Old Tibetan Buddhist Silver & Turquoise Amulet

Eternal Om

This exquisite Antique Tibetan handmade masterpiece will make the perfect gift for any devout Buddhist practitioner or enthusiast. This unique piece was hand crafted from silver & turquoise and is decorated with an image of the Eternal Om. I have included more info about the Eternal Om. Back in 2007 I was fortunate enough to take a train trip from Beijing to Lhasa where I purchased several of these pieces. Don't let this unique opportunity pass you by... Buy It Now!

Size: Can be seen on photos above.

Materials: silver, brass, turquoise

Age: Unknown

Thanks for your time and consideration... Dobuydon

SHIPPING (PLEASE READ)

I will ship your item via International Registered Air Mail as soon as payment is received. Registered Mail is the most reliable and secure method of shipping and guarantees that your item will arrive. I have never lost any registered mail shipments. Normal shipping time to most locations is 10-14 business days. Sometimes it can take longer… please be patient. Once your shipment arrives, a signature will be required. If no one is available to sign for the shipment the post office should leave a notice and you may have to go pick up your item.

Expedited shipping via International Express Mail Service (EMS) is available for an extra charge. Normal shipping time to most locations via EMS is 5 working days. Please email me for a price quote if you desire express shipping.

Please remember to check customs regulations before importing items that may be restricted in your country.

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ONCE YOU RECEIVE YOUR SHIPMENT - I ask that you please email and let me know that you have received the shipment as soon as possible. If you are happy with the item and with the service that I have provided, I ask that you please leave POSITIVE FEEDBACK. I strive to provide 5 STAR products and services... Thanks again for your support…. Dobuydon.


Om

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The universal "Om" symbol

Om ओ३म्or About this sound aum (written universally as ; in Devanagari as ओं oṃ [õː]औं auṃ [ə̃ũ], or 'ओ३म्' om[õːm]) is a mystical Sanskrit sound of Hindu origin, sacred and important in various Dharmic religions such asHinduismBuddhism and Jainism. The syllable is also referred to as omkara (ओंकार oṃkāra) or aumkara (औंकारauṃkāra), literally "om syllable", and in Sanskrit it is sometimes referred to as praṇava, literally "that which is sounded out loudly".

Om is also written ओ३म् (ō̄m [õːːm]), where ३ is pluta ("three times as long"), indicating a length of three morae(that is, the time it takes to say three syllables)—an overlong nasalized close-mid back rounded vowel—though there are other enunciations adhered to in received traditions. It is placed at the beginning of most Hindu texts as a sacred incantation to be intoned at the beginning and end of a reading of the Vedas or prior to any prayer ormantra. It is used at the end of the invocation to the god being sacrificed to (anuvakya) as an invitation to and for that God to partake of the sacrifice. The Māndukya Upanishad is entirely devoted to the explanation of the syllable. The syllable consists of three phonemes, a (Vaishvanara),[1] u (Hiranyagarbha), and m (Ishvara), which symbolize the beginning, duration, and dissolution of the universe and the associated gods BrahmaVishnu, and Shiva, respectively.[2] The name omkara is taken as a name of God in the Hindu revivalist Arya Samaj and can be translated as "I Am Existence"[citation needed].

Contents

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[edit]Name, phonology and written representation

The Sanskrit name for the syllable is praṇava, from a root nu "to shout, sound", verbal pra-nu- being attested as "to make a humming or droning sound" in theBrahmanas, and taking the specific meaning of "to utter the syllable om" in the Chāndogya Upanishad and the Shrauta Sutras. More rarely used terms areakṣara (lit. symbol, character) or ekākṣara (lit. one symbol, character), and in later times omkāra becomes prevalent.

Phonemically, the syllable is /aum/, which is regularly monophthongized to [õː] in Sanskrit phonology. It is sometimes also written with pluti, as o3m (ओ३म्), notably by Arya Samaj. When occurring within a Sanskrit utterance, the syllable is subject to the normal rules of sandhi in Sanskrit grammar, however with the additional peculiarity that after preceding a or ā, the au of aum does not form vriddhi (au) but guna (o) per Pāṇini 6.1.95 (i.e. 'om').

The om symbol Aum.svg is a ligature of Devanagari  (U+0913) +  (U+0901) (oṃ, encoded in Unicode at U+0950 , the Tibetan script variant  at U+0F00, and the Chinese version  at U+5535 or  at U+543D).

