INCLUDESCharm and necklace chain in a black velvet jewelry bag. You can also choose just the charm alone to use on your own cord or chain, or have me make a pair of earrings for you by selecting that option. SIZEThe charm is about 1" tall (26mm)The necklace chains are offered in your choice of length from 16" to 50" (40cm to 127cm)The optional earring hooks are comfortable 21 gauge earring wire (not too thick, not too thin). The SNAKE chains are about 1.2mm diameter (by any length you want)The FIGARO chains are about 3mm wide x 1mm thick (by any length you want)The WHEAT chains are about 3mm diameter (by any length you want)The BOX chains are available in 2.5mm, 3mm or 4mm diameters - add a note to the order with your choice, otherwise I will use 3mm (most popular). MATERIALSThe charms are antiqued silver zinc alloy castings. The necklace chain and optional earring hooks are made of hypo allergenic 304 Stainless steel. ABOUTAum mani padme hum is the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It first appeared in the Mahayana Karaavyuhasutra where it is also referred to as the sadaksara (six syllabled) and the paramahrdaya, or “innermost heart” of Avalokiteshvara. In this text the mantra is seen as condensed form of all the Buddhist teachings. The first word Aum/Om is a sacred syllable in various Indian religions. The word Mani means "jewel" or "bead", Padme is the "lotus flower" (the Buddhist sacred flower), and Hum represents the spirit of enlightenment. In Tibetan Buddhism, this is the most ubiquitous mantra and the most popular form of religious practice, performed by laypersons and monastics alike. It is also an ever present feature of the landscape, commonly carved onto rocks, known as mani stones, painted into the sides of hills or else it is written on prayer flags and prayer wheels. Due to the increased interactions between Chinese Buddhists and Tibetans and Mongolians during the 11th century, the mantra also entered Chinese Buddhism. The mantra has also been adapted into Chinese Taoism. In English, the mantra is variously transliterated, depending on the schools of Buddhism as well as individual teachers. Most authorities consider manipadme to be one compound word rather than two simple words. Sanskrit writing does not have capital letters and this means that capitalisation of transliterated mantras varies from all caps, to initial caps, to no caps. The all-caps rendering is typical of older scholarly works, and Tibetan Sadhana texts. Semantic Mantras may be interpreted by practitioners in many ways, or even as mere sequences of sound whose effects lie beyond strict semantic meaning. The middle part of the mantra, manipadme, is often interpreted as being in the locative case, "jewel in the lotus," Sanskrit mani "jewel, gem, cintamani" and the locative of padma "lotus". The Lotus is a symbol present throughout Indian religion, signifying purity (due to its ability to emerge unstained from the mud) and spiritual fruition (and thus, awakening). Manipadme is preceded by the om syllable and followed by the hum syllable, both interjections without linguistic meaning, but widely known as divine sounds. However, according to Donald Lopez (citing Tibetan grammatical sources) it is much more likely that manipadme is in fact a vocative, addressing a bodhisattva called manipadma, "Jewel-Lotus"- an alternative epithet of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. Damien Keown also notes that another theory about the meaning of this mantra is that it actually invokes a female deity named Manipadmi. This is due to evidence from texts like the Kara--avyuhasutra which depict the mantra as a female deity. Also, as noted by Studholme, if the word is read as a vocative, it would be a highly irregular form of the masculine grammatical gender and therefore its most likely in the feminine. Thus as Lopez notes, the original meaning of the mantra could in fact be an invocation of "she of the lotus jewel", who is the vidya (wisdom) and consort of Avalokiteshvara and is equivalent to Shakti's role vis a vis Shiva. Regarding the relationship between the jewel and the lotus, Sten Konow argued that it could either refer to "a lotus that is a jewel" or to "a jewel in the lotus". He argues that the second explanation makes more sense, indicating Shaivite influence through the imagery of the lingam (penis) and the yoni (vagina), both also terms associated with mani and padma respectively. Thus the mantra could in fact mean "O, she with the jewel in her lotus". According to Alexander Studholme however, the meaning of manipadme "should be parsed as a tatpurusa, or “determinative,” compound in the (masculine or neuter) locative case", meaning “in the jewel-lotus,” or “in the lotus made of jewels,” which refers to: the manner in which buddhas and bodhisattvas are said to be seated in these marvelous blooms and, in particular, to the manner in which more mundane beings are believed to appear in the pure land of the buddhas. Given the predominance, in the Kara--avyuha and in the Mahayana in general, of the religious goal of the pure land of Amitabha, it may be safely assumed that manipadme would have been quite naturally associated with the mode of the rebirth of human beings there. The recitation then, the bringing to mind of the name of the Buddhist isvara, includes a declaration of the manner in which a person is reborn in Sukhavati: “in the jewel lotus.”