☸ Resource Centre

Buddhist Mantras

Sacred syllables — their meaning, pronunciation, and how to practise them.

Mantras are sacred syllables or phrases that, when recited with the right motivation and understanding, connect the practitioner directly with the enlightened qualities they embody. They are not magic spells. They are tools for transformation — sounds that purify the mind, open the heart, and strengthen the connection with specific aspects of awakened wisdom. Any person can recite most mantras regardless of tradition or prior experience.

💙 Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig)
Om Mani Padme Hum
All traditions
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💚 Green Tara
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha
All traditions
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💊 Medicine Buddha (Sangye Menla)
Tayata Om Bekandze Bekandze Maha Bekandze Bekandze Radza Samungate Soha
All traditions
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🔴 Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)
Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum
Nyingma — all Vajrayāna traditions
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⚔️ Manjushri
Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Dhi
All traditions — especially Gelug
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🌅 Amitabha Buddha
Om Ami Dewa Hri
All traditions
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☸ Shakyamuni Buddha
Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Soha
All traditions
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💙
Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) · All traditions
Om Mani Padme Hum
Sanskrit
ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ
Tibetan
ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པད་མེ་ཧཱུྃ།
🔊 Pronunciation: om-mah-nee-pad-may-hung
Meaning
Om — the sacred syllable, body speech and mind of all Buddhas. Mani — jewel, symbolising the method of compassion and love. Padme — lotus, symbolising wisdom. Hum — the unity of method and wisdom, indivisible.
Purpose & significance
The mantra of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion. Reciting it purifies all six realms of existence — each syllable corresponds to one realm. It is said to contain the entire teaching of the Buddha within its six syllables.
How to practise
Recite with the motivation of compassion for all sentient beings. Traditionally recited in malas of 108. No empowerment is required — it is open to all. The Dalai Lama teaches that reciting it with a sincere heart is the most important thing.
📿 108 per mala — recite as many as you wish
💚
Green Tara · All traditions
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha
Sanskrit
ॐ तारे तुत्तारे तुरे स्वाहा
Tibetan
ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
🔊 Pronunciation: om tah-ray toot-tah-ray too-ray so-ha
Meaning
Om — the sacred syllable. Tare — she who liberates from samsara. Tuttare — she who liberates from fears and the eight dangers. Ture — she who liberates from illness and grants all realisations. Soha — may the meaning of this mantra take root in my mind.
Purpose & significance
Tara is the Swift One — she acts instantly in response to prayers. Her mantra is called upon in times of fear, danger, illness, and obstacle. She embodies the enlightened activity of all Buddhas in female form.
How to practise
Recite 21 times as a daily practice — traditionally done in the morning. Visualise Green Tara, green in colour, seated in half-lotus, her right foot extended ready to step out to help. Feel her compassionate gaze upon you.
📿 21 times as a minimum daily practice — or 108
💊
Medicine Buddha (Sangye Menla) · All traditions
Tayata Om Bekandze Bekandze Maha Bekandze Bekandze Radza Samungate Soha
Sanskrit
तद्यथा ॐ भेकन्ज़े भेकन्ज़े महाभेकन्ज़े रादज़ा समुद्गते स्वाहा
Tibetan
ཏད་ཡ་ཐཱ། ཨོཾ་བྷེ་ཀ་ཛེ་བྷེ་ཀ་ཛེ་མ་ཧཱ་བྷེ་ཀ་ཛེ་རཱ་ཛ་ས་མུདྒ་ཏེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
🔊 Pronunciation: tah-yah-tah om beh-kahn-dzeh beh-kahn-dzeh mah-hah beh-kahn-dzeh rahn-dzah sah-mung-gah-teh so-ha
Meaning
Tayata — thus, it is like this. Bekandze — eliminate pain. Maha Bekandze — greatly eliminate pain. Radza — supreme, royal. Samungate — completely released. Soha — may the meaning take root.
Purpose & significance
The mantra of Medicine Buddha — deep blue in colour, holding a healing herb and a bowl of medicine. Reciting it is said to purify karma that causes illness, to bring healing to the sick, and to help those who are dying find liberation.
How to practise
Recite 7 or 21 times when someone is ill, including yourself. Visualise blue healing light radiating from Medicine Buddha dissolving all illness and the karma causing it. Especially powerful to recite for those who are dying or recently deceased.
📿 7 or 21 times — especially for healing prayers
🔴
Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) · Nyingma — all Vajrayāna traditions
Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum
