Om Mani Peme Hung

It’s almost guaranteed to feel as one with the cosmos in Lhasa, especially at dawn when the city streets are deserted and the lingering darkness hovers like a protective cloak. Walking along the silent Beijing Dong Lu I acknowledged an extraordinary freedom, as of having no connection with the rest of the world or to the rest of my life, before and after this moment...

Before sunrise I stood at the foot of Marpo Hill, site of the monumental Potala Palace. In dimness the enormous structure looked like a forbidding fortress and I made a regrettable decision: “Not Today…. Today, I will not ascend the steep steps of the thirteen stories-high, one- thousand- room Potala. I will climb tomorrow!”

After circumambulating the Palace I would take time out, adjust to the high altitude while exploring non-religious-political Lhasa. Perhaps in a low-brow pursuit of the shopping mall to purchase a new pair of socks, or catch “happy-hour” at the Dunya Pub and Restaurant…

That postponement however, placed the essential visit to the Potala Palace on hold, suspended in the unpredictable realm of a tomorrow that has yet to come!

I walked the length of Marpo Hill and turned right. In the breaking darkness a long row of bronze prayers-wheels along the wall became visible and soon I was not alone. Along the road people started to appear. First a man and then a woman, then gradually those first people grew into a crowd spinning prayer wheels and reciting mantras…

I too, seized by devotional fervor pushed the handles that spin the prayer wheels, whispering… “Om Mani Peme Hung…Om Mani Peme Hung… Om Jewel of the Lotus Om…Om Jewel of the Lotus Om…”

The bronze spinning cylinders engraved with mantras, contain papers or parchments inscribed with sacred texts and invocations. Each spin of the prayer-wheel is equivalent to reading the prayers enclosed within. The sounds emitted by wheels in motion signify the flight of prayers towards the four winds.

To dissolve like a prayer into the four winds is what must be like to experience the Buddha’s state of super consciousness; to exist in a state of non-existence is what I would aspire to, perhaps in another lifetime, another reincarnation…