This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from Explore Bristol Research
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Studholme, Alexander Title: On early history of the Om Manipadme Hum mantra : a study of the Karandavyuha Sutra. General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. On the Early History of the Om Manipadme Hum Mantra: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sütra by Alexander Studholme A thesis submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Ph. D. in the Faculty of Arts, Centre for Buddhist Studies, September 1999 Abstract This thesis claims that Om Maitipadme Huiiz, the six-syllable formula of the bodhisattva Avalokitevara, represents, in historical terms, a Buddhist adaptation of the aivite five-syllable formula Namat Sivaya. The argument revolves around an analysis of the late Mahayana Buddhist work the Kãra1avyuha Sutra, which contains a description of the mythical search and discovery of Om Maiipadme Hum. The sütra, it is alleged, describes the syncretism of the doctrine of the Buddhist ilvara and his concise formula with the doctrinal categories of the orthodox Mahayana. This process is also shown to reflect the meeting of lay Buddhist circles, based around the archetypal figure of the vidyadhara or mahãsiddha, with a monastic Mahayana establishment. The sütra is first revealed to have strong affinities with the non-Buddhist puranic literature. Particular attention is paid to a version of the vãmana- avatãra, the story of Viiu's manifestation as a dwarf, and a link is posited between the sütra and the aivite Skanda Purãna. Then, Ava1okitevara is shown to have developed the characteristics of a puraiiic ilvara, or lord", and of iva himself. Next, the presentation of Om Matiipadme Hüiri is seen to share many of the qualities of the puranic presentation of Namaii Sivaya. The formula is attached, in the sütra, to a religious goal which melds the darlana, or "seeing", of the ilvara - in a scheme derived from the Bhagavadgita - with rebirth in the Buddhist pure land of Sukhãvati. Finally, the meaning of Oin Mazipadme Hüiii is shown to reflect this syncretism: matzipadme is translated as "in the jewel-lotus", the means by which human beings are born into Sukhävati. An appendix contains an annotated précisof the Karatu1aTryüha Sütra. Dedication and Acknowledgements I dedicate this thesis to my grandmother Judith, Lady Studholme. I would like to give particular thanks to the two directors of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Bristol University, Professor Paul Williams and Doctor Rupert Gethin. Author's Declaration The work contained in this thesis is entirely the author's own. The views expressed herein are also those of the author and not those of the University of Bristol. Contents Introduction The Importance of Om Maiipadme Hüi page 1 Chapter One Background to the Kãraiuiazryuha Sütra page 11 Chapter Two Purãnic Influence on the Karandavyuha pageSO Chapter Three Avalokitevara as the Buddhist Ilvara page 54 Chapter Four Oiii Mazipadme Hüim and Nama?i Sivaya page92 Chapter Five Orn Mazipadme Hüiiz and the Mahayana page 115 Chapter Six The Meaning of Om Mazipadme Hüij page 159 Conclusion The Original Six-Syllable Formula? page 179 Appendix Annotated Précis of the Kãrandavyüha pagel8l Bibliography page 230 Introduction: The Importance of Oii Manipadme Hum The six-syllable Buddhist formula Oii Matiipadme Hun needs little introduction. Its form and meaning have long been discussed, though seldom, it must be said, with great accuracy, by European travellers to Tibet and its surrounding regions. In 1254, in what would appear to be the earliest such reference to the formula, the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck remarked of the Mongolians of Karakoram: "Wherever they go they have in their hands a string of one or two hundred beads, like our rosaries, and they always repeat these words, on mani baccam, which is 'God, thou knowest', as one of them interpreted it to me, and they expect as many rewards from God as they remember God in saying this."1 At the end of the twentieth century, following the Tibetan diaspora of the last forty years, the influence of Om Mazipadme Hüiiz is no longer confined to the outer reaches of Central Asia. Just as the single syllable Orn has become almost universally understood as a symbol of things both Indian and religious, so too has Om Marzipadme Hüim begun to establish a place for itself in the popular consciousness of the west. That is to say, it is familiar not merely to western Buddhists. Increasingly, as the formula appears in a wider and wider variety of different contexts, people with no obvious allegiance to Buddhism will admit to some sense of recognition at the sound or sight of the syllables Om Maiipadm€ Hi 2 In Tibetan Buddhist culture, of course, the formula is ubiquitous: it is the most important mantra associated with the bodhisattva Avalokitevara, the Buddhist equivalent of the patron deity of Tibet. Om Matiipadme Hum is, to begin 1William W. Rockhill, The journey of Friar William of Rubntck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253 - 55, as Narrated by Himself Hakluyt Society, London, 1900, p. 145f. For a recent survey of the various western treatments of Urn Manipadme Him see the chapter entitled "The Spell" in Donald S. Lopez, Prisoners of Shangri La, Tibetan Buddhism and the West, University of Chicago Press, 1998. 2For example, the beat poet Allen Ginsberg, a disciple of the bKa' brgyud lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, used the form of Urn Manipadme Him to provide the structure for his poem "Thoughts Sitting Breathing", written on January 1st 1973. Oip Manipadme Hu,i-i was also incorporated into the lyrics of 'Strange Phenomena", a song by Kate Bush on her 1978 album The Kick Inside The formula has been chanted on several more recent dance records. In 1996, I discovered Urn Manipadme Him embroidered on the lapel of a range of skiing jackets in the French alps. More recently still, the Buddhist magazine, Tricycle; has marketed an Urn Manipadme Hi iii baseball cap. 1 with, a prominent visual feature of the landscape, carved and painted onto the rocks that line a road or a path, written in huge letters high up on a hillside, or present in monumental form in the so-called "maii-walls" (in Tibetan, maii gdong) the glorified dry-stone walls that are constructed entirely out of rocks each inscribed with a sacred formula, which, as the name of these edifices would suggest, is most often Oiz Mazipadm2 Hum. Oit Matipadm Hüim is also (with few exceptions) the formula that, in printed form, fills the "prayer wheels" (maui chos 'khor) of the Tibetan religious world. These are the cylinders or drums - sometimes large and sometimes small - which line the outside walls of monasteries and temples, waiting to be spun around by visitors, as well as the personal, hand-held contraptions, kept revolving by a gentle flicking of the wrist. Prayer wheels are also found, in different shapes and sizes, harnassed to the power of mountain streams, to the currents of hot air rising from butter lamps, and even, in modern times, to the flow of electric currents. The simple recitation of Om Maizipadme Hüi1z, usually accompanied, as William of Rubruck observed, by the counting of prayer beads, is also the most popular religious practice of the Tibetan Buddhist system. The formula, it would be true to say, constitutes an essential part of the texture of Tibetan life. Its sound can be heard at any time of the day and in any kind of situation. 3 Itis almost as if, as the following rather lyrical passage by the German Lama Govinda suggests, the Tibetan world is constantly humming with the subtle vibration of Avalokitevara's six-syllable mantra. Govinda writes: "The deep devotion with which this hopeful message was accepted and taken to heart by the people of Tibet is demonstrated by the innumerable rock-inscriptions and votive-stones on which the sacred formula of Avalokitevara is millionfold engraved. It is on the lips of all pilgrims, it is the last prayer of the dying and the hope of the living. It is the eternal melody of Tibet, which the faithful hears in the 3Robert Ekvall has described the various uses of Orn Manipadme Hum in Tibetan society in the course of a discussion of chas 'don, or "express verbalised religion". He writes, at one point: "When a Tibetan takes a vow of silence for a period of time, the only utterance permitted is the verbalization of religion; therefore, in theory he is bound to the utterance of prayers alone.