A prayer wheel is an object of
worship used in several Buddhist countries
but has been particularly developed in Tibet.One of the explanations for the invention of this object is the
Buddhist phrase
"to turn the wheel of the Dharma" (which means to teach
the doctrine of the Buddha) and which will have
been taken here in a material sense .
The ancient texts
mention a meeting between the one who will become Buddha Sakyamuni and Buddha Dipankara .During this meeting the
future Sakyammuni Buddha makes an offering to Dipankara and expresses the wish
to become himself an awakened for the sake of all sentient beings and
the Buddha Dipankara speaks to himof a "Dharma wheel"
that he entrusted to the Nâgas and
that will be a clever way to get enlightenment.
The Nâgas would have been
the holders of prayer wheels for millions of years before transmitting this "clever
means" to achieve enlightenment to humans .The Buddha Dipankara having,
according to the legends,
lived during 100,000 years and having only transmitted
the practice of the prayer wheel to the Nâgas, which means
that he himself received this practice and is not the origin .
There are many types
of prayer wheels depending on the mantra they contain, the most common is the
Mani Khorlo (or "Mani Wheel") which contains the Chenrezig mantra ,
but there are also some Thardo Khorlo in recent years that contain a selection of
mantra in addition to that of Chenrezig .
A traditional prayer wheel
consists of a cylinder filled with mantras and able to rotate freely about an axis
.According to
the beliefs associated with this object, operating such a mill has the same spiritual value as
reciting the mantra that is inside, the mantra being supposed to spread like this in the air as
if it were pronounced and have a positive influence on the environmentfrom the mill .
The prayer wheels are most often
arranged in long series and are set in motion one after the other by the faithful passing in
front of them .
The mill must be rotated clockwise, so that the mantra is read in the direction
in which it was written .
Although we hear in
most cases of "Tibetan prayer wheels" this object of worship is
present in several other Asian countries.
A Chinese prayer wheel.
Weird big prayer wheels made from old barrels !
A prayer wheel of the Bönpo tradition in Nepal .
A GIANT prayer wheel in Tibet
Most often, prayer
wheels are manually activated, but Tibetans have shown great ingenuity and started a long time
ago to design prayer wheels that can work with
wind, water, fire and more recently with electricity .
On a tibetan monastery roof in Nepal : a prayer wheel working with wind !
Modern version of a wind prayer wheel .
� Manufacture of "wind" prayer
wheels .
Prayer wheel operating through the
heat of a light bulb, there is the same type of
mill operating through the heat of a butter lamp .
Solar prayer wheel !
And finally some virtuals prayer wheels.
The prayer wheel is
one of the most unusual objects of worship of Tibetan Buddhism, it is very often sold to
tourists by the shops of Kathmandu .The design of a prayer wheel meets simple but strict ritual
rules , and unfortunately after studying these rules and handling / disassembling a very
large number of prayer wheels, I can assure you that the vast majority of current production
has nothing to do with a real prayer wheel and can in no way
have the slightest beneficial effect .
Your webmaster in a Nepalese shop
with "aged" (dirty) mantra rolls .
Other examples of
incorrect and burned mantra rolls to make them look old !
Between prayer wheels
without mantra, those where the mantra are badly printed (or even worse placed upside down or
rolled upside down !), those largely filled with newspaper (!!!), those full of mantra that
were burned (to give them an old appearance!), those who turn with difficulty, those who squeak
... and again I do not speak yet about trees of life and diagrams missing, because then it will
be 100% of current production that would be considered as unusable or even downright evil
.Indeed if the
mantra are placed upside down in a prayer wheel, instead of accumulating merits by turning it,
you lose merits!
Karmic consequences
produced by the use of a defective prayer wheel are described in the
Tantra and are frankly scary ...
The prayer wheels
available today are just good to serve as a base, the mantra inside are
to be redone in 100% of the cases .
And this is alas
true also for mills sold in Dharma centers, do not believe me on
my word , get information and go to open one or two mills in these shops to see for
yourself please !
Examples of mantra
incorrectly placed.
