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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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SWOYAMBHU (CONT.), NEPAL
There was a HUGE prayer wheel in the temple across from the stupa. My first thought was that scene in Golden Child where Eddie Murphy is rapping "I I I I I want the knife" on the prayer wheel when he goes to Kathmandu to get the magic dagger to save the Golden Child. Hahahha! That was hella funny! Along the round edge of the main stupa, at shoulder level above the platform base, are hundreds of large prayer wheels, each containing thousands of handwritten repetitions of the Buddhist mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum - Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus. I walked around the main stupa area for about an hour looking in the few shops and shrines. There was a great view of Kathmandu City!
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Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying the mantra (prayer), Om Mani Padme Hum, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. Viewing the written form of the mantra is said to have the same effect -- it is often carved into stones, like the one pictured above, and placed where people can see them. Spinning the written form of the mantra around in a Mani wheel (or prayer wheel) is also believed to give the same benefit as saying the mantra, and Mani wheels, small hand wheels and large wheels with millions of copies of the mantra inside, are found everywhere in the lands influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.
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