Yesterday I began invoking another Mahayana divinity. He is the bodhisattva associated with doctrine, wisdom, and awareness. His name is Manjusri (Gentle Glory).
He forms the Sakyamuni Trinity alongside Sakyamuni and Samantabhadra. Depicted as a powerful, princely and majestic young man, he commonly wields a flaming sword in his right hand, representing his realisation of wisdom which cuts through ignorance and wrong views. The scripture supported by the flower held in his left hand is the Prajnaparamita, representing his attainment of ultimate realisation and Enlightenment.
His mantra in Chinese is Namo Wen Shu Shi Li Po Sha (南無文殊師利菩薩).
When I fly back to Hong Kong (tomorrow) I hope to be able to purchase a small statue of this sword-wielding Lord to invoke and meditate on (Object meditation) alongside my Guan Yin statue. It is the end of the semester and as a result, I’ve had plenty of time to meditate and invoke Buddhas. The power and majesty of Manjusri is something more than worthy of my alleigance, and my before-bed and after-awakening invocations to the Gentle Glory were of a doctrinal and psychological eminence that was realized probably due to my more scholastic slant. Manjusri’s patronage of spiritual clarity is, to me, welcome any moment, particularly as a student of religion.
