Om Mani Padme Hum

This is a traditional Tibetan Buddhist mantra, which is often popularly translated as "Aum, to the Jewel in the Lotus, hum." But the meaning is much more complicated than that. It is an invocation of the bodhisattva of compassion, Chenrezig, and it serves to remind us of the Buddha's teaching on the inevitability of suffering along with the path to transcend it.

Below the video is an insightful interpretation by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama. But speaking of the video...check this out! I think it's relaxing and hilarious and wonderful all at the same time. It features singing of the mantra set to a 1950s nature film about springtime. Fantastic!

"It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast... The first, Om [...] symbolizes the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.

The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: (the) altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love

The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom.

Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility.

Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha."