Siddham Seed Syllables
The Jane Addams Institute logo derives from the sacred Siddham script and represents the seed syllable “A”. As all the essential elements of a tree are contained in its seed, so the seed syllables contain the essence of certain ideas. The A in Siddham encompasses the ideas of “accomplished” or “perfected” in Sanskrit. Jane Addams Institute reflects this aspiration in helping international students to access and accomplish highly-prized UK university graduate degrees.
The UK partner universities are also benefited in the process by new and ongoing income streams, allowing their institutions to better perfect their directions from the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) that oversees all UK universities, to expand access to their courses.
Siddham is a sacred script derived from the original Sanskrit language. The ‘a’ seed syllable in Siddhāṃ represent the essence of the Prajñāpāramitā, or Perfection of Wisdom, tradition. This idea was explicitly expressed in the Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom in One Letter, that letter, or syllable in Siddmam script, being ‘a’.
The word Siddhaṃ means “accomplished” or “perfected” in Sanskrit. The script received its name from the practice of writing Siddhaṃ, or Siddhaṃ astu (may there be perfection), at the head of documents. Other names for the script include bonji (Japanese: 梵字) lit. “Brahma‘s characters” and “Sanskrit script” and Chinese: 悉曇文字; pinyin: Xītán wénzi lit. “Siddhaṃ script”.
Seed syllables (Sanskrit bījākṣara) are the quintessence of mantra, and the ultimate condensation of the Dharma*, containing infinite meaning in a single syllable. The Siddham seed syllable A in is the mother of all written and spoken syllables in Tibetan traditions.
*The etymology of the word dharma has roots in the Sanskrit dhr-, which means to hold or to support, and is related to Latin firmus (firm, stable).