Prayer wheels can be small, individual wheels that people carry about or keep in their homes, or large, multi-wheel walls, generally surrounding temples. Prayers are carved on the exterior of a Prayer Wheel,and/or written on paper and inserted inside. Tibetian and Nepaliese Buddiest believe that saying the "Om mani padme hum" mantra (or prayer) out loud or silently invokes the blessings of Chenrezig, an enlightened being who is seen as the embodiment of compassion.
When the wheel is spun, you end up with the same impact as though the prayer had been spoken. Buddhists describe "prayer impact" as "merits." You spin, you get the prayer merits. So if you have ten prayer wheels and can spin them in fourteen seconds, but it would take you four minutes to say the prayer ten times, it's clearly a huge win to spin rather than speak. Pray! Faster! More! Merits!
To be clear this is not the spirit in which the prayer wheel was initially developed, but, given my cultural upbringing, this is how it plays out for American Me.
Prayer wheels actually originated as a way for illiterate people to pray: you could spin the wheel without being able to read the prayers.
In truth, I find prayer wheels incredibly beautiful. While I don't exactly believe that I can increase the power of my personal prayer through spinning, I find the notion of focusing mediation or prayer around the repetitive motion of spinning the wheels an easy one to understand.
That said, Powered Prayer Wheels are a real thing. Not surprisingly, some entrepreneurial Buddhist a millennium ago realized you could set up Prayer Wheels next to running water and have those puppies spin all day and night. Which lead to Fire Wheels, where heat from a candle or electric power source drives the wheel. And, not surprisingly, there are Wind Wheels. So, maybe not just an American thing to think that More! = Better! ?
Particularly given this next inspiration: Electric Wheels are a real thing.
Although, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said, "The merit of turning an electric prayer wheel goes to the electric company. This is why I prefer practitioners to use their own 'right energy' to turn a prayer wheel." Wiki
I pay my electric company a fair bit. I'm not sure they need my prayers, too.
Next: Walking About
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