�
On this page I will
explain in a simple way what are the rules to respect to realize a traditional prayer wheel
yourself.You
will quickly understand that what counts is not
having a precious metal cylinder decorated with a nice
Tibetan alphabet mantra or script landzha or blessing the mantra
by a Grand Lama, but to follow a number
of simple set of ritual rules .
The cylinder that houses the mantra
is not necessarily decorated, here a large undecorated
copper prayer wheel in a Swayambunath Temple .
If you want to
start making prayer wheels, I encourage you to buy the excellent book
"Wheel of great compassion" which gives many references of ancient texts
and details the manufacture of a prayer wheel step by step .
Video showing the manufacture
of a small prayer wheel . Fun but unfortunately the
mill does not respect any ritual rules !
To begin, you will
need to make or get a Sog
Shingtree of life, this one was in Tibet
traditionally made in greyhound or sandalwood, but failing that the wood of any tree is suitable
as long as the fruits of this tree are not toxic . The wood should be placed
in the direction that it has pushed (the top of the Sog Shingtree of life
being the top of the original tree).Some ancient texts also speak of using iron to make the tree
of life of the prayer wheels, which greatly simplifies the task ! A tree of life
can be square or round, it does not matter, but it must at least be the same height as the
cylinder in which it is placed (it can be longer if it serves as an axis) . The tradition specifies
that on the tree of life itself one must place a certain number of sacred mantra and
syllables, one can either engrave them in the wood, or draw them on paper and wrap it around the
tree of life . (writing outside) .In some cases if the axis is fixed, a hollow shaft can be
made
(in tube) and the mantra can be wrapped around this tube .
These mantra are
from top to bottom : 1) Om Sarya Vidya
Svaha 2) Om Ah
Hum 3) Om Vajra Ayushe
Svaha 4)Om Supratisha Vajra Ye Svaha(this last mantra must be repeated
as many times as necessary to completely cover the bottom of the tree of life)
We can write these
mantras in Tibetan, Sanskrit, or Roman alphabet, which is to make no mistake in the mantra and
not the alphabet used.If like me you can not read the Tibetan, just use an alphabet that you can read
...
It is suitable in
the case of a tree of life made of wood anointing with sandalwood
oil , the mantra should be
coated with saffron water to purify them regardless of the material that makes up the tree
of life .
Here is the correct way to wrap
Om Mani Padmé Hum Mantra, the Om in front
is towards the beginning and the inscriptions are towards the outside (ie
visible)
Some ancient texts say that the
direction of winding is unimportant and that we can therefore place the Hum to the
beginning ... but these texts are in the minority so lets rolls the mantra properly as it is not
more work .
But in any case the
mantra must remain visible once the roll is finished. The mantra roller should
fill the volume of the cylinder where it will be placed
as much as possible without it being difficult to place or remove it .
Once the mantra roll is finished,
place on top and under the "wheel of the sky" and the "wheel of the
earth" , these two diagrams must be placed with visible inscriptions as shown in the
drawing above .These diagrams were drawn by Most Venerable Zopa Rinpoche following the ritual
instructions of the 4th Panchen Lama .Note that most often the axis of the mill passes through the
wheels of the sky and the earth, that's why a round hole is provided .
Examples of incorrectly placed
mantra and not completely
filling the mill as they should .
Example
of a correct mantra roll on a "homemade" solar prayer wheel from a rotating
presentation stand .
Old and correct mantra roll .
Even old prayer wheels are often
incorrect, here in an old prayer wheel I discovered off cuts
puja texts in bulk as a mantra roll !
The mantra can be
written by hand (in this case if possible mix a little saffron in the ink used), printed in the
old fashioned with a block of wood or with a modern printer, the method is irrelevant, which the
point is that they are drawn clearly and without burrs or erasures .Some sites have been producing
microfilm mantras for a few years, which seems appropriate from a ritual point of view and makes
it possible to place a very large number of
mantra in a small prayer wheel .
There are also
recently prayer wheels whose mantra are on CD or DVD, which is absolutely
contrary to ancient ritual instructions .
