Material on Prayer Beads

The Happy Squirrel

I was researching prayer beads, Tibetan Buddhist malas to be precise, and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlxo6kTYktE

Around 16:15 he explains the various material commonly used for what he called the "four enlightened activities" which consist of: pacifying, enriching, magnetising, and destroying. Although I this is not a formula or compulsory.

I thought it is interesting to note that:

Pacifying / appeasing / calming: beads should be white, light coloured, or clear.

Enriching/ to gather / to increase: bodhi / lotus seeds, amber, gold/silver/bronze/copper (rarely used)

Magnitising / draw power into yourself : red coral, sandalwood, carnelian, saffron coloured wood

Destroying: Rudraksha seeds ('tears of Shiva'), bones (animal's or human's)

The other is

Healing or health / Buddha medicine practice: lapis lazuli.

I can't quite hear what he said about using bright red carnelians...

Would you see any parallel in what we know about crystals and stones?
 

celticnoodle

ooh, thank you so much, HS! I never would've thought to search for this--listening to it now.
 

celticnoodle

The bright red carnelians, mark off the 27 bead sections and look nice, he says. The ones the Tibetans use came from the coral reef coral beds in the middle part of the Mediteranean. These beds are now long gone, so these beads today are rare and expensive.

They now have some 'surrogates' to use in place of the real red carnelians.

When praying with these mala beads, remember not to cross over the large guru bead, as it is considered impolite. You simply begin again, going back over the beads you just prayed on. (Something else I didn't know!).

This is very interesting, and I'm definitely going to listen to it again. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention here, Happy Squirrel. :)

Would you see any parallel in what we know about crystals and stones?
Interesting question! hmm...

I think the beads such in these mala beads or the rosary are intended specifically to help us keep track of our prayers. Prayers are very effective and very powerful. Being in prayer, such as when you are praying the rosary or mala beads or any other type of long beaded object, helps you to get deeper into the prayer, and it is very meditative.

I do have specific colored beads to make up rosaries and other prayer beads (such as for specific novenas) whose colors do relate to the specific prayer said on them.

For instance, I do have one rosary made from red rose petals and they have a very slight aroma of roses. The roses are very important here because they relate to the Blessed Mother. I imagine that a chaplet bead set for St. Theresa the Little Flower may also be made of red roses, because they relate to St. Theresa as well.

The chaplet beads (for novenas) generally also have a medal of the Saint, or Jesus or even Mary included - if the novena is dedicated to them.

The Chaplet beads for Archangel Michael are multicolored, and I do believe each color is suppose to represent the separate nine choirs of angels. That sort of thing.

I imagine there are prayer beads that are made from specific crystals that are known to help with health, etc. Such as having a set of prayer beads made with a rose quartz--which is one gemstone known to be healing and calming as well as spiritual.

Perhaps someone else here on A.T. will be able to better answer that question.

Great thread again, Happy Squirrel! :thumbsup:
 

celticnoodle

I just found another interesting site. I haven't finished reading through it all, but thought I'd share it

http://www.prayerbeadsworld.com/

It indicates that particular gemstones used to make these prayer beads do in fact help add a specific gift to the owner. Such as the turquoise bead used to "Prevents anger, gives comfort and calmness. Effective against stress." It is interesting to note on this page it also mentions how the turquoise bead -

"Red Indians believed that the bones of the people wearing Turquoise wouldn’t be broken and they used to engrave this stone onto their shields during war. It is also known that Turquoise was also very important for Aztec culture. They used this gemstone to prevent from evil effects. Again in Red Indians’ culture, it was believed that the Agate was good to quench thirst and used for this purpose. In ancient Greek culture, it was believed that Amethyst would prevent people from becoming drunk and the goblets were made of this gemstone."

Another quote from this site - under the title of Beads for Relaxation says this:

"The stones used to make the prayer beads have physical, metaphysical and psychological affects on their users. Amethyst increases brain power by absorbing the
excess amount of electrical burden in body, as this stone carries out negative electrical charge. It is also good for allergy, headache, eye and heart diseases.
It clears up the negative energies, has a sedative affect. It is also good for people with insomnia problems.".

So, I guess there is a great importance for specific crystal gemstones to be used in prayer beads. I think I need to get an amethyst set of prayer beads! :D
 

The Happy Squirrel

The bright red carnelians, mark off the 27 bead sections and look nice, he says. The ones the Tibetans use came from the coral reef coral beds in the middle part of the Mediteranean. These beds are now long gone, so these beads today are rare and expensive.



They now have some 'surrogates' to use in place of the real red carnelians.



When praying with these mala beads, remember not to cross over the large guru bead, as it is considered impolite. You simply begin again, going back over the beads you just prayed on. (Something else I didn't know!).



This is very interesting, and I'm definitely going to listen to it again. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention here, Happy Squirrel. :)





Interesting question! hmm...



I think the beads such in these mala beads or the rosary are intended specifically to help us keep track of our prayers. Prayers are very effective and very powerful. Being in prayer, such as when you are praying the rosary or mala beads or any other type of long beaded object, helps you to get deeper into the prayer, and it is very meditative.



I do have specific colored beads to make up rosaries and other prayer beads (such as for specific novenas) whose colors do relate to the specific prayer said on them.



For instance, I do have one rosary made from red rose petals and they have a very slight aroma of roses. The roses are very important here because they relate to the Blessed Mother. I imagine that a chaplet bead set for St. Theresa the Little Flower may also be made of red roses, because they relate to St. Theresa as well.



The chaplet beads (for novenas) generally also have a medal of the Saint, or Jesus or even Mary included - if the novena is dedicated to them.



The Chaplet beads for Archangel Michael are multicolored, and I do believe each color is suppose to represent the separate nine choirs of angels. That sort of thing.



I imagine there are prayer beads that are made from specific crystals that are known to help with health, etc. Such as having a set of prayer beads made with a rose quartz--which is one gemstone known to be healing and calming as well as spiritual.



Perhaps someone else here on A.T. will be able to better answer that question.



Great thread again, Happy Squirrel! :thumbsup:


Hello CN thanks for that!! I am a very visual person so the appearance, texture, etc on material objects do have very strong effect on me.

As for the bit that he said about red stones, the one I didn't quite capture is the bit towards the end of the section where he spoke about lapis lazuli being one to make health and healing focused mala with :) he said something after that and I couldn't quite hear :)
 

celticnoodle

oh sorry. I'll re-listen tomorrow and see if I can figure it out. I was watching it while I was cleaning house, and missed the last part, as I don't even recall hearing him mention the red carnelians again. :laugh:
 

celticnoodle

Hello CN thanks for that!! I am a very visual person so the appearance, texture, etc on material objects do have very strong effect on me.

As for the bit that he said about red stones, the one I didn't quite capture is the bit towards the end of the section where he spoke about lapis lazuli being one to make health and healing focused mala with :) he said something after that and I couldn't quite hear :)

I keep listening to this part too--its right about 19:10 in the video. I missed it before--and have re-played it at that point a few times. It sounds like "Vashuna New Guinea practice". The first 'name/word' in that is what I can't quite understand.

Hopefully someone here will be able to help us in that. It was speaking about using the mala beads for a Buddhist healing practice, so whatever the New Guinea practice is for this is what he is referring to, I guess.
 

The Happy Squirrel

Thanks for the epic try CN :)