IBefore you read
On the mani stone walls of Bön villages in the Himalayas, on beads worn around the neck, on the lintels of houses, people carve the same string of eight syllables: Om Ma Tri Mu Ye Sa Le Du. For Bön followers this is the phrase that comes most readily to the lips. It is counted on prayer beads every day, chanted while walking around stupas and sacred mountains, and recited beside the dying. Within Bön it holds a place much like that of Om Mani Padme Hum in Tibetan Buddhism, but it is an entirely different phrase, with eight entirely different figures standing behind its eight syllables.
Bön followers call it simply Ma Tri, after its second and third syllables. In Tibetan script it is ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།, and in the common pronunciation it reads Om Ma Tri Mu Ye Sa Le Du. It is one of the three heart mantras of Yungdrung Bön, which Bön centers in the West usually call the Three Heart Mantras or the Three Essence Mantras. According to the transmission given by the thirty-fourth Menri Trizin and recorded by the Olmo Ling center, the three correspond to the three bodies of an awakened one: Sa Le Ö is the mantra of the Bön ku, the body of truth, Ma Tri is the mantra of the Dzog ku, the body of perfection, and Du Tri Su is the mantra of the Tul ku, the emanation body.
This page sets out all three in a single full text table. Ma Tri comes first because it is the most often chanted, while in the order of the three bodies that the tradition usually follows, Sa Le Ö comes first. Each mantra is divided syllable by syllable or cluster by cluster, because that is how the Bön tradition itself explains these mantras.
It should be said plainly from the start: these mantras cannot be translated as sentences. The sounds ma, tri, mu and ye are not ordinary Tibetan words that combine into a statement. Each sound is understood as a seed syllable of an awakened figure or of a quality. For this reason the Vietnamese and English columns in the table are not translations, but the library's description of each syllable's meaning according to the teachings of Bön masters. The Wylie transliteration, the scholarly system for writing Tibetan in Latin letters, is given separately in the commentary section.
The library presents this so that you know what the mantra is, how Bön followers understand it and when they chant it. The library does not vouch for the efficacy of the mantra, nor does it advise you to chant it.
The Bön tradition holds that the three heart mantras are the very core of the teachings of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་ཆེ་, the Buddha in whom Bön followers take refuge. The article The Great Mantra of Yungdrung Bön on Raven Cypress Wood's Nine Ways website calls Ma Tri the distilled essence of all his eighty-four thousand teachings, and says the mantra is found in a text whose title the author translates as The Precious Lamp that Shakes the Depths of Samsara. The lineage is traced from Tonpa Shenrab through Mucho Demdrug, Mutsa Trahe and Drenpa Namkha to Tulku Loden Nyingpo and later masters. According to the same source, unlike many secret mantras that must be given personally by a teacher, Ma Tri is a phrase that anyone may hear, read and chant.
On the historical side, there is no independent document outside Bön texts that establishes when this mantra came into being. The tradition places Tonpa Shenrab in 16017 BCE, and as the library's main page on Tibetan Bön notes, historians have not been able to confirm him as a historical figure of any particular date. The point that can be grasped is the name of Tulku Loden Nyingpo in the lineage: he is the 14th century master who wrote down the Zijid biography. There is a small discrepancy worth noting. On the same Nine Ways website, one article calls him a 13th century figure and another gives a date from 1360.
Scholars have also noted that the structure of Ma Tri is very close to the six syllable Om Mani Padme Hum of Tibetan Buddhism, which is likewise explained with each syllable corresponding to one of the six realms of cyclic existence. As in many other areas of Bön, readers who take a historical approach raise the possibility that the two traditions learned from each other, while Bön followers regard their own mantra as the older one. The library records both views and does not decide between them.
As for the wording, the syllable om at the beginning and the svaha at the end of Du Tri Su are familiar sounds of the Indian mantra tradition, shared by both Buddhism and Bön. The remaining syllables are not ordinary Tibetan words, and their linguistic origin has not been established by linguists.
