“Namuamitabul” is a Korean Buddhist chant that means “The Buddha of infinite light, infinite life, and infinite wisdom.”

This chant is recited numerous times by participants in a WON Buddhist meditation as part of a routine that involves chanting, sitting meditation and walking meditation.

The melody is quite haunting and you won’t be able to get it out of your consciousness once you hear it. The idea for the chant, I believe, is to get all thoughts out of your mind once you hear it and repeat it in a group of 20 to 40 people at any given session.

Boundless light and infinite life connects one with one’s Buddha Nature

I can tell you that it works. Every time I meet at the WON Buddhist Temple of Philadelphia I get inspired to go deeper and reach higher within myself. I I don’t know what it is that I touch upon, but it warms me like the love of a child by a doting parent.

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I can also tell you that a chant from the Tibetan Buddhists practice also works. It is “Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ,” and roughly means the “Jewel in the Lotus — Enlightenment.” It refers to Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion or Kwan Yin, the Chinese Bodhisattva/ Goddess of Compassion.

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But my favorite one is from the old Roman Catholic Mass and was the only Greek words spoken during the Latin responses by a priest and his altar boys when I was growing up In Brewerytown, a section of Philadelphia. It is what is called the Kyrie Eleison

It means: “Lord Have Mercy” and is followed by “Christ Have Mercy.”

I use it any time I find myself needing to wipe my mind clean of daily debris that gets stuck. You know, the annoying thoughts that don’t seem to go away. Your anxious ones about the future or your fretting ones about the past.

Say any of the chants over and over again and you’ll get rid of those pesky thoughts that somehow get trapped in your head. Your mind will come under control and you’ll find the natural heart and mind of the Buddha Nature or what some Christians call the “Christ Consciousness.”

Some call it love.

I call it my salvation.