A resource for visualising and calligraphy of
Buddhist mantras and seed syllables.

Visible Mantra - the book.

The book contains all the mantras seen on the website, plus a few extras ones, in four scripts: Siddhaṃ, Lantsa, dbu can, and Devanāgarī, along with seed-syllables, dhāraṇī, and Pāli chants -- all with meticulously researched notes. Essays on mantra from this site and from Jayarava's blog are included as well as notes on the Sanskrit language, the various scripts used to write it.

Jayarava. Visible Mantra: visualising and writing Buddhist mantras. Cambirdge: Visible Mantra Press, 2010.

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Mantras are the mysterious sound symbols associated with Indian spiritual practice. We often ask "what does a mantra mean?", but a better question is what does it do? A Buddhist mantra evokes and invokes qualities of the Awakened mind. Mantras bring us into relationship with Enlightenment, and are a vehicle by which our consciousness can awaken to the way things really are. They are rooted in age old traditions emphasising the interconnectedness of all things. For Buddhists a mantra may also be an expression of devotion towards, or faith in, the Three Jewels.

As writing encapsulates sounds, so a written mantra captures something of the symbolism of the mantric sound. Visible Mantra presents calligraphy of the seed syllables (bīja) and mantras used in the most common Buddhist visualisation and devotional practices performed in the Western Buddhist Order. Additional mantras from the Shingon School and Tibetan lineages are included. The main script used on Visible Mantra is Siddhaṃ, but it also features Tibetan, and Lantsa/Ranjana examples.

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For mantra meditation, and meditation in general, try the wildmind.org Mantra Meditation page.