IIFull text of the Three Heart Mantras
The table below has nineteen lines. Lines 1 to 7 are the Ma Tri mantra. Lines 8 to 12 are the Sa Le Ö mantra, which people also often call A Kar after its opening syllables. Lines 13 to 19 are the Du Tri Su mantra. The original text column keeps exactly the spelling of the two Bön sources compared. The pronunciation column gives the common reading that Bön centers use when teaching students in Latin letters. The two meaning columns are the library's own descriptions.
| Verse | Original Tibetan | Common pronunciation | The library's gloss | The library's gloss in Vietnamese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ཨཱོཾ་ | Om | Om: the sound of Tonpa Shenrab, the founding teacher, carrying the quality of skillful means and compassion. | Om: âm của Tonpa Shenrab, bậc thầy khai đạo, mang phẩm tính phương tiện và lòng từ bi. |
| 2 | མ་ | Ma | Ma: the sound of the wisdom mother Sherab Chamma, carrying the quality of wisdom and open space. | Ma: âm của vị mẹ trí tuệ Sherab Chamma, mang phẩm tính trí tuệ và khoảng không rộng mở. |
| 3 | ཏྲི་ | Tri | Tri: the sound of the guide of the hell realms, turning hatred into loving kindness. | Tri: âm của vị dẫn dắt cõi địa ngục, chuyển lòng sân hận thành lòng thương. |
| 4 | མུ་ | Mu | Mu: the sound of the guide of the hungry ghost realm, turning greed into generosity. | Mu: âm của vị dẫn dắt cõi ngạ quỷ, chuyển lòng tham thành lòng rộng rãi. |
| 5 | ཡེ་ | Ye | Ye: the sound of the guide of the animal realm, turning dullness into clear understanding. | Ye: âm của vị dẫn dắt cõi súc sinh, chuyển mê muội thành sáng suốt. |
| 6 | སལེ་ | Sa Le | Sa Le: two sounds written as one syllable. Sa is the guide of the human realm, turning envy into openness. Le is the guide of the demigod realm, turning pride into peace. | Sa Le: hai âm viết liền một chữ. Sa là vị dẫn dắt cõi người, chuyển ganh tị thành cởi mở. Le là vị dẫn dắt cõi a tu la, chuyển kiêu mạn thành an hòa. |
| 7 | འདུ། | Du | Du: the sound of the guide of the god realm, turning laziness into diligence, and the close of the mantra. | Du: âm của vị dẫn dắt cõi trời, chuyển lười biếng thành tinh tấn, khép lại câu chú. |
| 8 | ཨ་ཨཱོཾ་ཧཱུཾ། | A Om Hung | A, Om, Hung: the three seed syllables that open the Sa Le Ö mantra, the mantra of the body of truth. | A, Om, Hung: ba chủng tự mở đầu chân ngôn Sa Le Ö, chân ngôn của thân chân lý. |
| 9 | ཨཱ་ཨ་དཀར་ | A A Kar | A, A Kar: the unchanging primordial ground, unceasing clarity, and kar, meaning white, the sign of purification. | A, A Kar: bản thể nguyên sơ không đổi, sự sáng không dứt, và chữ kar nghĩa là trắng, chỉ việc gột sạch. |
| 10 | སལེ་འོད་ | Sa Le Ö | Sa Le Ö: a clarity beyond words and concepts, with ö meaning light. | Sa Le Ö: cái sáng vượt ngoài lời và ý niệm, chữ ö nghĩa là ánh sáng. |
| 11 | ཨ་ཡང་ | A Yang | A Yang: the awakened mind, and the wind of wisdom that dissolves obscurations. | A Yang: tâm giác ngộ, và luồng khí trí tuệ làm tan các che chướng. |
| 12 | ཨཱོཾ་འདུ། | Om Du | Om Du: the five awakened families and the five wisdoms, gathered into a single sphere. | Om Du: năm dòng giác ngộ và năm trí, rồi thu hết về một giọt tròn duy nhất. |
| 13 | ཨ་དཀར་ | A Kar | A Kar: the pure nature of the mind, opening the Du Tri Su mantra, the mantra of the emanation body. | A Kar: bản tính thanh tịnh của tâm, mở đầu chân ngôn Du Tri Su, chân ngôn của thân hóa hiện. |
| 14 | ཨ་རྨད་ | A Me | A Me: the luminous aspect of primordial wisdom. | A Me: mặt sáng tỏ của trí tuệ nguyên sơ. |
| 15 | དུ་ཏྲི་སུ་ | Du Tri Su | Du Tri Su: the three lower realms, or in another reading the three poisons of ignorance, hatred and attachment, made pure. | Du Tri Su: ba cõi thấp, hay theo lời giảng khác là ba độc tham, sân, si, được gột sạch. |
