The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

TWO MANTRAS 397hell realms, ascending gradually through the world of hungry ghosts,up to the realm of the gods. From there he happened to look downand saw, aghast, that though he had saved innumerable beings fromhell, countless more were pouring in. This plunged him into the profoundestgrief; for a moment he almost lost faith in that noble vowhe had taken, and his body exploded into a thousand pieces. In hisdesperation, he called out to all the buddhas for help, who came tohis aid from all directions of the universe, as one text said, like a softblizzard of snowflakes. With their great power the buddhas madehim whole again, and from then on Avalokiteshvara had elevenheads, and a thousand arms, and on each palm of each hand was aneye, signifying that union of wisdom and skillful means that is themark of true compassion. In this form he was even more resplendentand empowered than before to help all beings, and his compassiongrew even more intense as again and again he repeated this vowbefore the buddhas: "May I not attain final buddhahood before allsentient beings attain enlightenment."It is said that in his sorrow at the pain of samsara, two tears fellfrom his eyes: through the blessings of the buddhas, they were transformedinto the two Taras. One is Tara in her green form, who is theactive force of compassion, and the other is Tara in her white form,who is compassion's motherly aspect. The name Tara means "shewho liberates": she who ferries us across the ocean of samsara.It is written in the Mahayana Sutras that Avalokiteshvara gave hismantra to the Buddha himself, and Buddha in turn granted him thespecial and noble task of helping all beings in the universe towardbuddhahood. At this moment all the gods rained flowers on them,the earth shook, and the air rang with the sound OM MANI PADMEHUM HRIH.In the words of the poem:Avalokiteshvara is like the moonWhose cool light puts out the burning fires of samsaraIn its rays the night-flowering lotus of compassionOpens wide its petals.The teachings explain that each of the six syllables of themantra—OM MA NI PAD MÉ HUM—has a specific and potenteffect in bringing about transformation at different levels of our being.The six syllables purify completely the six poisonous negative emotions,which are the manifestation of ignorance, and which cause usto act negatively with our body, speech, and mind, so creating samsaraand our suffering in it. Pride, jealousy desire, ignorance, greed,and anger are transformed, through the mantra, into their true nature,the wisdoms of the six buddha families that become manifest in theenlightened mind. 3So when we recite OM MANI PADME HUM, the six negative