🌸 Clarifying Light: Avalokiteśvara’s Prophecy for the Degenerate Age
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Among the prophetic treasures of Tibet, The Clarifying Light: A Prophecy of the Future stands out for its urgency. It offers mantras unlike most others—short, unusual, and designed specifically for beings in the degenerate age.
The most widely cited mantra is:
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ ཕན་ནོ སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
E MA HO, P’EN NO P’EN NO SVAHA
At first glance, it looks irregular. It does not begin with the syllable OṂ, which is nearly universal in Buddhist mantras. Some scholars have dismissed it as inauthentic for this reason. Some practitioners, too, hesitate to trust it. But when we look deeper—guided by teachers, by the text itself, and by the wider patterns of Buddhist literature—it becomes clear that these mantras belong to Avalokiteśvara, Chenrezig, the Great Compassionate One.
☸ Avalokiteśvara in the Text
The narrative leaves no doubt who the key figure is. Avalokiteśvara is explicitly named as the Great Compassionate One. At the lake, he appears weeping for beings, moved by their suffering. Later, he prays to the Buddha directly:
“Then, the Great Compassionate One, noble Avalokiteśvara, spoke the following so that beings might arouse compassion in their minds: ‘Blessed One, I pray that you may infuse this text with your blessings. Consecrate it with magnetising powers, I pray.’”
The sequence is clear: Avalokiteśvara weeps, he prays, the Buddha blesses, and the mantra is given. No other deity is involved.
📜 The Prophetic Genre
Scholars have debated how to classify The Clarifying Light. Some call it a sutra, others a terma. In truth, it fits neatly into neither category.
It is not found in the Kangyur, and its references to Tibetan calendrical cycles would be unusual for a canonical sutra.
Nor was it revealed as a terma in the classic sense. Tibetan sources describe Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö not as its revealer but as its compiler (phyogs bsdus mdzad), who arranged for it to be preserved in print.
This places the text in the prophetic genre of lung bstan — visionary prophecies transmitted outside the Kangyur but entrusted for times of collapse.
Its authority rests not on whether we label it sutra or terma, but on its content: the compassionate intervention of Avalokiteśvara, and the mantras preserved for beings of the degenerate age.
(For readers who wish to consult the Tibetan with English translation, see:
🙏 Guidance from Teachers
When I asked my retreat master about the mantra, he said simply:
“This belongs to Chenrezig.”
That sentence opened the text. Once I understood that the “Great Compassionate One” of the prophecy was Avalokiteśvara, the meaning became clear.
Later, my root guru clarified further. He emphasized two points:
Some will never believe in this text. Their doubt itself is part of the degeneration described in the prophecy.
The text preserves not one but two mantras — and the second is the more important one for recitation.
Together, these teachings show that the prophecy is not a relic of the past, but a living transmission held in the lineage.
🔰 The First Mantra: Protective Formula
The text introduces the first mantra as a protective charm against epidemics and spirits:
“The mantra that guards against, and liberates from, all divine spirits, nāga spirits, elemental spirits and epidemics—Emaho, p’en no p’en no svāhā—should be worn by males on their right side and by females on their left.”
It is short, practical, and easy to remember or wear as an amulet.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ ཕན་ནོ སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
E MA HO, PHAN NO PHAN NO SVAHA
Translation options:
✨ “Wondrous! Repel, repel! May it be accomplished.”
✨ “How wondrous! Bring help, bring help! Svāhā.”
Both capture its essence: a protective call to Avalokiteśvara’s compassion.
💖 The Second Mantra: Practice Formula
The second mantra, preserved in the A ’dzom and mChan bu transmissions, is:
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཨོཾ་མ་པན་ནི་པན་ནི་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
E MA HO, OM MA PHAN NI PHAN NI SVAHA
Translation:✨ “How wondrous! Oṃ! O Mother, bring help, bring help! May it be accomplished.”
This fuller form invokes the universal Oṃ and appeals to the Mother principle of wisdom-compassion. Where the first mantra is sharp and defensive, the second is deeper and expansive, designed for sustained recitation.
This is why my root guru stressed: the second mantra is the one to recite in practice.
📜 The Colophon Evidence
The text preserves two forms of this Avalokiteśvara (Chenrezig) mantra:
· gSung ’bum and Ya chen editions: E ma ho / phan no phan no svāhā
· A ’dzom and mChan bu editions: E ma ho / Oṃ ma phan ni phan ni svāhā
This shows both versions are authentic. The shorter served for urgent use and amulets; the longer with Oṃ carried full liturgical resonance.
The mChan bu colophon seals the transmission:
“… this prophecy spoken by the Buddha first descended from the expanse of space in a former male Fire Horse year. Thereafter, noble Avalokiteśvara spread it throughout all lands for beings’ benefit. … It is important to pray to the Three Jewels, who are the unfailing sources of refuge, and especially Avalokiteśvara, protector of the Land of Snows.”
Avalokiteśvara is not only present within the text, but named as the one who carried it into the world.
✨ Sidebar: On Translating the Mantras
Because mantras use sacred syllables, translations vary:
Emaho 🌸 = “How wondrous!” / “Marvelous!” / “How amazing!”
Phan no / phan ni 🔰 = “Bring help!” / “Repel harm!” / “Benefit!”
Svāhā (Soha) ☸ = “May it be accomplished!” / “So be it!”
Both English renderings are faithful. What matters is the sound of the mantra and the faith of the practitioner.
🌟 Conclusion
The Clarifying Light preserves not one but two mantras of Avalokiteśvara: one short and protective, the other fuller and meant for recitation.
The retreat master’s guidance — “This belongs to Chenrezig” — was the key.
The root guru’s reminder — that many will doubt this text, and that the second mantra is most important — shows how to apply it.
The text itself seals this role:
“Until the victorious protector Maitreya arrives in this world, this dharma text serves as a refuge to beings.”
And perhaps, if in these “hot times” events are not as dark as foretold, it may be because a few bodhisattvas, alert to the conditions, have already shifted the currents toward the light.
Emaho—How wondrous! Bring help, bring help, svāhā.
☸ As a support for practice, I’ve made this mantra available as a wristband here on the website.
For daily use, a Short Sādhanā of the E MA HO Mantras — Called The Radiance of Clarifying Light is available here:
📥 Download the Practice Text: 👉