| 16 | ནག་པོ་ | Nag Po | Nag Po: nag po means black, standing for negative karma and obscurations. | Nag Po: chữ nag po nghĩa là màu đen, chỉ nghiệp xấu và các che chướng. |
| 17 | ཞི་ཞི་ | Zhi Zhi | Zhi Zhi: to pacify, calming the suffering of cyclic existence. | Zhi Zhi: làm lắng dịu, lắng dịu nỗi khổ của vòng luân hồi. |
| 18 | མལ་མལ་ | Mal Mal | Mal Mal: bringing a mind of bliss. | Mal Mal: đem lại tâm an lạc. |
| 19 | སྭཧཱ། | So Ha | So Ha: the closing sound of the mantra, which Bön teachers explain as ending mistaken views. | So Ha: âm khép lại chân ngôn, theo lời giảng Bön là dứt những thấy biết sai lệch. |
IIISyllable by syllable commentary
The section below explains the seven written syllables of Ma Tri one by one, then explains the other two mantras cluster by cluster. Each entry also gives the Wylie form, the scholarly system devised by Turrell Wylie for transliterating Tibetan script into Latin letters, so that you can tell the spelling apart from the pronunciation. The explanations are compiled from the Bön centers cited in the sources section. Where the sources explain things differently, this is stated outright, and the library does not choose for you.
The familiar opening sound of a great many mantras in India and on the Tibetan plateau. In Ma Tri, both the Gyalshen Institute and the Yeru Bön Center assign this syllable to Tonpa Shenrab, the founding teacher, with the quality of skillful means and compassion. The article Protecting the Mind with Mantra on the Nine Ways website puts it briefly: the first two syllables are the seed syllables of a male Buddha and a female Buddha, and the six that follow are the sounds of six Buddhas who lead beings out of suffering.
As for the spelling, the two Bön sources the library compared write this syllable as ཨཱོཾ, that is, the letter a with an extra a-chung stroke beneath it, followed by the vowel sign o and the nasal mark. The usual spelling outside Bön is ཨོཾ, without the a-chung. Both are pronounced the same. The library keeps exactly the spelling of the two Bön sources.
On color, the Yeru Bön Center gives Om as white, while the article The Great Mantra of Yungdrung Bön gives it as five colored.
The syllable of the mother, paired with the Om of the father. The Gyalshen Institute and the Yeru Bön Center call this figure Sherab Chamma ཤེས་རབ་བྱམས་མ་, a name meaning the mother of wisdom and love, with the quality of wisdom and open space. The article The Great Mantra of Yungdrung Bön on the Nine Ways website instead names the mother here as Tükjé Jamma, a name leaning toward compassion, and gives the syllable Ma the quality of fundamental wisdom. The sources name her differently at this point, and the library records both.
It is precisely because Om and Ma are father and mother, the father as skillful means and the mother as wisdom, that Bön followers understand these first two syllables as the ground for the six that follow. From this father and mother pair arise the six figures, each of whom enters one realm.
The first of the six syllables of the six realms. All the sources assign this syllable to Mucho Demdrug, the guide of beings in the hell realms, both the hot hells and the cold hells. The affliction tied to that realm is hatred, and the work of this syllable is to turn hatred into loving kindness. The Yeru Bön Center gives the color as purple, and the Nine Ways website gives a purple blending red and blue.
Mucho Demdrug is also the second name in the lineage of the mantra itself as Bön followers recount it, coming right after Tonpa Shenrab. English sources spell this name slightly differently, in some places Mucho Demdug, in others Mucho Demdruk.
