Mantras for the Three Holy Ones

by Dale Goodyear 2011 d_good_year@hotmail.com

The Three Holy Ones of the Flower Ornament Sutra are the Buddha Vairocana, and his Bodhisattvas Manjushri and Samantabhadra. Vairocana represents BUDDHA, Manjushri DHARMA, and Samantabhadra SANGHA. In addition, Vairocana focuses the Dharmakaya, Manjushri the Sambhogakaya, and Samantabhadra the Nirmanakaya, which are the three "Bodies" or "Vehicles" of Buddhahood. I have spoken in another article how Manjushri rules what the Chinese call the "Upper Dan Tian" (or "Elixir Field"); Vairocana the "Middle Dan Tian"; and Samantabhadra the "Lower Dan Tian." The Upper Elixir Field includes the crown, 3rd eye, and throat chakras. The Middle Elixir Field has the 12-petaled heart chakra, and also the 8-petaled inner chamber of the heart, and finally the central chakra for the Dhyani Buddhas--three chakras in all. The Lower Elixir Field contains the solar plexus, "seat-of-the-soul", and root chakras. We have the mantra for Samantabhadra:

Om Samantabhadra Om
And we have the one for Vairocana:

Om Vairocana Om
So let's invoke Manjushri in the same manner:

Om Manjushri Om
Manjushri has other mantras, but this one is both appropriate and potent, because it sounds his most common Name and because it ends with the OM syllable of his Buddha, Vairocana. It is also a mantra very easy to learn and teach to others! Notice the number of syllables in these mantras: 7 for Samantabhadra's mantra, 6 for Vairocana's, and 5 for Manjushri's. If we would like to invoke all Three Holy Ones in a single mantra, we can say:

Om Vairocana Manjushri Samantabhadra Om

and that is quite powerful. You can give these mantras in rounds of either 21, 55, 108, 110, etc., as you have time and opportunity. To conclude, here are the 3 individual mantras in Sanskrit Devanagari script (with the Buddhist style of "Om"):

] ^
i.e.,

Om Samantabhadra Om Om Vairocana Om Om Manjushri Om