Materials: Slate (rock) / Loans: S1964-1965 #103: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (June 11, 1965–August 6, 1965) - Hearst Museum Portal Search Results

Start Over Materials Slate (rock) Loans S1964-1965 #103: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (June 11, 1965–August 6, 1965)

Hearst Museum object titled Slab with religious text, accession number 9-102, described as Small fragment of slab of gray stone (slate) with inscription in Tibetan syllabic script; a prayer: Om mani padme hum (repeated on 3 lines). The prayer is of Sanskrit origin; the script is derived historically from the devanagari script for Sanskrit. For one interpretation of the inscription and for photos of mai walls in Ladakh, India, see: “Mountaintop War in Remote Ladakh” by W.E. Garrett, National Geographic, Vol. 122, #5 (May, 1963), pp. 685-7. The interpretation is: Om= I invoke the path and experience of universality, so that. Mani= the jeweline luminosity of my immortal mind. Padme= be unfolded within the depth of the lotus-center of awakened consciousness. Hum= and I be wafted by the ecstasy of breaking though all bonds and horizons. But Dr. Bosson, UC Oriental Languages Department says this prayer had no meaning; the meaning has been lost (June, 1965).