The syllable of Sangwa Ngangring, the guide of the hungry ghost realm, the realm of starving spirits in the division into six realms. The affliction of that realm is craving, and this syllable is explained as turning greed into generosity, a readiness to give. Both sources give the color as red. In the Yeru Bön Center text the name is spelled Sanga Ngang Ring.
The syllable of Tisang Rangzhi, the guide of the animal realm. The affliction of that realm is ignorance, a darkness that does not see clearly, and this syllable is explained as turning ignorance into clear wisdom. Both sources give the color as blue. The Yeru Bön Center spells the name Tisane Rangzhi.
Here the spelling and the pronunciation do not line up. When read aloud, sa and le are two sounds, and the teachings assign them to two different figures. But in both Bön sources the library compared, the two are written together as a single syllable སལེ, with no syllable dot between them. This is why the Ma Tri line is read as eight syllables but written as seven. The full text table keeps this joined syllable as a single line, and both sounds are explained here.
Sa is the syllable of Drajin Pungpa, the guide of the human realm. The affliction assigned to the human realm in these teachings is envy, and the syllable Sa turns envy into openness. Its color is yellow.
Le is the syllable of Chegyal Parti, the guide of the demigod realm, the realm of the quarrelsome asuras. The affliction of that realm is pride, and the syllable Le turns pride into peace. The Yeru Bön Center gives the color as gray, and the Nine Ways website as light blue.
The final syllable, belonging to Yeshen Tsugphud, the guide of the god realm. The affliction assigned to the god realm in Bön teachings is laziness, the enjoyment of comfort that makes one stop striving, and the syllable Du turns laziness into joyful diligence. Both sources give the color as white.
The Tibetan འདུ has the letter a-chung in front, so Wylie writes it 'du with an apostrophe at the start. In ordinary Tibetan the root 'du carries the meaning of assembling, gathering together. Some teachers draw on that meaning to say that the final syllable gathers up the whole mantra, but the sources the library consulted mainly explain this syllable through the Buddha of the god realm, so the library mentions the gathering reading only as an association, not as the original meaning.
This is the Sa Le Ö mantra, the mantra of the Bön ku, the body of truth. The CyberSangha page of Ligmincha International calls it the mantra of clear light and says it is tied specifically to the Dzogchen view, meant for meditators who need support in recognizing the nature of their own mind. The Nine Ways website sums up the sense of this mantra in a short aspiration: may I recognize my own natural mind.
The first three syllables, A Om Hung, are the three opening seed syllables. The sources the library consulted do not explain these three separately in their commentary on the mantra. In the traditions of the plateau, a triad of syllables like this is often linked to the three doors of body, speech and mind, but which syllable goes with which door differs from one tradition to another, so the library does not assign them on anyone's behalf.
The following line has nine written syllables, which the Gyalshen Institute calls the nine luminous syllables of the body of truth, explained in turn as follows. The long A is the unchanging primordial ground, open space. A is unceasing clarity. Kar is the cleansing of afflictions and karma. Sa Le is going beyond the limits of words and concepts. Ö is going beyond the obscurations of concepts and of the grasping mind. The third A is the awakened mind, all pervading awareness. Yang is the wind of wisdom that sets wisdom in motion and removes obscurations. Om is the five awakened families, the five wisdoms, the five bodies. Du gathers everything into one, the single sphere that Bön Dzogchen calls thigle nyagchig.
Two words in this mantra are ordinary Tibetan words with a clear meaning: དཀར, Wylie dkar, meaning white, and འོད, Wylie 'od, meaning light. Here too the syllables sa le are written together, as in Ma Tri.
These are the four syllables that open the Du Tri Su mantra, the mantra of the Tul ku, the emanation body. The fourth syllable is written རྨད, Wylie rmad, but pronounced me, because in Tibetan the superscribed r is not voiced, and the final d is not pronounced but changes the vowel a into e. Students learning in Latin letters will find it written A Me or A Mé in many places.