Om in various scripts
The symbol om in the Devanagari(Hindi, Nepali),Gujarati andMarathi scripts  
The symbol om in the Grantha alphabet  
The symbol om in the Tamil script  
The symbol om inTelugu andKannada script  
The symbol om inOriyaAssameseand Bengali.  
The Balinese omsymbol  
The Tibetan omsymbol  
The symbol om in the Siddhaṃ alphabet  

[edit]In Hinduism

Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva within an OM
An article related to
Hinduism
Om.svg

The syllable "om" is first described as all-encompassing mystical entity in the Upanishads. Today, in all Hindu art and all over India and Nepal, 'om' can be seen virtually everywhere, a common sign for Hinduism and its philosophyand theology. Hindus believe that as creation began, the divine, all-encompassing consciousness took the form of the first and original vibration manifesting as sound "OM".[3] Before creation began it was "Shunyākāsha", the emptiness or the void. Shunyākāsha, meaning literally "no sky", is more than nothingness, because everything then existed in a latent state of potentiality. The vibration of "OM" symbolizes the manifestation of God in form ("sāguna brahman"). "OM" is the reflection of the absolute reality, it is said to be "Adi Anadi", without beginning or the end and embracing all that exists.[3] The mantra "OM" is the name of God, the vibration of the Supreme. When taken letter by letter, A-U-M represents the divine energy (Shakti) united in its three elementary aspects: Bhrahma Shakti (creation), Vishnu Shakti (preservation) and Shiva Shakti (liberation, and/or destruction).[3]

[edit]Early Vedantic literature

The syllable is mentioned in all the Upanishads, specially elaborated upon in the TaittiriyaChāndogya and Māndukya Upanishad set forth as the object of profound religious meditation, the highest spiritual efficacy being attributed not only to the whole word but also to the three sounds a (a-kāra), u (u-kāra), m (ma-kāra), of which it consists. A-kara means form or shape like earth, trees, or any other object. U-kāra means formless or shapeless like water, air or fire. Ma-kāra means neither shape nor shapeless (but still exists) like the dark energy content of the Universe. When we combine all three syllables we get AUM which is a combination of A-kāraU-kāra, and Ma-kāra.[4]

The Katha Upanishad states:

"The goal, which all Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which humans desire when they live a life of conscience, I will tell you briefly it is aum"
"The one syllable [evākṣara, viz. aum] is indeed Brahman. This one syllable is the highest. Whosoever knows this one syllable obtains all that he desires.
"This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma." (1.2.15–17)[5]

The Chāndogya Upanishad (1.1.1-1) states:

om ity-etad akṣaram udgītham upāsīta / aum iti hy udgāyati / tasyopavyākhyānam
"The udgi:tā ["the chanting", that is, the syllable om] is the best of all essences, the highest, deserving the highest place, the eighth."

The Bhagavad Gi:tā (8.13) states that:

Uttering the monosyllable Aum, the eternal world of Brahman, One who departs leaving the body (at death), he attains the Supreme Goal (i.e., he reaches God).

In Bhagavad Gi:tā (9.17): Lord Krishna says to Arjuna – "I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable oṃ. I am also the Ṛig, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas."

The Bhagvad Gi:tā (17.23) has:

om tatsatiti nirdesho brahmanstrividhah samratah
"OM, tat and sat has been declared as the triple appellation of Brahman, who is Truth, Consciousness and Bliss."

In the following sūtra it emphasizes, "The repetition of om should be made with an understanding of its meaning".[6]

[edit]Paramahansa Yogananda refers to Om/Aum

The Yoga teacher and Swami, Paramahansa Yogananda mentions Om/Aum numerous times in his teachings, for example on page 277 of his "Autobiography of a Yogi": "Patanjali speaks of God as the actual Cosmic Sound of Aum that is heard in meditation. Aum is the Creative Word, the whir of the Vibratory Motor, the witness of Divine Presence. Even the beginner in yoga may soon hear the wondrous sound of Aum."

[edit]Puranic Hinduism

The Om Parvat in Pithoragarh district. Its snow deposit is said to resemble the "om" symbol.
God Ganesha is sometimes identified with the om

In Purānic Hinduism, om is the mystic name for the Hindu Trimurti, and represents the union of the three gods, viz. a for Brahmau for Vishnu and m for Mahadev which is another name of Shiva. The three sounds also symbolize the three Vedas, namely (RigvedaSamavedaYajurveda).