Sanskrit
ॐ आः हूँ वज्र गुरु पद्म सिद्धि हूँ
Tibetan
ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཧཱུྃ་བཛྲ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ།
🔊 Pronunciation: om ah hung benza guru pema siddhi hung
Meaning
Om Ah Hum — body, speech, and mind of all Buddhas. Vajra — indestructible, diamond-like. Guru — teacher. Padma — lotus (Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born). Siddhi — spiritual attainments, both ordinary and supreme. Hum — grant these to me.
Purpose & significance
The root mantra of Padmasambhava — Guru Rinpoche — who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century and is regarded as a second Buddha in the Vajrayāna tradition. This mantra contains the essence of all 84,000 teachings of the Buddha.
How to practise
Especially powerful on the 10th and 25th of the lunar month — Guru Rinpoche day and Dakini day. Visualise Guru Rinpoche in the sky before you, golden-red in colour, holding a vajra and a skull cup. Recite with devotion and the wish for all beings to be liberated.
📿 108 per mala — or as many as possible on Guru Rinpoche days
⚔️
Manjushri · All traditions — especially Gelug
Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Dhi
Sanskrit
ॐ अ रा प च न धीः
Tibetan
ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ར་པ་ཙ་ན་དྷཱིཿ
🔊 Pronunciation: om ah-ra-pa-tza-na dee
Meaning
Om — the sacred syllable. A Ra Pa Tsa Na — these five syllables each represent one of the five wisdoms and aspects of perfect speech. Dhi — intelligence, discriminating wisdom. The mantra embodies the perfection of wisdom.
Purpose & significance
Manjushri is the Bodhisattva of wisdom and intelligence. His mantra is recited to increase wisdom, memory, clarity of mind, and the ability to understand and teach the dharma. Students recite it before study and examination.
How to practise
Recite before studying dharma, before writing, or whenever you need clarity of mind. Visualise Manjushri golden-yellow in colour, holding a flaming sword of wisdom in his right hand (which cuts through ignorance) and a lotus bearing the Prajnaparamita text in his left.
📿 108 times — especially before dharma study
🌅
Amitabha Buddha · All traditions
Om Ami Dewa Hri
Sanskrit
ॐ अमिताभ हृीः
Tibetan
ཨོཾ་ཨ་མི་དེ་ཝ་ཧྲཱིཿ
🔊 Pronunciation: om ah-mee deh-wa hree
Meaning
Om — the sacred syllable. Ami Dewa — Amitabha, boundless light. Hri — the seed syllable of discriminating awareness wisdom, purifying delusion.
Purpose & significance
Amitabha is the Buddha of Boundless Light, whose pure land — Sukhavati — is accessible to all who call upon him with sincere faith. This mantra is recited for the dying, for the recently deceased, and to make a karmic connection with Amitabha's pure land.
How to practise
Recite especially for those who are dying or who have recently died. Whisper it in the ear of the dying if possible. On the 30th of the lunar month — Amitabha day — recite as many times as possible. Visualise red Amitabha, hands resting in meditation.
📿 108 — especially powerful for the dying and deceased
☸
Shakyamuni Buddha · All traditions
Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Soha
Sanskrit
ॐ मुनि मुनि महामुनये स्वाहा
Tibetan
ཨོཾ་མུ་ནི་མུ་ནི་མ་ཧཱ་མུ་ནཱ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
🔊 Pronunciation: om moo-nee moo-nee mah-hah moo-nee-yeh so-ha
Meaning
Om — the sacred syllable. Muni — sage, capable one. Maha Muni — the great sage. Ye — homage to. Soha — may it be established.
Purpose & significance
The mantra of Shakyamuni — the historical Buddha. Reciting it makes a powerful karmic connection with the Buddha himself and purifies negative karma accumulated over many lifetimes.
How to practise
Recite to strengthen your connection with the historical Buddha and the entire lineage of teachings he set in motion. Especially powerful on full moon and new moon days. Visualise the golden Buddha, seated in meditation, his right hand touching the earth.
📿 21 or 108 times — on full moon and new moon days especially

How to recite mantras

🪷
Set a motivation
Before you begin, set a clear motivation — ideally to benefit all sentient beings, not just yourself. This transforms the practice from something personal into something vast.
📿
Use a mala
A mala (108 beads) helps you count recitations without losing focus. Hold it in the right hand, move one bead for each recitation. 108 is one full mala.
🧘
Sit comfortably
You do not need a special posture. Sit comfortably with your spine reasonably straight. You can also recite while walking, doing dishes, or commuting.
🔇
Recite at any volume
Mantras can be recited aloud, whispered, or silently. Aloud is most powerful for beginners — it keeps the mind engaged.
🎯
Stay present
If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the sound. The mantra is not effective if your mind is elsewhere — quality matters more than quantity.
💐
Dedicate the merit
At the end of your recitation, dedicate the merit to all beings: "By this merit may all beings be happy. May all beings be free from suffering."