Here the sources explain things in two ways. The Gyalshen Institute and the Yeru Bön Center explain it in terms of qualities: A Kar is the pure nature of the mind, and A Me is wisdom, the luminous aspect of primordial wisdom. The article Reversing Negativity with the DU TRI SU Mantra on the Nine Ways website adds another layer: the four syllables A, Kar, A, Me correspond to the four principal enlightened figures of Bön, the Great Mother Satrig Ersang, Shenlha Ökar, Sangpo Bumtri and Tonpa Shenrab. The two readings do not exclude each other. One speaks of the qualities, the other of the figures who embody them.
The cluster Du Tri Su gives the whole mantra its name, and it is also where the sources differ most clearly. The Yeru Bön Center and the Nine Ways website explain it as the three lower realms, that is, the hells, the hungry ghosts and the animals, and the work of this cluster is to cleanse the suffering of those three realms. The Gyalshen Institute instead explains it as the three root afflictions, namely ignorance, hatred and craving. The two readings are close, because in the shared outlook of Bön and Buddhism, those three afflictions are exactly what drive beings down into the three lower realms.
Nag Po is an ordinary Tibetan word, ནག་པོ, meaning black. In the mantra it stands for negative karma, karmic traces and obscurations. The black stands against the white of the word kar at the start of the mantra, a pair already built into the wording itself.
Zhi Zhi is the Tibetan word ཞི, meaning to pacify, repeated twice. The sources explain it as calming the suffering of cyclic existence. Mal Mal is explained as bringing a mind of peace and bliss.
So Ha is the Tibetan pronunciation of svaha from the Indian mantra tradition, the sound that closes a great many mantras. In Du Tri Su, Bön teachings give it a specific task: ending mistaken views and dualistic thinking. As for the spelling, the two Bön sources write སྭཧཱ as one block, with no syllable dot, whereas the spelling commonly found elsewhere is སྭཱ་ཧཱ, split into two syllables. The library keeps the spelling of the two Bön sources.
According to the Gyalshen Institute, the principal deity of the practice linked to Du Tri Su is Shenlha Ökar, and the line of transmission of the practice is traced from Nyame Sherab Gyaltsen, the founder of Menri Monastery, down to Kudun Sonam Lodro, the twenty-second abbot of Menri.
IVEight syllables, eight figures and six realms
To understand why Bön followers chant Ma Tri so often, one needs to see the framework the mantra rests on. The eight syllables fall into two parts. The first two are the father and mother, skillful means and wisdom. The six that follow are the six guiding Buddhas, each of whom enters one of the six realms of cyclic existence to lead the beings there out of it. To chant the mantra, according to the teachings, is to call on all eight figures in one breath, and to send one's heart to the beings of all six realms.
The table below brings together the explanations of the two main sources. Where the two sources give different colors, both are listed.
| Syllable | Figure linked to the syllable | Realm | Affliction transformed | Color in the two sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Om | Tonpa Shenrab, the father | No single realm, the ground | The quality of skillful means and compassion | White, or five colored |
| Ma | Sherab Chamma, the mother, called Tükjé Jamma in one source | No single realm, the ground | The quality of wisdom and spaciousness | Red, or coral red |
| Tri | Mucho Demdrug | Hells | Hatred into loving kindness | Purple, or purple blending red and blue |
| Mu | Sangwa Ngangring | Hungry ghosts | Craving into generosity | Red |
| Ye | Tisang Rangzhi | Animals | Ignorance into clear wisdom | Blue |
| Sa | Drajin Pungpa | Humans | Envy into openness | Yellow |
| Le | Chegyal Parti | Demigods | Pride into peace | Gray, or light blue |
| Du | Yeshen Tsugphud | Gods | Laziness into diligence | White |
One point is worth noticing when this table is set beside the familiar explanation of the six realms found elsewhere. In the Bön teachings the library was able to consult, envy is assigned to the human realm, pride to the demigod realm, and laziness to the god realm. Readers used to the explanation common in Buddhist books, where the demigod realm is usually linked to envy and the god realm to pride, will notice the difference. It is a real difference between the teachings, not a copying error. The library follows the Bön sources exactly.
