Shakyamuni Mantra

O muni muni mahāmuni śākyamuni svāhā Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuni svaha 

Shakyamuni (the sage of the Shakyan clan) is the historical Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama. Shakyamuni was almost certainly the first enlightened figure to be visualized. There’s a beautiful passage in the Sutta Nipata (an early Buddhist text) where Pingiya talks about how he is never separated from the Buddha. He says that at any time he wishes he can see and hear his teacher, even though he lives hundreds of miles from where the Buddha dwells.

Shakyamuni’s mantra is a play on his name. Muni means sage. Mahameans great. So the mantra reads “Om wise one, wise one, greatly wise one, wise one of the Shakyans, Hail!” Also this mantra is commonly found in the following form: Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuniye svaha.

This form has the name of Shakyamuni in the dative form, so that it reads “Om wise one, wise one, great wise one, to the wise one of the Shakyanshail!”This is actually the more common form of the mantra in Sanskrit, although in Tibetan the mantra is in the “Tibeticized” version of the shorter form given above: Om muni muni maha muni shakyamuni soha – “soha” being the Tibetan rendering of “svaha.”