С любовью из Тибета - Main Buddha Mantra
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What Does Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Mean?

One simple way to interpret the mantra is to consider that:

Shakyamuni’s mantra is a play on his name. Muni means sage. Maha means great. So the mantra reads “Om wise one, wise one, greatly wise one, wise one of the Shakyans, Hail!”*

Of course, the mantra, like all of the great Buddhist mantras used by Tibetans, signifies infinitely more than the words that comprise it. This is a classic case of the sum of the whole being much greater than its parts.



Buddhist Mantra: Om muni muni maya muniye soha.
Om muni muni maya muniye soha. Painting by Tsultrim Gyatso.


The great Nyingma scholar Mipham Rinpoche said:

It was through the force of discovering this dharani that the King of Shakyas himself attained enlightenment, and that Avalokiteshvara became the supreme of all the bodhisattvas. Through simply hearing this dharani, a vast accumulation of merit will easily be gained and all karmic obscurations will be purified, and when reciting it, obstacles will not occur. This has been taught in the abridged Prajnaparamita.

Other teachings say that by reciting this dharani only once, all the harmful actions you have committed throughout 800,000 kalpas will be purified. They say that it possesses boundless qualities such as these, and is the sacred heart-essence of Buddha Shakyamuni.

From the Rigpa Wiki

When we recite the Buddha mantra, we are expressing and embodying that heart-essence.

Here’s another interpretation from the Purify Mind site, this one using a variation – tayata om muni muni maha munaye soha – of the mantra:

The mantra of Shakyamuni Buddha could be said to be the essence of the Buddha, the essence of his enlightenment. It is in no way separate from the Buddha himself.

Mantras are said to carry this enlightenment essence in the very sound of the syllables themselves. It’s an energetic thing. So, translations can sometimes get in the way of the experience of the energy of the mantra if we focus on the so-called meaning of the words at the expense of simply experiencing the sound that is being generated.

Mantra has been described as “a creative sound considered expressive of the deepest essence of things and understandings” thus the recitation of the mantra “can evoke in a formulaic or even magical way” a transcendent state of mind and energy. Also, “mantra is the pure sound of enlightened speech.”
It is Sanskrit, not Tibetan. In fact, mantras are almost untranslatable. But, what we can do is interpret the syllables.

This is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s interpretation of the Buddha’s mantra:

TA YA THA – it is like this

OM – The All-Knowledge of the three bodies of a buddha and of the infinite Buddha’s Holy Body, Speech and Mind. The knowledge of the two paths to enlightenment (Method and Wisdom), and of the two truths (Absolute and relative) that contain all existence within them.

MUNI – Control over the suffering of the three lower realms and over the wrong conception of the self-existent I.

MUNI – Control over the suffering of all samsara and over self-cherishing thoughts.

MAHA MUNIYE – Great control over the suffering of subtle illusions and over the dualistic mind.

SVAHA – May my mind receive, absorb and keep the blessings of the mantra, and may they take root.

I’ll finish with a quote from Lama Thubten Yeshe:

“Reciting a mantra…does not mean the mere vocal repetition of speech syllables. Many meditators know from experience that the act of reciting mantras transcends external sounds and words. It is more like listening to a subtle inner sound that has always inhabited our nervous system.”