The names of the six figures here follow the romanized spellings that Bön centers use. Because each place romanizes in its own way, the same figure is sometimes written in three or four ways, such as Tisang Rangzhi or Tisane Rangzhi, Sangwa Ngangring or Sanga Ngang Ring. The library does not give the Tibetan script for these six names because it has not yet been able to check them against two reliable Tibetan sources.
Three mantras, three bodies
Ma Tri does not stand alone. Bön followers learn it together with the other two as a set, and the set is ordered according to the teaching of the three bodies of an awakened one, a doctrinal framework whose names Bön shares with Tibetan Buddhism but places within its own system.
The mantra of the Bön ku. According to the Olmo Ling website, it helps practitioners gain clarity of mind and removes obstacles on the path to omniscience. Ligmincha International links it to the Dzogchen view.
The mantra of the Dzog ku. According to Olmo Ling, it has the power to remove the karmic conditions that cause beings to be reborn in the six realms. The Nine Ways website links it to the view of tantra.
The mantra of the Tul ku. According to Olmo Ling, it removes the obstacles and conditions of the lower realms, supports healing, and guides the consciousness of the deceased to find peace. The Nine Ways website links it to the view of sutra.
Also according to the Olmo Ling website, the three are regarded as the essence of Tonpa Shenrab's teachings, giving practitioners a practice with the power to liberate simply through hearing or chanting, seeing or touching, or visualizing it. This idea of liberation through hearing, seeing and touching explains why the mantra is carved into stone, hung over doors and worn on the body: Bön followers believe that the sound and the written letters themselves carry its power, not only the understanding of its meaning.
VYungdrung, Tonpa Shenrab and the direction of circumambulation
Anyone passing through a Bön village will meet the Ma Tri mantra alongside two other signs: the yungdrung གཡུང་དྲུང་ symbol on walls and altars, and lines of people walking around stupas counterclockwise. These three things go together, so this section covers all three, in words only, without printed images.
The Bön tradition holds that the word yungdrung means eternal, indestructible, unchanging. Bön teachers often explain each part of the word: yung points to what is unborn, drung to what does not cease. The word appears in the very name of the religion, Yungdrung Bön, eternal Bön. The yungdrung symbol is a swastika with its four arms bent the same way, turning counterclockwise, and it is regarded as the symbol of the absolute permanence of truth.
Tonpa Shenrab is the figure whose syllable opens the whole Ma Tri mantra. According to the Bön biographies, he was born in the land of Olmo Lungring, in a palace to the south of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, the nine storied mountain whose name also carries the word yungdrung. For Bön followers he holds exactly the place that Shakyamuni Buddha holds in Buddhism: one who has attained complete awakening, the Buddha of this age.
How it differs from the Nazi symbol
People who grew up with 20th century European history books are often startled to see a swastika on the walls of a Bön monastery. The difference calls for a calm look, and it can be told by specific features.
The first is the direction of rotation. The Bön yungdrung turns counterclockwise, matching the direction in which Bön followers circumambulate. The emblem of the German Nazi Party has its arms bent clockwise.
The second is orientation. The yungdrung stands upright, its four sides parallel or perpendicular to the ground. The other emblem is tilted forty-five degrees, standing on a point.
The third is setting. The yungdrung appears on monastery walls, on altars and on decorative cloth, next to mantras such as Ma Tri. The other emblem is painted black, set in a white circle on a red flag, and is the symbol of a political party.
The fourth, and most important, is meaning. The word yungdrung means eternal and indestructible, and according to the research of the Tibetologist Sam van Schaik on the Dunhuang manuscripts, cited on the library's main page on Tibetan Bön, it was already a Tibetan word before Buddhism reached the plateau, more than a thousand years before that party existed. In German the party's emblem is called the Hakenkreuz, the hooked cross, a name that has nothing to do with the word yungdrung.
