SWAYAMBHUNATH STUPA
His Holiness the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa often encourages his followers to circumambulate the Swayambhunath Stupa 13 times on a holy day, as the result is equivalent to circumabulating Mount Kailash once and the merit accumulated is over 10,000 times. This time, on the 15th day of the first Tibetan month in the year of the Earth Mouse (21st February 2008), he has set in the program for the registrants to join in the circumambulation of the self-arising Swayambhunath Stupa 13 times. As this would be the last of the first 15 days of the Earth Mouse Year, constituting the holy period known as Chothrul Duchen, which will commemorate the event when Lord Buddha performed a different miracle each day to instill devotion and increase merit among heretics, circumambulation of the Swayambhunath Stupa will definitely generate a great store of merit and also purify plentiful of bad karma and obstacles for the same year and the future.
Myth
and Legend
Long before the dawn of history, the
Kathmandu Valley was a vast lake. Aeons before the Buddha Shakyamuni
was born in Lumbini his predecessor of the Aeon of Truth (Satya
Yuga), the Buddha Vipashyin
(the first of the seven Buddhas in the past),
came to Nepal to meditate upon the hill that rose from the lake on
its western shore. Wishing to give the rough mountain people an
object of worship, Vipashyin threw a lotus seed into the lake. When
this lotus bloomed, a light shone from the center of its thousand
petals that illuminated the entire valley mandala. This light was
called the Swayambhunath Dharmadhatu, the Self-Sprung Infinite Field
of Light and the flame of the enlightened mind of the primal Buddha,
Vajradhara burned at its center. The light of Vajradhara also
emanated in the colors of the rainbow and in each of the five colors
appeared one of the Five Buddhas - Vairochana, Akshobhya,
Ratnasambhava, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi.
In the far west of China, on the Five
Peaked Mountain (Wutai Shan), lived the great Bodhisattva Manjushri,
whose vow was to serve mankind through use of his deep
intelligence. Manjushri in his wisdom foresaw that the Himalayan
people would be greatly benefited if the Kathmandu Valley Lake was
drained. The Swayambunath lotus and flame would then be accessible
to human worship, and a great civilization would arise in the rich
farmlands that would result. Then Manjushri flew through the air to
Nagarkot Peak on the edge of the lake, and
after having pondered in
Samadhi how best the lake may be drained, with his keen-edged sword
of wisdom he cut a gorge through the mountain range that separated
Nepal from India, and the original lake was drained. Then in order
to finish the work of drainage he cut the Gokarna Gorge, the
Pashupati Gorge and the Chobar Gorge. After the lake had been
drained and the Valley bottom made suitable for cultivation
Manjushri founded a town, Manjupattan, and enthroned as king one of
his devotees, called Dharmankara. He taught the people the
fundamentals of civics, of craftsmanship and also the art of ritual,
particularly the ten rites of passage.
Underlying the Valley Mandala is the cosmic
ocean, the abode of the naga water spirits, and in this elemental
watery stratum the cosmic turtle lies motionless. In order to
support the thousand-petaled lotus and its burden of flame after the
lake was drained, a great timber, seven fathoms
(one fathom equals six feet) in
circumference and forty-two fathoms in height, was set upon the back
of the turtle. A high mound of earth and stone was then piled around
this axis by forty-two thousand Arhats from
Vulture
Peak. Thus the primordial Swayambhunath Stupa was erected.
The great timber axis of the stupa is also
identified as the Primordial Buddha Vajradhara himself.
"On
top of a jewel lotus, the blessing of the Buddha Vipashyin, the
Victoriously Enlightened Vajradhara spontaneously arose from the
Pureland of Akanistha as a great sacred Tree of Life, the axis of
the stupa."
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