These six classes of beings correspond to the
syllables of the formula, 'Om mani padme houm.' Living beings by
continual transformations, and according to their merit or demerit,
pass about in these six classes until they have attained the apex
of perfection, when they are absorbed and lost in the grand essence
of Buddha. Living beings have, according to the class to which they
belong, particular means of sanctifying themselves, of rising to a
superior class, of obtaining perfection, and of arriving in process
of time at the period of their absorption. Men who repeat very
frequently and devotedly 'Om mani padme houm,' escape falling after
death into the six classes of animate creatures, corresponding to
the six syllables of the formula, and obtain the plenitude of being,
by their absorption into the eternal and universal soul of Buddha."
One traveller only I have been able to find who mentions the sentence
as I have done. M. Jacquemont writes, in his "Letters from Cashmere
and Thibet," in 1830: -- "I am returned from afar; I have often been
very cold; I have had a hundred and eighteen very bad dinners: but
I think myself amply recompensed for these trans-Himalayan miseries
by the interesting observations and vast collections which I have
been able to make in a country perfectly new.
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