Prayer beads and counterclockwise circuits
Bön followers walk around stupas, monasteries, sacred mountains and sacred lakes counterclockwise, keeping the sacred object on their left. Tibetan Buddhists walk clockwise, keeping the sacred object on their right. The hand held prayer wheels of Bön followers also turn in the opposite direction to those of Buddhists. The rotation of the yungdrung and the direction of circumambulation are one and the same, so the symbol works like a signpost telling walkers which tradition they are in. At Mount Kailash, where both traditions go on pilgrimage, Bön followers and Buddhists walk in opposite directions on the same circuit.
While circumambulating, Bön followers often count their prayer beads and chant Ma Tri. According to the Nine Ways website, lay practitioners chant each heart mantra at least one hundred and eight times a day, that is, one round of the beads. The number one hundred and eight is the familiar bead count of prayer malas in both Bön and Buddhism on the plateau. The library has not found a reliable source stating in which direction Bön followers count their beads, so it does not record this.
As for the name, the Tibetologist Sam van Schaik notes that in the 11th century Bön made the word yungdrung central to its identity, and the name Yungdrung Bön arose from that. The word did not belong to either side from the start. Earlier Buddhist translators had borrowed it to render concepts such as permanence. The counterclockwise rotation of the yungdrung and the counterclockwise direction of circumambulation are identifying marks widely recorded in studies of Bön, as summarized on the library's main page on Tibetan Bön.
VIWhen and how followers chant it
Ma Tri has no fixed hour of recitation the way a liturgical service does. It is a phrase that Bön followers carry with them all day, while walking, while working with their hands, while sitting still. The article Protecting the Mind with Mantra on the Nine Ways website says that the mantra can be chanted at any time and in any place, aloud, or silently when needed. Below are the settings in which this mantra is most often encountered.
Lay practitioners count their beads and chant each heart mantra, at least one hundred and eight times a day according to the Nine Ways website. The same source notes that while chanting one should avoid breaking in with talking, eating or heavy breathing.
In the preliminary practices, students chant each heart mantra one hundred thousand times, according to the article The Three Essence Mantras of Yungdrung Bön on the Nine Ways website. The article on Du Tri Su also gives a minimum of one hundred thousand recitations for that mantra.
The mantra is carved on mani stones, on door lintels and on beads worn around the neck. The Nine Ways website describes the mantra being placed over doors as a blessing, worn as an amulet in the way of liberation through touch, and placed on the crown of the head of someone who has just died. Hand carved beads bearing the Ma Tri mantra, made in the Dolpo region of Nepal, are still sold today.
The Nine Ways website records a benefit told in the tradition: chanting the mantra aloud so that all beings can hear it, because Bön followers believe that whoever hears it is liberated. The mantra is also sung to many different melodies, as noted by the website of Yeshe Sal Ling in Austria when introducing a course of teachings on Ma Tri.
Du Tri Su is the mantra most closely tied to this. According to Olmo Ling, it guides the consciousness of the deceased to find peace. The Nine Ways website cites Drenpa Namkha on using Du Tri Su for the dying. Funeral rites have long been the area of Bön with the deepest tradition, as the library's main page on Tibetan Bön notes.
In the monastery and at centers far from the plateau
Menri Monastery སྨན་རི་ is the largest center of learning in Yungdrung Bön. The first monastery of this name was founded by Nyame Sherab Gyaltsen in 1405 in the Tsang region, and Menri Monastery in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India, built in 1967, is where the Bön geshe degree is trained for today, according to the dates recorded on the library's main page on Tibetan Bön. It was monks of Menri in Dolanji who recorded all three heart mantras, and the Tibetan spelling in the titles of those recordings is one of the two sources this page compares. The recordings let one hear the melodic chanting style of the monastery's own monks.
At the Bön centers founded for Western students, the presentation is different. Ligmincha International, founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, introduces the three mantras through teachings and group chanting online on its CyberSangha page, and stresses that although the mantras have meaning, what matters most is their vibration and resonance. The Gyalshen Institute emphasizes Du Tri Su as a healing practice. Centers such as Olmo Ling hold transmissions of the three mantras given by the Menri Trizin himself. The emphasis differs from place to place, but the spelling and the order of the syllables are the same.
