Manjushree Dance at Mandala Street

I was just walking through mandala street and I saw the crowd over there. There was a program for Thamel Tourism year2011 and there were different performance making the place more entertaining. I recorded this video from there and liked to share on my site.

Shakyamuni Buddha Mantra(Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuniye svaha)

Oṃ muni muni mahāmuni śākyamuni svāhā

Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuni svaha

Shakyamuni (the sage of the Shakyan clan) is the historical Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama.(chant one mala – 108 times a day)

Shakyamuni was almost certainly the first enlightened figure to be visualized. There’s a beautiful passage in the Sutta Nipata (an early Buddhist text) where Pingiya talks about how he is never separated from the Buddha. He says that at any time he wishes he can see and hear his teacher, even though he lives hundreds of miles from where the Buddha dwells.

Shakyamuni’s mantra is a play on his name. Muni means sage. Mahameans great. So the mantra reads "Om wise one, wise one, greatly wise one, wise one of the Shakyans, Hail!"

Also this mantra is commonly found in the following form:

Om muni muni mahamuni shakyamuniye svaha

This form has the name of Shakyamuni in the dative form, so that it reads “Om wise one, wise one, great wise one, to the wise one of the Shakyans hail!”

This is actually the more common form of the mantra in Sanskrit, although in Tibetan the mantra is in the “Tibeticized” version of the shorter form given above: Om muni muni maha muni shakyamuni soha– “soha” being the Tibetan rendering of “svaha.”

Pronunciation notes:

• a is pronounced as u in cut
• ā is like a in father
• u is like the sound in put or foot
• v is pronounced halfway between English v and w. If in doubt, then a w sound will do

Shaykyamuni Buddha

Sakyamuni Gautam Buddha is believed to have had 550 incarnations. Many previous Buddhas and other Buddhas yet to come are known as Buddhas. To distinguish from all other Buddhas, he has been called Sakyamuni ( The Lion of Sakya clan), the son of king Suddhodana and queen Mayadevi. He was born on 563 B.C. at Lumbini, western part of Nepal. He had attained "Bodhi" or knowledge after 6 years in fasting and meditation and then he was called "Buddha" as he was "the enlightened one". He died at the age of 80 at Kusinagara.

Vajrasatwa

The Nepali Buddhist as the priest of the Five Dhyani Buddha regards Bajrasatwa, the sixth Dhyani Buddha. He is not represented in the stupa like other Dhyani Buddhas, but independent shrines are dedicated to his worship. His worship is always performed in secret and is not open to those who are not initiated into the mysteries of the Vajrayana. Vajrasatwa is represented in two forms, single and yabyum. This Dhyani Buddha wears all ornaments, rich dress and a crown. He is of white colour. He sits cross-legged in the meditative pose like other Dhyani Buddhas. He carries the vajra in his right hand with palm upwards against the chest and ghanta (bell) in the left hand resting upon the left thigh.

Vajrasattva is said to have been originated from seed syllable Hum and is generally invoked for removal of obscuration of conflicting emotions (Kleshavarana) andobstruction to Omniscience (Jneyavarana).

The first opponent power is the force of reliance. This means looking upon the visualized image of Vajrasattva as the embodiment of one’s refuge.
The second opponent power is the sincere regret for the non-virtuous action done by oneself. 
The third opponent power is desisting from evil deeds.
The fourth opponent power is to apply power of good deeds; and specially regarding this case, practicing the meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva without parting from Bodhicitta while remaining in the state of emptiness.

Right Picture is Vajra-sattva hundred syllable mantra
Vajra-sattva hundred syllable mantra is very efficacious in purifying our defilements through confession practice. It is said if confession is done with the four opponent powers, then non-virtuous actions or obscurations will be purified. 
Vajra-sattva is a very popular tutelary deity for Nepalese Vajracaryas. He is worshipped very often by Nepalese Buddhists through Gurumandala ritual. The Svabhavika sect in Nepal identified Swabhava or Swa [own], bhava [nature] Adi-Buddha with Vajrasattva, who, according to the Nepalese Buddhist writings, manifested himself on Mount Sumeru in the following manner. A lotus-flower of precious jewels appeared on the summit of mountain which is the center of the universe, and above it arose a moon-crescent upon which,' supremely exalted', was seated Vajrasattva.
Certain Lamaist sects identified Vajrasattva with Vajradhara, while others looked upon Vajrasattva as an active form of Vajradhara, who was too lost in divine quietude to occupy him directly with the affairs of sentient beings.

Lokeshor: Story Of 1,000 Arms

Your Ad Here

 Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara made the commitment in front of Buddha Amitabha to intentionally manifest into the three realms of samsara in order to liberate all sentient beings from samsara and to be their supreme guide. He also vowed that if by chance his compassion and courageous mind of mercy for like earrings, and so on. He has eleven heads. The eleventh one being his spritual sire Buddha Amitabha. It is said that sentient beings were to decrease, then let his head and body just completely crack and fall into one thousand pieces.Receiving blessings from Buddha Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara went through universal manifestations into the three realms of samsara.
Thereby he went to Hell and emancipated them from both the hot and cold hells by teaching Om mani pad me hung. He in turn went to ghost realm, human, Asura and Deva realms to free the sentient beings from their respective suffering. He absolutely emptied the ocean of suffering. Following which he went back to Buddha Amitabha and declared that the liberation had been effected. Buddha Amitabha said to him, "you should look again, look back again and again into the world." And as he did, there he saw once again that sentient beings were in samsara and in sorrow, he became so disappointed when he saw the sight. On his enlightened thought (Bodhicitta) decreased in the moment and he lost his courage. He became disappointed in the very presence of Buddha Amitabha.
He felt how could the time come to liberate all sentient beings for ever from this type of condition. And instantly when
his mind felt with sorrow, his body and head just cracked and fell apart into one thousand pieces, and then he fainted.


Avalokiteshvara thus fainted, and Buddha Amitabha said to him, "My son where has your courage, your mental strength gone?" He picked up all the pieces of his body and the head. At the same time he said, "this happened because of your prayer. You deserve the praise of all Buddhas since your prayer was efficacious. However, noble son! Don’t worry." Thereby he blessed his broken heads into eleven faces and he sat upon those heads and his broken body into one thousand hands like one thousand petals of the lotus. Thereafter he said, "I bow to you because your thousand hands are the hands of the thousand universal emperors and those eyes in each of the palms of the hands are the eyes of one thousand Buddhas who will appear in this fortunate aeon. After that Avalokiteshvara appeared in many different forms in order to tame the suffering sentient beings and he successfully accomplished many events.
The image of Thousand armed Avalokiteshvara in stone is rare in Kathmandu valley. The bronze images can be seen here and there. Basically a system of fasting ceremony called Nyune from Tibet came to Kathmandu too, through Tibetan Buddhists Masters. In this fasting ceremony the practice; or sadhana is usually devoted to this form of Avalokiteshvara.
Thousand armed Avalokiteshvara form of image can be found in China too. A giant image of 1,000 armed Avalokiteshvara (ht. 360cm) is installed in the Maitreya temple in Tainan. It was carved out of wood and has aesthetical value.