUNEYE means having ceased the self-cherishing thought by actualizing the Mahayana path.”

READ MORE: Medicine Buddha Mantra

Practice:

“As you recite the mantra, think you are purifying yourself and all the six realms’ sentient beings. They purify all the defilements and receive all the qualities. Think that all the gross and subtle defilements from beginningless rebirths are gone, totally purified.

Then a replica of Buddha absorbs into you, and you are fully enlightened. Now, visualizing yourself as Shakyamuni Buddha, you send beams from every pore of your body.

Each beam carries a Buddha on top, and these absorb into numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, and numberless suras. Each being is purified.

Every one of them becomes Buddha, and then all the Buddhas absorb back into you, at your heart. Another way to visualize is that all the Buddhas go out from you and absorb into them, and all sentient beings become enlightened as Shakyamuni Buddha.”

Read on insightstate about more healing mantras, like – Great Compassion Mantra, White Tara Mantra, Vajra Guru Mantra, and Heart Sutra.

References

https://kagyuoffice.org/buddhism/shakyamuni-buddha/
https://studybuddhism.com/shakyamuni-buddha/life-of-shakyamuni-buddha