Om Ah Hum 嗡阿吽 - Mantra of Purification

This is a mantra from the Tibetan tradition, to help us clarify, or purify, our Body, Speech, and Mind.

Mantras are sounds and phrases that can help us concentrate our minds. We can use mantras as a way to concentrate on a given intention.

This mantra can be seen as a means of helping us focus our intentions to clarify, or purify, our body, speech, and mind. We can regard ourselves while we chant as asking our own being, the parts of us that put up blocks and barricades to real contentment, to let our better parts, our pure, good intentions, get stronger, shine through, and help us let go.

OM stands for the body, AH for the speech, and HUM (or HUNG) for the mind. They represent the possibility of transformative blessings of the body, speech, and mind from all the Buddhas— past, present, and future.

In chanting OM we are asking ourselves to purify, to release all guilt and shame, of all the negative actions committed through our body, and we commit to an intention to do better in the future.

In chanting AH we are asking ourselves to purify, to release all guilt and shame, of all the negative actions committed through our speech, and we commit to an intention to do better in the future.

In chanting HUM we are asking ourselves to purify, to release all guilt and shame of all the negative actions committed through our mind, and we commit to an intention to do better in the future.

OM is also aid to be the essence of form, AH the essence of sound, and HUM the essence of mind. So by reciting this mantra, you are also purifying the environment, as well as yourself and all other beings within it. OM purifies all perceptions, AH all sounds, and HUM the mind, its thoughts and its emotions.