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Mala beads.
Grastella
Great Britain New
Hi all.
I have recently purchased my first set of mala beads. What is the chant that I recite. I want to get it correct.
Many thanks. Steve.
1
Comments
Find a Buddhist mantra, repeat for every bead.
The mantra (chant) is not important, unless you have an objective in mind... Otherwise the standard usual chant is
'Om Mani Padme (pronounced 'pemmeh') Hung'.
How many beads does it have?
Best wishes to you.
There are lots of different mantras. Traditionally the mala is held in the left hand while reciting a mantra and it can either be said aloud or silently. Here is a good website that runs through the whole gamut of mantra recitation.
http://www.wildmind.org/mantras
The words do not matter. They have no special power. What matters are the visualizations you do while you are reciting the mantras, and the intentions you are setting in your mind.
Find a teacher if you want to practice Buddhism.
I have been taught the complete opposite. I was taught to hold the beads in the right hand and pass the beads over the right second finger, towards the person... pulling the beads down, one ar a time...
While this is a Hindu site, in its persuasion, I was given to understand that the movement is pretty much standard....
Regardless, I think we can agree that the hand you hold the mala in is EXTREMELY important in the effectiveness of your recitation. In fact, I think it could be said that people who have lost their right hand... or was it left... are unable to progress in Buddhism and will in all likelihood, burn in hell.
Hello
Don't worry about @person who is joshing with you ...
Here is my page on mantra that will hopefully provide answers ...
http://yinyana.tumblr.com/post/57234975984/buddhist-mantra-faqs
@Grastella the following clips may be of help...:)
How to use the Mala
"Om Mani Padme Hung"
There are tons of mantras my friend. Like @federica mentioned, if you are trying to cultivate a particular quality you can focus on a specific "embodiment"
some of my favorites:
namu myo-ho ren-geh-kyo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namu_Myōhō_Renge_Kyō
"devotion to the mystical law of the lotus sutra" is a good translation. i approve.
you may already have a deep connection with a particular representation of enlightened qualities, poke around a little and see what floats your fancy.
chanting is wonderful. i believe "mantra" can be translated/rendered as "mind protection" ... it's very nice, able to help us slow our roll / chit-chat-to-silence / cosmic-connected-vibrationality...
The best mantra I know is Om, A, Hum. Enlightened body, enlightened speech, enlightened mind.
There's always the Christy Brown method....
Keep it with you, personalise it, you can use it for a multitude of things, focusing the mind in meditation just by running you fingers over it, fold round your hands if doing a devotional practice and of course for counting mantra, I use mine principally for Vajrasattva mantra at night and Green Tara recitation in the morning, of course there are many more depending on your practice.
Hindus pray with the right hand.
In Buddhism, I was taught with the left hand.
I like Lillian Too's tiny book on Mantras, which you can get free when you place an order on her Feng Shui site.
I was taught left hand, as right is for a prayer wheel if you use one. It is just my habit now, don't think it has a special meaning. We were also taught not to cross the guru bead, but I think this is mostly a Tibetan practice. I don't do it out of some kind of perceived offense though, just habit. It just makes the most sense to me, and results in smoother transitions between repetitions if you turn around at the guru bead and go the other way. I also have dorje counters, but I am having to keep track of recitations so most people probably don't have them.
Heh. That reminds me I once gave my wife a nice set of beads that she hung on the rear view mirror of the car. About a year later one of her coworkers kept asking her to go to mass with her, and turns out she thought my wife was Catholic because of the "prayer beads in your car" and was just being unfriendly about going to church together.
Indeed
Chanting is associated with right speech, right concentration and when practiced internally with sufficient awareness, right meditation.
It is no accident that it is practiced in many forms: japa yoga, Islamic zhikr, Christian rosary and the single minded drive of the crazed cructacean in search of chocolate.
CHO CO LA TE, CHO CO LA TE, MUST AV CHO CO LA TE ...
Wow. I am very new to this. I wasn't expecting so mulch good advice. Many thanks. I have 108 beads. I have read and will read the comments again to see which is best for me. Again, many thanks.
@Grastella , you're among friends. You're very welcome. Please feel free to ask about anything that might be on your mind. Don't be concerned about the questions, or how many you have to ask. Once upon a time, we were all in your shoes!
108 beads is good - it's the standard number on what one might call a 'full Mala'. The number is a multiplication of 9, which in its turn, is perfectly divisible by three. (Numbers always play a huge part in any devotional vocation or spiritual calling, whatever it may be....)
The apparent "right" way, to recite a mala is to do one circuit, one bead at a time, then, arriving back at the main big bead (also called "The Guru Bead"), you slip it over your fingers and turn the mala the other way, doing a second circuit, going back the way you came, in a manner of speaking.
So you complete one circuit, turn at the main bead, and go back over the beads, to complete the second circuit.
This means you have recited your Mantra 216 times.
And this is One Mala.
The initial aim is to complete ten Malas (2,160 recitations).
Once you've done 10 malas, that's One devotion (21,600 recitations).
So you must accomplish 10 devotions. (216,000 recitations).
That's a lot of malas.
It should keep you busy for a while!
Here is a mala with the counting beads, to keep track.
As with everything there are many variations on a theme... The above instructions, or directions are common, but nothing's written in stone... if you google "Mala beads with counters" for example, and click on 'images', the many, many different types of malas available will boggle your mind!
Start modestly, go with what you've got, and do what you feel is right for you.
There is no rigidity to this; it's all flexible, and you do things the way you feel comfortable doing them.
The key phrase is "Intention is All."
If it feels good, do it.
If in doubt (or confused)? Don't.
Nobody's going to judge, criticise or condemn a method you find comfortable.
if it works for you, it's right for you.
The Dalai Lama in his teachings likes to poke fun at Tibetans. They will carry a mala reciting Om Mani Padme Hum while walking around or doing anything that allows them to. They get to repeating it so fast all you can make out is Mani, over and over again so it sounds like they are reciting Money, Money, Money. :lol
Excellent use of extravagance
I have used one bead. Pressing lightly for each count. Can be done with just pressing (no bead) and attention to the mantra.
However dharma mala brings us into the right drop zone.
Remember your mind, if anything like mine, is full of distracted being. For a round of mantra we still and focus on a bit of idealised betterment. Iz Plan.