It is advisable to
roll the mantra tightly, and that the person who makes the mantra roll is clean in the ritual
sense (hands washed scrupulously and not having eatenno meat, no garlic, no onions and of
course no alcohol, no tobacco, no drugs)
Before you begin to wind
up the mantra you have to indulge in a little meditation and if one has
received the initiation of Dorje Sempa recite at least 21 times the mantra of 100
syllables .
The sheets of paper containing the
mantra should be purified with saffron water before being rolled up.Especially good mark the top of the
roll of mantra (by dyeing it in red) so as not to risk putting
him upside down in the prayer wheel.Indeed once finished it is good to place the roll of mantra in
fabrics to protect them from wearand we no longer see the mantra .
In some cases we can add
various stones (turquoises, corals, pearls ...) in a prayer wheel, but it
is not an obligation .
Traditionally most
prayer wheels are filled with the Chenrezig mantra,
but it is correct to fill a prayer wheel with other mantras .
For example it is
possible to design a prayer wheel filled with mantra of Sangye
Menla(Buddha of Medicine) for a sick person, a prayer wheel filled with
mantra of Dzambhalla (Buddha of Wealth) for a seller or a prayer wheel of a deity of
long life foran
old Lama (or your grandma !)
Here are some
printable mantras to fill your prayer wheels
The size of the
mantra roll should be calculated according to the size of the container, the roll to fill as much
as possible the mill without being "stuck" . In the case of "desktop"
mills where the roll is visible it must be left enough room to turn easily .At the mechanism level, there is no
ritual rule, so a simple fixed axis is usable, usually by adding a movable washer in the lower
part of the mill to facilitate movement, traditionally this washer is in conch or bone .
Of course if you want and
if you are handyman it is possible to design magnetic prayer wheels (with two permanent magnets
in the form of rings repelling each other) or on ball bearings, the only limit being your
ingenuity !
As for the energy
that will power your mill, the most common is manual, but it is possible, as we
have seen above, to design prayer wheels that are powered by wind, water, heat or even
electricity . Again, the only limit is your ingenuity, but in any case In this case, it must
be ensured that the finished mill will ALWAYS turn clockwise (the only exception being the
Bönpo prayer wheels which must turn in the other direction)
.
Office prayer wheel made in a
Tibetan refugee camp, nothing to do with mantra copper prayer wheels with improperly printed
improperly printed mantra offered to tourists in the shops .
Here the container is a
simple plastic pot, but the mantra roll is correct and this mill turns very
easily.Saffron
is seen in the bottom of the pot .
This kind of mill is made
"by Tibetans, for Tibetans"and anyway it is sure that 99% of
tourists would not buy what some would describe as "A kid's prayer wheel
made in an old plastic pot"
It is sure "cheap & ugly" BUT it is correct from a ritual point of view
and will do the job for many years .
The cylinder that
will contain the mantra must be strong and waterproof .
The most used materials are metal, wood and sometimes bone
for small prayer wheels .
It is good if possible to
decorate the cylinder with mantra but it is not an obligation .
Regarding the portable prayer
wheels, they must be equipped with a cord
and a weight to be able to turn them .The cord must be at least the same length as the radius of the
cylinder and be well fixed to it, otherwise by turning it will fly away .
As for the weight it must
be quite heavy, preferably metal or stone. We can settle for a
weight made of fishing lead or use any object having a shapeand a suitable weight .Avoid bluntly shaped objects, just
"in case"
the cord comes loose, so you are not going to knock off your temple neighbor
or break a window .
Old prayer wheel, made from a ...
box of English cakes in the shape of a carousel, we can still guess the shape of the horses with
the children on it ! As a counterpoise we find an old Tibetan coin, a lama seal and a shell (private collection of
the webmaster)
Old prayer wheel in yak leather, it
is of course totally impossible to check the mantra inside without
destroying this object.
The counterpoise is composed of a stone (probably from a sacred
site) stitched in leather . (private collection of
the webmaster)
