Can we gain Enlightenment just by reciting Mantras?

[fruven]

For the majority of us who are uninitiated lay practitioners I don't think we can gain enlightenment just by reciting mantras in a short single human lifespan. When do our mantra recitation regularly it helps us to cultivate a good habit of connecting with our meditation deity.

As some have mentioned that what is the use of reciting mantra while still committing non-virtue. I agreed that it is better to abandon non-virtue then accumulate negative karma and reciting mantra at the same time. For example there are some people who are in a difficult situation of running a family business such as animal sales and trading. In that case they should do mantra recitation regularly until such a time they can avoid from it.

[MoMo]

When we read or heard someone mentioned that one could achieve liberation or enlightenment simply by reciting a certain mantra, this statement should not be taken literally that it is all that one need to do.
The question of whether it will lead to cessation can be held to be true was that  mantra was the condensation of 84,000 bundle teachings of an enlightened being, the speech aspect of a Buddha. Simply by the virtue of an enlightened being serves as the cause, it cannot ripen into more suffering or a mundane fruition.
An example would be in the case of Devadatta, his meeting with Lord Buddha serves as the conditions for his ill-will, jealousy and other harmful deeds to manifest which led him to be swallowed by the earth. At the same time, in this meeting with Lord Buddha and the leaving a holy life in early part of his monkhood ensured that he would become a Pratyekabuddha named Atthisara in future.
We can understand by analysing the above example that all conditioned phenomena must have its causes. It can be further studied as in Dependent Arising (paticcasamuppada) and Transcendental Dependent Arising (upanisa sutta) from this web article http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel277.html

Mundane Order
Ignorance (avijja)
Kamma formations (sankhara)
Consciousness (viññana)
Mentality-materiality (namarupa)
Sixfold sense base (salayatana)
Contact (phassa)
Feeling (vedana)
Craving (tanha)
Clinging (upadana)
Existence (bhava)
Birth (jati)
Suffering (dukkha)

Transcendental Order
Faith (saddha)
Joy (pamojja)
Rapture (piti)
Tranquillity (passaddhi)
Happiness (sukha)
Concentration (samadhi)
Knowledge and vision of things as they are (yathabhutañanadassana)
Disenchantment (nibbida)
Dispassion (viraga)
Emancipation (vimutti)
Knowledge of destruction of the cankers (asavakkhaye ñana)
Suffering as in the mundane world now serves as the platform for faith to arise followed by the rest until final cessation.
I’m very sure at the beginning if one can recite mantra diligently he must have some level of understanding of suffering and have faith in the 3 jewels, in particular to the mantra, now this faith give one’s strength to stay on path that lead to joy, rapture….wisdom.
More example of why faith was important could be found on page 239,240 of “Liberation in the palm of your hand”.

[psylotripitaka]

In the Root Tantra of Chakrasamvara, it says the supreme attainment can be accomished merely through reciting the mantras such as the 3-OM mantra of Vajrayogini, however, there are various meanings of this.

It doesn't mean that the mantra recitation is the only condition by which the final Union of No More Learning is attained, but through the recitation all the conditions for accomplishing the common and supreme attainments can be produced. How quickly it produces these conditions depends on the altitude of the practitioner, the degree of their faith, correct view, correct intention, level of concentration, frequency of application and so forth. This is a wonderful encouragement actually. Even if a practitioner recites with a little faith and poor concentration, powerful imprints will be left in their mind, and it will also start to gather conditions for faith, concentration, and other good qualities and conditions to increase.

Strictly speaking, it is necessary to gather many conditions together to complete the path. In particular, it is finally necessary for the practitioner to progress through the actual completion stage meditations. Vajra Recitation is the ultimate mantra recitation and we can understand how this leads to the attainment of final enlightenment by studying commentaries on the practice.

[psylotripitaka]

...'aptitude' of the practitioner....

Not 'altitude'

[kelly]

mantra recitation is very powerful I personally has experience it even a person who do not know why he or she has to recite mantra it still benefits them a lot, I will not be surprise that just reciting mantra can attain enlightenment with proper visualisation and faith it can unblock our chakra .

[cookie]

Mantras are very powerful and beneficial to get attainments. But on it's own one cannot be enlightened. Chanting mantras and doing sadhannas regularly are very crucial in our Dharma practice. But what is even more important is when we are off the prayer cushion; how we live our lives with the other sentient beings, our thoughts, actions and speech must always be virtuous, for the benefit of others.

[pinecone]

Similar question contrary to the above topic is “if one knows how to cycle a bicycle, can he or she ride a motorbike? “ The answer is yes one has to learn the tactic of operating the mechanism before mastering it. Similarly, if by chanting the mantra, one could lead to enlightenment and continuously killing, harming and performing non-virtuous deed, what is the point of striving to learn and practise the dharma . Further, why does Buddha tirelessly gave thousands of dharma teachings in order to educate beings to lead them to a better path and eliminate their suffering.

[yontenjamyang]

In the Root Tantra of Chakrasamvara, it says the supreme attainment can be accomished merely through reciting the mantras such as the 3-OM mantra of Vajrayogini, however, there are various meanings of this.

It doesn't mean that the mantra recitation is the only condition by which the final Union of No More Learning is attained, but through the recitation all the conditions for accomplishing the common and supreme attainments can be produced. How quickly it produces these conditions depends on the altitude of the practitioner, the degree of their faith, correct view, correct intention, level of concentration, frequency of application and so forth. This is a wonderful encouragement actually. Even if a practitioner recites with a little faith and poor concentration, powerful imprints will be left in their mind, and it will also start to gather conditions for faith, concentration, and other good qualities and conditions to increase.

Strictly speaking, it is necessary to gather many conditions together to complete the path. In particular, it is finally necessary for the practitioner to progress through the actual completion stage meditations. Vajra Recitation is the ultimate mantra recitation and we can understand how this leads to the attainment of final enlightenment by studying commentaries on the practice.

Mantras are the speech form of the Buddha of that particular mantra and it represent,

1) the aeons of merits that the Buddha generated
2) the enlightened qualities of the Buddha
3) the qualities that is stated in the particular mantra that act as an aspiration for the reciter.

Mantras hence represent the entire 84000 teachings of the Buddha. However, for the side of the reciter, how quickly one can achieve enlightenment given humans can only live about 80 plus years on the average, depends on the root merits already generated most likely from previous lives. Like Chuda who fined liberation just by sweeping the floors, the person must already have tons of merits and the mantra recitations or sweeping of the floor is the "last stamp in the redemption card".

Yes, reciting mantras alone can lead to enlightenment but I don't think it is the recommended way when we have more methods available. For most of us, it will take aeons.