Aum in Buddhism

[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Respected all,

Here is a humble request: I am looking for some sources, primary and secondary, to know about the significance of Aum-kara in Buddhism.

I shall wait for your kind reply.

Yours sincerely,
--

Abirlal Gangopadhyay 

Doctoral Research Fellow, ICSSR
PhD Research Scholar 
Department of Sanskrit Studies
University of Hyderabad

[Nagaraj Paturi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sYK7lm3UKg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D4V5awe-PA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMHmwHJJGZE

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Nagaraj Paturi

 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Director,  Inter-Gurukula-University Centre , Indic Academy

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.

Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies, 

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education, 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

 

 

 

[Nagaraj Paturi]

Though you may begin with something like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om#Buddhism

David Reigle-ji is on our list. He can help you with a lot more sources.

[Madhav Deshpande]

Dear Abirlal,

I have seen extensive discussion of OM in Buddhism in the book "Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism" by Lama Anagarika Govinda.  If you don't have access to this book let me know.

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

--

[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Respected Nagaraj-ji,

Thank you for those links. Even I went through a lecture where HH Dalai Lama was explaining the meaning of the famous mantra - Om̐ maṇipadme hūm̐. Naturally, he explained the meaning of Aum from a Buddhist perspective. I would like to hear more, from a Sanskrit text (maybe derived from Tibetan text), about this. I hope David Reigle-ji will help me in this regard. For general information, I went through the Śrīcakrasaṃvaratantra, but unfortunately, there is not a single discussion about Aum, though the same come there frequently.

Yours sincerely,

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[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Respected Madavji,

Thank you for your valuable suggestion. I found that book from the internet archive. I hope it will help me a lot.

Yours sincerely,

[Madhav Deshpande]

There are numerous mantras in the Buddhist Tantrik texts that begin with ॐ.  You can consult texts like the Guhyasamājatantra, or Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa.

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Dear Madhavji,

Yes, definitely! As I mentioned, Śrīcakrasaṃvaratantra --- I just have gone through --- gives numerous mantras with the Omkara. But unfortunately, there is not a single discussion in the commentary of BavaBaTTa(dra) about Omkara. I would like to look into the books which you have just mentioned. If there is any problem to find any of them, I will definitely inform you.

Regards, 

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[David and Nancy Reigle]

Dear Sri Abirlal Gangopadhyay,

What you have found is what I have found: the Buddhist texts simply use oṃ without explaining it. It is used at the beginning of most Buddhist mantras, as may be seen in texts such as the Sādhanamālā, besides in individual tantras. Its importance and use does not seem to have been questioned, but rather was taken for granted.

 

As you well know, the great source-work on the syllable oṃ or auṃ is the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, correlating its four elements, a, u, m, and the following silence, with the states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and the fourth. These four states were adopted and used extensively in the Buddhist Kālacakra-tantra. They are there correlated with the four buddha-bodies (nirmāṇa-kāya, sambhoga-kāya, dharma-kāya, sahaja-kāya), and with the four drops, bindu, located in the body at four major cakras (head, throat, heart, navel), which are used in the Kālacakra sādhana practice (see chapter 4, verses 107-108, and chapter 5, verses 125-126, 156, for specific references to the four states).

 

Some scholars, both western and eastern, have opined that the Kālacakra-tantra brought in Hindu ideas such as this in order to convert Hindus. I personally prefer to refrain from attributing motive. Unless a writer says why he has done something, we cannot really know. The idea of the four states does not appear to me to be something that was brought in and tacked on, but rather to be an integral and fundamental part of the Kālacakra system. It seems simpler to think that such ideas were used because the writer thought that they were true.

 

Mantras also occasionally occur in non-tantric Buddhism, of course having oṃ as the first syllable. The story of the origin of the famous mantra oṃ maṇipadme hūṃ is given in the Avalokiteśvara-guṇa-kāraṇḍa-vyūha-sūtra, or in short, Kāraṇḍa-vyūha. This text does not, however, say anything about the significance of oṃ. Among the massive Prajñā-pāramitā sūtras, the very short Prajñā-pāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra, well known as the Heart Sūtra, has an important and often chanted mantra. It, too, does not say anything about the significance of oṃ. Eight Indian commentaries on the Heart Sūtra were translated into Tibetan, and from Tibetan translated into English by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., in his 1996 book, Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. In these eight commentaries I noticed only this one statement pertaining to the significance of oṃ (p. 201): “Oṃ and svāhā are terms of blessing for the purpose of achieving the effect of the repetition.” Not much.

 

In the absence of material in Buddhism on the significance of oṃ, it may be worth mentioning what may be the most extensive text on the subject: the Praṇava-vāda of Gārgyāyaṇa. This hitherto unknown text was dictated from memory by a blind pandit named Dhanarāj at the end of the 1800s. A summarized English translation of it by Bhagavan Das was published in three volumes, 1910-1913. It seems that one or more old Sanskrit manuscripts of it became available to a few people, and two volumes of the Sanskrit text were published in 1915 and 1919. The concluding third volume never appeared. The manuscript of the Sanskrit text as taken down from dictation, accompanied by Bhagavan Das’ handwritten summarized translation, is preserved at the Adyar Library. For anyone who thinks that this text is worthwhile, a good project would be to prepare and publish the third volume of the Sanskrit text. All the published volumes have been posted by me here: http://prajnaquest.fr/blog/sanskrit-texts-3/suddha-dharma-mandala-texts/.