The library describes these practices as an observer. Which mantra to chant, how many times and to which melody is a matter for each teacher and each lineage, and anyone who wishes to know should ask at the place they visit.
VIICommon misunderstandings
Because Bön is little known outside the Himalayas, the Ma Tri mantra is often read through the lens of more familiar things. The five points below are the most common misreadings.
The two mantras play similar roles and are both explained with each syllable corresponding to a realm, but they differ completely in sound, in the number of syllables and in the figures behind them. Ma Tri has eight syllables, the first two being the father and mother, and the six that follow being six Buddhas specific to Bön. Who learned from whom is a question historians have left open, and Bön followers regard their own mantra as the older one.
The syllables ma, tri, mu, ye, sa and le do not combine into a Tibetan statement. The tradition explains each syllable as the seed syllable of a figure or a quality. The two meaning columns on this page describe each syllable and are not a sentence translation, and anyone who says that Om Ma Tri means some particular sentence has added it themselves.
The yungdrung stands upright, turns counterclockwise, means eternal, and was already a Tibetan word before Buddhism reached the plateau. The emblem of the German Nazi Party is tilted, has its arms bent clockwise, and belongs to an entirely different time and place.
The counterclockwise direction of circumambulation matches the rotation of the yungdrung and is an identifying mark of the tradition, not a gesture of opposition. At Mount Kailash, Bön followers and Buddhists walk in opposite directions on the same circuit.
The Bön teachings the library was able to consult assign envy to the human realm, pride to the demigod realm and laziness to the god realm. The explanation common in Buddhist books usually assigns envy to the demigods and pride to the gods. Reading Ma Tri through the familiar framework of elsewhere goes wrong at exactly that point.
?Quick Questions
What does Om Ma Tri Mu Ye Sa Le Du mean
This is the Ma Tri mantra, the most often chanted phrase in Bön. It cannot be translated as a sentence, because its syllables are not ordinary Tibetan words. The tradition explains each syllable: Om is Tonpa Shenrab, the father, skillful means and compassion, Ma is the wisdom mother Sherab Chamma, and Tri, Mu, Ye, Sa, Le and Du are the six Buddhas who guide the six realms of hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demigods and gods, each transforming the affliction of their own realm.
How is the Ma Tri mantra different from Om Mani Padme Hum
The two play similar roles in their traditions. Both are the phrase that comes most readily to the lips, both are carved on mani stones and counted on prayer beads, and both are explained with each syllable corresponding to a realm. But Om Mani Padme Hum has six syllables and belongs to Tibetan Buddhism, while Ma Tri has eight, the first two being the father and mother pair Tonpa Shenrab and Sherab Chamma, and the six that follow being six Buddhas specific to Bön. Historians have not established which came first.
What are the Three Heart Mantras of Bön
They are Sa Le Ö, Ma Tri and Du Tri Su, corresponding to the three bodies of an awakened one according to the transmission given by the thirty-fourth Menri Trizin and recorded by Olmo Ling. Sa Le Ö, which opens with A Om Hung, A A Kar, is the mantra of the body of truth and is linked to Dzogchen. Ma Tri is the mantra of the body of perfection. Du Tri Su, which opens with A Kar A Me, is the mantra of the emanation body, often used for purification, healing and for the deceased.
When do Bön followers chant Ma Tri
At almost any time. Bön followers count their prayer beads and chant this mantra while walking counterclockwise around stupas and sacred mountains, while working and while sitting still. According to Raven Cypress Wood's Nine Ways website, lay practitioners chant it at least one hundred and eight times a day, while those doing the preliminary practices chant it a full one hundred thousand times. The mantra is also carved on mani stones, hung over doors, worn on the body and recited beside the dying.
Is the Bön swastika related to the Nazi symbol
No. The Bön yungdrung stands upright, turns counterclockwise, means eternal and indestructible, and is a Tibetan word that existed before Buddhism reached the plateau, more than a thousand years before the Nazi Party. The party's emblem is tilted forty-five degrees, has its arms bent clockwise, and is painted black in a white circle on a red ground. The two differ in shape, in direction, in meaning and in setting.