Om Mani Padme Hum

sunday sunday...great meeting tonight...funny thing, i'm not craving a drink anymore.  i've been around alcohol a few times recently and had absolutely no desire. i am hoping that is a sign that my good ol' HP has taken that away. time will tell, or i could go and just plunk myself down at one of my favorite bars; but i think i'll wait on the time.
did i mention i'm getting a new tattoo? i did right...i can NOT stop thinking about it...so very excited..tattoos for me are stories of a time in my life brought to you by indelible ink. that is the beauty i see in tattoos. okay, except for the gang letters in an arc over someone's belly button..that's just straight up dumb.....SO...this is the story behind why i am getting what i am getting...if you click on the link below and scroll down to the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, it gives you a brief description of what the mantra means...

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/six-states.shtml

below, the link will show you the design i will be getting w/out the big circle around it and the symbol in the middle..it will be replaced with the tibetan symbol for compassion...so each one of those symbols is tibetan script for the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum.

http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/mani-graphics.htm#Circular



i know you are dying to know even more...actually, if you take the time to read this, it will surely explain why it is so meaningful to me...
People who learn about the mantra naturally want to know what it means, and often ask for a translation into English or some other Western language. However, Om Mani Padme Hum can not really be translated into a simple phrase or even a few sentences.  All of the Dharma is based on Buddha's discovery that suffering is unnecessary: Like a disease, once we really face the fact that suffering exists, we can look more deeply and discover it's cause; and when we discover that the cause is dependent on certain conditions, we can explore the possibility of removing those conditions. 
Buddha taught many very different methods for removing the cause of suffering, methods appropriate for the very different types and conditions and aptitudes of suffering beings. For those who had the capacity to understand it, he taught the most powerful method of all, a method based on the practice of compassion. It is known as the Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, because practicing it benefits all beings, without partiality. It is likened to a vast boat that carries all the beings in the universe across the sea of suffering.
Within the Mahayana the Buddha revealed the possibility of very quickly benefiting all beings, including oneself, by entering directly into the awakened state of mind, or Buddhahood, without delay. Again, there are different ways of accomplishing this, but the most powerful, and at the same time the most accessible, is to link ones own mind with the mind of a Buddha.
In visualization practice we imagine ourselves to be a Buddha, in this case the Buddha of Compassion, Chenrezig. By replacing the thought of yourself as you with the thought of yourself as Chenrezig, you gradually reduce and eventually remove the fixation on your personal self, which expands your loving kindness and compassion, toward yourself and toward others, and your intelligence and wisdom becomes enhanced, allowing you to see clearly what someone really needs and to communicate with them clearly and accurately. 
In most religious traditions one prays to the deities of the tradition in the hopes of receiving their blessing, which will benefit one in some way. In the vajrayana Buddhist tradition, however, the blessing and the power and the superlative qualities of the enlightened beings are not considered as coming from an outside source, but are believed to be innate, to be aspects of our own true nature. Chenrezig and his love and compassion are within us.
Chenrezig: The Embodiment of Compassion
In doing the visualization practice we connect with the body and voice and mind of the Buddha by the three aspects of the practice. By our posture and certain gestures we connect with the body, by reciting the words of the liturgy and by repeating the mantra we connect with the voice, and by imagining the visual form of the Buddha we connect with the mind.

so after reading all of that are you totally confused?  when you combine all the basic info, it means that the cycle of suffering can be closed when you are re-born into each realm. although i am not a practicing buddhist, anyone that knows me, knows that i have always been intrigued and learn bits at a time....and this recovery process is like a re-birth for me. not just because i'm sober...sure that's swell...but i am starting from the womb out. it is literally a re-birthing experience to change behaviors that i only knew of and learn ones that i had know idea even existed. i have never known...i have never known what is 'normal'. that isn't a slap in the face to those who raised me, they didn't know either. but i'm breaking the cycle. i'm learning to live. i am crying as i type this because i feel so joyous and free.  i will be ok. i've accepted (as my aunt says), that i am a person of depth and i will always have layers to peel away and that is just fine. i never knew that was okay. truly.