This Friday, July 24, I'm releasing Om Mani Padme Hum, the third single from my forthcoming album, Mantras in Kingston.
Om Mani Padme Hum is one of the most beloved and widely chanted mantras in the Buddhist world — a prayer of compassion that has traveled across cultures and centuries. Associated with Avalokiteshvara — the bodhisattva who embodies boundless compassion — it's chanted by many millions all over the world.
In the mantra tradition, Sanskrit is understood as a vibration-based language — the sound itself carries the meaning. So though Om Mani Padme Hum is sometimes translated as "the jewel in the lotus," its meaning is much richer than any simple English translation.
Mani, the jewel, represents the awakened heart of compassion — the wish to relieve suffering and bring happiness to others.
Padme, the lotus, represents wisdom: the capacity to see through illusion and recognize the deeper nature of life.
Hum joins compassion and wisdom together. (Neither is complete without the other.)
Om, the opening syllable, is the ground beneath the other three—the sound of wholeness from which compassion and wisdom arise.
In the bridge, I add an original invocation:
Om Shanti Om — An invocation of peace.
Mahasattva — the Great Compassionate One, the awakened being who embodies boundless compassion. It can also be understood as the awakened presence of compassion within and around us.
Guna Dhyaya — An invitation to contemplate those noble qualities.
Together, the bridge becomes:
May peace awaken.
May we contemplate the qualities of compassion.
May those qualities come alive within us.
That, to me, is what this song is really about: Remembering the compassion that already lives within every human heart — and allowing it to move through us into the world.
I hope you'll check out Om Mani Padme Hum when it arrives this Friday.
And what a great time to PRE-SAVE OM MANI PADME HUM!
https://found.ee/Om-Mani-Padme-Hum-Single
P.S. — If you know anyone who practices mantra meditation, does kirtan, or loves roots reggae, send this their way. This project lives at the intersection of those worlds, and I’d love for it to reach as many wonderful people as possible.
In peace and compassion,
Bodhi