According to Hindu philosophy (see Māndukya Upanishad), the letter A represents creation, when all existence issued forth from Brahma's golden nucleus; the letter U refers to Vishnu the God of the middle who preserves this world by balancing Brahma on a lotus above himself, and the letter M symbolizes the final part of the cycle of existence, when Bharma falls asleep and Shiva has to breathe in so that all existing things have to disintegrate and are reduced to their essence to him. More broadly, om is said to be the primordial sound that was present at the creation of the universe. It is said to be the original sound that contains all other sounds, all words, all languages and all mantras.

[edit]Advaita

Aum symbol on a temple elephant's forehead

In Advaita philosophy it is frequently used to represent three subsumed into one, a triune, a common theme in Hinduism. It implies that our current existence is mithyā and maya, "falsehood", that in order to know the full truth we must comprehend beyond the body and intellect the true nature of infinity. Essentially, upon moksha (muktisamādhi) one is able not only to see or know existence for what it is, but to become it. When one gains true knowledge, there is no split between knower and known: one becomes knowledge/consciousness itself. In essence, Om is the signifier of the ultimate truth that all is one.

[edit]In proper names

When Om is a part of a place name (for example Omkāreshwar), or is used as a man's name, it is spelled phonetically using ordinary letters of whatever Indian alphabet is used in the area. The adherents of Arya Samaj always use the ordinary letters अ(Ah), ऊ(ooh) and म(ma) to write om.

[edit]In Jainism

Depiction of om in Jain script

In Jainism, om is regarded to be a condensed form of reference to the Pañca-Parameṣṭhi, by their initials A+A+A+U+M(o3m). The Dravyasamgraha quotes a Prakrit line:

ओम एकाक्षर पञ्चपरमेष्ठिनामादिपम् तत्कथमिति चेत "अरिहंता असरीरा आयरिया तह उवज्झाया मुणियां"
oma ekākṣara pañca-parameṣṭhi-nāmā-dipam tatkabhamiti ceta "arihatā asarīrā āyariyā taha uvajjhāyā muṇiyā"
"Om" is one syllable made from the initials of the five parameshthis. It has been said: "ArihantAshiriAcharya,UpajjhayaMuni" .

Thus, ओं नमः (oṃ namaḥ) is a short form of the Navkar Mantra.

[edit]In Buddhism

Buddhists place om at the beginning of their Vidya-Sadaksari ("om mani padme hum") as well in as most other mantras and dharanis. Moreover, as a seed syllable (a bija mantraaum is considered holy in Esoteric Buddhism.

In Buddhist texts of East Asian provenance, om is often written as the Chinese character  (pinyin ǎn) or  (pinyin wēng).

A key distinction should be made here between Buddhism as it arose in Nepal, and Buddhism after the migration of the teachings to Tibet under the guidance of Padmasambhava. In its original form, Buddhism in Nepal was characterized mainly by types of mindfulness meditation and did not involve the chanting ofom or of mantras.[7] Tibetan Buddhism, with heavy Hindu influence and merger with Bon Shamanism, is now characterized by the AH[clarification needed] bija, which can be roughly translated as representing pure spirit (the fifth in the Tibetan system of elements).

As to its precise graphic form, the Vedic or Indian om is what most Westerners are used to, and the Tibetan alphabet om is less widespread in popular culture.[8] Even Tibetan handicrafts made in India tend to use the Nepali-script om for recognizability.

[edit]"Onkar" in Sikhism

Ik Onkar (One God)

Ik Onkar, in modern Punjabi spelt out as ਇੱਕ ਓਅੰਕਾਰ, but iconically represented as  in the Guru Granth Sahib (although sometimes spelt out in full as ਏਕੰਕਾਰੁ) is the statement of the uniqueness of God in Sikhism,[9] and is commonly translated simply as "one God".[10]Within the phrase, "ik" is the Punjabi word for "one", and "onkar" figuratively means "God" but literally means "creater of Om";[11] "-kar" (in Punjabi ਕਾਰ) meaning "create", "work", or "action".[12] Thus, although "Om" is referenced, Sikhism uses it only to starkly emphasize its monotheism without subscribing to its philosophy in and of itself.[11]