Best regards,

David Reigle

Colorado, U.S.A.

[K S Kannan]

प्रणवो हि किल सर्वेषां शब्दानां सर्वेषां चार्थानां प्रकृतिः ।

- so says Kamalashila, commenting upon

Tattva-san'graha of Shantarakshita.

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Dr. K.S.Kannan  D.Litt.

​Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj Chair Professor, IIT-Madras.

Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi.

Academic Director, Swadeshi Indology.

Member, Academic Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthana.

Nominated Member, IIAS, Shimla.

Former Professor, CAHC, Jain University, Bangalore.

Former Director, Karnataka Samskrit University, Bangalore.

Former Head, Dept. of Sanskrit, The National Colleges, Bangalore.

[Krishna Kashyap]

Kamalashila and shantarakshita lived around 700 to 800 CE. It will be interesting to find the meaning of Aum in Buddhism closer to the duration of life of Buddha.

Best Regards,

Krishna Kashyap

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[Krishna Kashyap]

What I meant is both Kamalashila and  Śāntarakṣita were from Madhyamika / Mahayana school. This school is closer to Advaita. Hence, Aum, as explained by Buddha himself of someone within 100 to 200 years from his birth, would be interesting to know.

Best Regards,

Krishna Kashyap

[Madhav Deshpande]

As far as I know, having read and taught Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali texts, I am not aware of a single reference to OM in what might be considered early Buddhism.

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 6:07 PM Krishna Kashyap <kkashy...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[K S Kannan]

A parallel question:

Have Jains attempted to explain Om

in their mantra-s like

Om namaH siddhANam ?

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[Krishna Kashyap]

Then the question would be, as far as I know, Buddha himself practiced yoga. Yogasutras maybe post buddha. However, Upanishadic yoga and Pranava in Vedas are pre-buddha. It is highly likely that he was influenced by Pranava.

Further, they say yogis experience Pranava during meditation. Buddha himself was not very anti-Vedic at least according to some scholars. Hence there may be some influence from Vedic thought and Aum may have been assumed.

Best Regards,

Krishna Kashyap

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[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Dear Mr David Raigle,

At first, I should thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your enchanting scholarship brings some more light to me. There are many points, you left through your write up, shed light on various topics. I am really grateful to you and to your impressive website, such a treasure! I hope, in case, I will find obstacles in the future, you will give me some light.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

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[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Dear Prof. Kannan,

Thanks a ton for the quotation of Kamalashiila. I will search for the book too.

Regards,

[K S Kannan]

Welcome, Dr. Abirlal.

If it is too difficult to get the reference,

I will try to locate the same for you.

Regards

KSKannan

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[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Dear Prof. Kannan,

Thank you for your kind reply. I just found the book, edited by Sri Ganganatha Jha, in two volumes. It is great to see Dr. before my name, but I am still a PhD student, and perhaps you saw me in the department of Sanskrit Studies of the University of Hyderabad when you visited. I believe, with the grace of Bhagavan and blessings of Vidvans like you, I will certainly get my degree in the near future.

Pranams.

Yours sincerely,

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[K S Kannan]

Dear Abirlal,

Yes, now I remember.

With the earnestness of your pursuit,

you will soon get the decoration.

Best

KSKannan

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[Krishna Kashyap]

My Buddhist friend Dhammaputta wrote to me regarding this:

Prof. Deshpande is right.

There is no reference to  "Om"  in  Pali  Buddhism.

Mahayana  Sutras  &  Vajrayana  Tantras,  yes  indeed

Theravada  says  Mahayana  is  Hinduism  in  the  guise  of  Buddhism

The irony is  that  non-Advaita  Hindus  say  Advaita  is  Mahayana  Buddhism  in  the  guise  of  Hinduism

Best Regards,

Krishna Kashyap

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[K S Kannan]

Quite possible.

I did not say the statement occurs in a Pali text.

The issue raised was - any Buddhist text, I guess.

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[Krishna Kashyap]

Prof Kannan,

I forgot to mention that I had asked Dhammaputta only to find Aum in early Buddhism. Hence he referred to only Early Buddhism, which is probably Theravada.

Best Regards,

Krishna Kashyap

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[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

Dear Prof. Kannan,

It is delightful to hear from you.

Blessings.

Yours sincerely,

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[Abirlal Gangopadhyay]

I think the output of this topic is, briefly, Aum is there in Buddhist texts is well-known, but there are no such extraordinary traditional textual interpretations. Hence, we may assume that there was not that much different concept in the context of Aum in Buddism; therefore, there is no debut of any intellectual discussion/debate with Hindus.

I think this is the main substance of this thread. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Yours sincerely,