"104"
none.com> wrote in message
news:t0W2k.100222$x55.69468@newsfe17.ams2...> Tom wrote:
>>
>> So did you mean to ask if it's worthwhile for you to try invoking the HGA
>> by chanting "Om mane padme hum"? Or what?
>
> Would you mind giving a decent transliteration of that mantra in English?
The first word "Om" doesn't mean anything in particular. Lots of people
translate it as "oh" or "hail", but it's not really a word. It's an
exclamation. It has no direct or specific transliteration to English.
"Mani" transliterates as "jewel". "Padme" means "lotus". "Hum" is another
exclamation. It represents (but does not mean) "immovability" or
"unchanging".
So there is no decent transliteration in English. Besides, Buddhists feel
that the meaning of the words is not the important part. It's the six
syllables and the concepts associated with them that one should attend to
while chanting the mantra.
Here's what the Dalai Lama has to say about it:
http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/om-mantra.html
>>> So maybe it's more of a Christian photo than a Buddhist one?
>>
>> Almost certainly, since Buddhists don't have angels in their mythology.
>
> It's symbolic.
Most pictures are. Especially pictures of angels.
> When I saw the photo I was struck by how symbolic it could be perceived as
> and wondered whether the Lotus flower could in any way be compared to a
> consciousness that is above the Veil of Paraketh in Tiphareth and has
> achieved KCHGA.
Yes, it could. The lotus is the spark of the divine that grows up through
the muck and muddy water to emerge into the divine light. It reaches from
the bottom to the top. One might liken the metaphor of the growth of the
lotus to the metaphor of the path of the serpent on the Tree of Life.
