[Buddha-l] karma offset?

[Chris Fynn]

Mike Austin wrote:
> Sally McAra <sallymcara at gmail.com> writes
>> Someone thinks they can offset the harm cars cause with a few sacred
>> syllables....

> I wonder what karma is offset by a mantra going backwards on a wheel? On 
> one side of the car, does the mantra have to be written in reverse? What 
> does "muh emdap inam mo" mean?


Perhaps they should use Bonpo mantras for the wheels on one side of the 
car and Buddhist mantras for the other.

If they want one syllable on each "spoke" of the hubcap the've also 
written the mantra wrong ~  for this it should be written:
ༀ ་ མ ་ ཎི ་ པད ་ མེ ་  ཧཱུྂ not ༀ ་ མ ་ ཎི ་ པ ་ དྨེ ་  ཧཱུྂ

I'm also not sure whether putting sacred mantras *below* where people 
are seated would be considered very kosher - the disrespect shown to the 
holy syllablea by sitting above them, rotating them backwards and 
putting them where they will undoubtedly be spattered by filth and mud - 
and probably be pissed on by dogs - seems like a ticket to rebirth in 
the lower realms.

Anyway the other day I was informed by a lama who seems to have some 
sense that nagas and local deities do not like plastic. So putting 
mantras on plastic hubcaps and providing an apparent excuse for people 
to feel OK about using polluting forms of transport like cars is 
undoubtedly counter productive and will upset the nagas and spirits.

- Chris