he Thibetian idiom. Om is, among the
Hindoos, the mystic name of the Divinity, with which all their prayers
begin. It is composed of A, the name of Vishnu; of O, that of Siva; and
of M, that of Brahma. This mystic particle is also equivalent to the
interjection O, and expresses a profound religious conviction; it is, as
it were, a formula of the act of faith; mani signifies a gem, a precious
thing; padma, the lotus; padme, the vocative of the same word. Lastly,
houm is a particle expressing a wish, a desire, and is equivalent to our
Amen. The literal sense, then, of this phrase is this:

Om mani padme houm.

O the gem in the lotus, Amen.

The Buddhists of Thibet and Mongolia have not been content with this
clear and precise meaning, and have tortured their imaginations in their
endeavours to find a mystic interpretation of each of the six syllables
composing the sentence.

They have written an infinity of voluminous books, wherein they have
piled one extravagance on another, to explain their famous mani. The
Lamas are wont to say that the doctrine contained in these marvellous
words is immense, and that the whole life of a man is insufficient to
measure its breadth and depth. We were anxious to know what the Regent
thought of this formula. This is what he said on the subject: "Living
beings, in Thibetian semdchan, and in Mongol amitan, are divided into six
classes--angels, demons, men, quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. {195}
These six classes of living beings correspond to the six syllables of the
formula 'Om mani padme houm.' Living beings, by continual
transformations, and according to their merit or demerit, pass about in
these six classes until they have attained the apex of perfection, when
they are absorbed and lost in the grand essence of Buddha; that is to
say, in the eternal and universal soul, whence emanate all souls, and
wherein all souls, after their temporary evolutions, are destined to meet
and become fused.

"Living beings have, according to the class to which they belong,
particular means of sanctifying themselves, of rising to a superior
class, of obtaining perfection, and arriving, in process of time, at the
period of their absorption. Men who repeat very frequently and devotedly
'Om mani padme houm,' escape falling, after death, into the six classes
of animate creatures corresponding to the six syllables of the formula,
and obtain the plenitude of being by their absorption into