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Daily Buddhism, Meditation, Reviews

Review: Seeds of Kindness Beads

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Loving Kindness BeadsReview: Seeds of Kindness Beads
By: http://www.seedsofkindness.biz

“May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be peaceful, may you be safe.”

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the book “The Gift of Loving Kindness.” In the introduction of the book, one of the authors mentions that she sells beads. When I contacted her for more information, she kindly sent along a sample set for review.

What you get: A string of Loving Kindness Beads, hand-made and strung together while the assmbler wishes loving kindness upon the new owner and the word in general. As we have already discussed, loving-kindness generally involves well-wishing for yourself, for others, and for the world, by reciting, “May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be peaceful, may you be safe,” in several variations. You will notice in the picture that there are four large beads, one for each step of the L-K meditation. Note that these are not mala beads, these are uniquey designed for the 4-step L-K “mantra.”

Along with the beads comes a nice little drawstring bag to keep the beads, but I noticed the bag has a “Made in PRC” (China) tag inside. There is also a CD which includes a walk-through on the ideas of loving kindness, use of the beads, and a 20-minute guided meditation session. The CD will be very helpful to newcomers to Loving-Kindness meditation.

Each strand of beads is unique and hand-assembled, and the ones currently on their website are priced between $45 and $90. Although it’s perfectly possible to do loving-kindness meditation without the use of beads, I can easily see this as an excellent gift. The accompanying CD makes an easily accessible introduction to L-K meditation, and the beads are something “real” to work with while meditating, which might make meditation more appealing to beginners.

Daily Buddhism

Buddhist Rosary Beads / Mala

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A Monk With Mala BeadsBuddhist Rosary Beads / Mala

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A Reader recently phoned in with the question:
(Phone in yours at 937-660-4949)
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Could you please discuss Buddhist Rosary Beads? What re they for and how do you use them?

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My Response:
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Buddhist “rosary” beads consist of either 108 beads most commonly for Mahayana Buddhists, or sometimes, 27 beads as in Pure Land Buddhism. These are called “mala” or “japa mala.” Hinduism also uses these. They are usually made from wood, preferably sandalwood, while the string is traditionally either human hair or silk.

They are commonly used for counting prayers, chants, or repeated mantras. Some mantras are meant to be repeated hundreds of times, and the person meditating will use the mala, moving their fingers across the beads rather than break their concentration on counting. Depending on the group or sect, sometimes it makes a difference which hand or which fingers are used to count the beads.

Why 108 beads? According to Wikipedia:Buddhist Sandalwood Mala Beads

In traditional Buddhist thought, people are said to have 108 afflictions or klesas. There are 6 senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and consciousness) multiplied by 3 reactions (positive, negative, or indifference) makes 18 “feelings.” Each of these feelings can be either “attached to pleasure or detached from pleasure” making 36 “passions”– each of which may be manifested in the past, present, or future. All the combinations of all these things makes a total of 108, which are represented by the beads. This same number is also used in Japanese New Year services where a bell is rung 108 times.

In addition, practitioners of Vajrayana Buddhism, use the number 108 for a different purpose. After reciting 100 mantras, 8 extra mantras are done to compensate for any errors. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_prayer_beads )

Here is some additional information from the Edmonton Buddhist Meditation Group:
http://www.serenereflections.ca/Articles/2004/TheUsesoftheBuddhistRosar.html

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Find Buddhist Mala Beads – Large 14mm beads – Black sandalwood at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JD9I9M/?tag=askdrarca-20