Om Svabhava Shuddha Sarva Dharma Svabhava Shuddho Ham
First, do this.
Exhale and let go. Let go into the primal emptiness of all that is.
Exhale again. Let go of all the tension you are holding on to.
Release the worries, the fears, the guilts, the shoulds and the have tos.
Exhale and let go of your judgments, your opinions and your preconceived notions of yourself. Let go of your habits, your patterns; let go of the very fabric of self that you have woven so carefully, so tightly.
For just a little bit now, let yourself be nothing:
No-Thing. No-one-thing. Let yourself be pure emptiness: Limitless; without constraint; infinitely changeable.
Relax for a while in this freedom, this recognition of your true nature.
There is a sacred Sanskrit phrase that expresses this reality:
Om Svabhava Shuddha—The fundamental essence of all things is pure .
Sarva Dharma Svabhava Shuddho Ham —At their deepest nature, all existing phenomena, including you and me, are arising from pure essence.
This Buddhist mantra, known as the mantra of emptiness, is used, for the purpose of purification, as a preliminary to many practices. I first learned to chant it as a prelude to the Medicine Buddha mantra.
The Medicine Buddha mantra is a prayer for the alleviation of pain and suffering. It both calls upon the great lineage of Medicine Buddhas and, also, invokes the healing qualities of a medicine Buddha within oneself. I chant it as a regular part of my personal practice and before my counseling sessions.
In researching and then chanting Om Svabhava Shuddha, I came to an important realization: In order to alleviate pain and suffering, in myself or in others, I first have to recognize the inherent wholeness from which I come. I have to recognize that I am, have always been and will always be arising out of the vast, unknown, limitless essence of pure being.
This pure essence is formless and, at the same time, always taking shape anew. It is expansive and untainted; it is naturally luminous.
It is the state of pure potential: constantly and continuously pregnant with possibility.
In any given moment, in every given moment, this pure essence is birthing all of creation.
It is the power to arise, the power to remain, the power to disintegrate.
Everything, every thing, arises from this pure Source. Everything, including me, including you, is inherently pure.
Ahhh, yes.
Svabhava Shuddho Ham—I am that inherently pure essence from which all things are formed. I am stainless, limitless and free.
I have the power to arise, the power to remain, the power to disintegrate.
I arise from the vast ocean of pure potential.
In every moment creation is born anew— I am born anew.
Anything is possible.
Shuddho Ham—From THIS we rise.
Aum.