Tadyatha

[dakini_boi]

When tadyatha appears in the middle of a mantra, what is its function? It seems to be dividing the mantra into 2 parts. For example, in the long medicine Buddha mantra and the Cundi mantra:


namaḥ saptānāṁ samyak-saṁbuddha koṭīnāṁ
tad-yathā oṁ cale cule cundi svāhā

namo bhagavate bhaiṣajyaguru
vaiḍūryaprabharājāya tathāgatāya
arhate samyaksambuddhāya tadyathā:
oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye mahābhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā

[Malcolm]

namo bhagavate bhaiṣajyaguru
vaiḍūryaprabharājāya tathāgatāya
arhate samyaksambuddhāya tadyathā:
oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye mahābhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā

RIght, the first part is a praise, "Homage to the Bhagavan Bhaisajyaraguru Vaiduryaprabharaja, a tathagata, an arhat, a samyaksambuddha", followed by his mantra, thus, om....etc.

but typically we recite all together.

[Seishin]

I'd read that it roughly means "like this/this way/speak this/proclaim this". It also seems to be debated about quite a bit.

Gassho,
Seishin

[dakini_boi]

Thank you both.

So, grammatically, does the tadyatha signify that the praise is made by means of the mantra? i.e., "Praise to so and so - [make the praise] like this: Om. . . "

[Malcolm]

Thank you both.

So, grammatically, does the tadyatha signify that the praise is made by means of the mantra? i.e., "Praise to so and so - [make the praise] like this: Om. . . "

Tadyatha is made of two words tad yatha, "as follows here":

[dakini_boi]

Thanks, Malcolm, so I see it is just a connector of the 2 parts of the mantra. Is it true that originally, it wasn't meant to be part of the recitation?

[catmoon]

Bodhipaksa over at wildmind.org thinks so, and I tend to agree. It's kind of a disputed topic, and people are SOOooooo attached to familiar mantra forms...

On the other hand, if you recite Pepsi slogans sincerely and with correct intent, it will likely work as well or better than the standard forms. It's sort of a "dogs tooth" principle.

[Kaji]

"Tadyathaa" in some sutra has been translated to Chinese as "即說咒曰", which literally means "the mantra is thus now spoken as..."

Hope this helps.

[Jayarava]

tadyathā is the equivalent a stage direction. I've written about it in some detail on my blog: tadyathā in the Heart Sutra.

The words tad yathā mean 'in this way, like this' - indicating that the mantra which has been introduced before tadyathā is what follows tadyathā. My blog post looks at both the Heart Sutra and Medicine Buddha mantras.

The fact that it inadvertently got included in some mantras is down to people not understanding Sanskrit when passing on mantras. Simple as that. But as someone else points out, people are attached to their mantras. We tend to insist on chanting them as received, even if they contain errors. The standard Tibetan explanations of the Vajrasattva mantras have also mangled the Sanskrit original, but no one really wants to hear this. Many Buddhists explicitly or implicitly believe in the infallibility of lineage. But a basic knowledge of Sanskrit will disabuse most people of this affliction when it comes to mantras.

[Yudron]

tadyathā is the equivalent a stage direction. I've written about it in some detail on my blog: tadyathā in the Heart Sutra.

The words tad yathā mean 'in this way, like this' - indicating that the mantra which has been introduced before tadyathā is what follows tadyathā. My blog post looks at both the Heart Sutra and Medicine Buddha mantras.

The fact that it inadvertently got included in some mantras is down to people not understanding Sanskrit when passing on mantras. Simple as that. But as someone else points out, people are attached to their mantras. We tend to insist on chanting them as received, even if they contain errors. The standard Tibetan explanations of the Vajrasattva mantras have also mangled the Sanskrit original, but no one really wants to hear this. Many Buddhists explicitly or implicitly believe in the infallibility of lineage. But a basic knowledge of Sanskrit will disabuse most people of this affliction when it comes to mantras.

Different lamas have different opinions about whether we should try to do mantras "correctly" in Sanskrit. If we are, in essence, mentally correcting our guru when we say a mantra differently than he or she does, is that a subtle attitude that we want to carry in to our practice?