On the mala, the stupa (large) bead is a hex faceted “football” (oval) shape. The separators (two smalls) are rounds. On the bracelet is one round dark red stupa (possibly dyed but all red beads are technically carnelian) and four small round separators, interspersed with nine fresh water pearls for a total of 36. The mala contains 108 beads – a count-off of 108 “om mani padme hum” mantras is considered a complete mala rotation, with 108 considered a sacred number in both Buddhist and Hindu religions. (Among many other traditions – for complete understanding of what 108 means in spiritual traditions world wide, visit 108 on Wikipedia.) As the bracelet has 36 pearls, three rotations constitute a complete mala rotation. Strangely enough, although 108 has sacred significance, if the aspirant is counting multiple rotations only 100 actually count – i.e., ten rotations equals 1000 mantras rather than 1080 and I can’t quite recall why. I was once told that the extra eight are like “safety” mantras, (like, it can’t hurt if you do extras) but I don’t know if that’s true or not (lots of weird ideas float around dharamsala – and Thailand too, for that matter, or Burning Man, or any other place where lots of things make no sense unless you’re stoned or beatific with religiosity and spiritual fervor.)
The Mala Project
Om Mani Padme Hum definition, according to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, XIV, sourced from wikipedia (and thus potentially a total fabrication of some random follower.)
“It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast… The first, Om […] symbolizes the practitioner’s impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha[…]”
“The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: (the) altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love.[…]”
“The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom[…]”
“Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility[…]”
“Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha[…]”
Dear Family & Friends:
I’m writing this note to you from a space that has become my de facto office in Thailand – beneath a thatched canopy on a bamboo table about 10 meters from a swimming pool with a sparkling waterfall that is both aesthetically beautiful and which also serves as a filtration system for the pool, at a place called The Shanti Lodge in the middle of Phuket Island in Thailand.
The beaches are about 20 minutes away by car or motorbike, and even when it rains, the weather is always perfect. How I came to still be in Thailand is a long story that began when I first came here in the summer of 2008 at the invitation of my mother Geraldine – and that story has a lot to do with gift that I have sent to you.
There are fifteen people on this list, and I had to think long and hard about who in my life was important enough to me as each of you are to receive this gift. What you have been given is called a mala – it is the Tibetan Buddhist equivalent of a rosary and it has 108 beads, a significant number in Eastern philosophy for a variety of reasons, which you can read about yourself if you cruise on over to Wikipedia and type in the words “108 (number)” in the search string and read through the page. The external links also provide additional interesting information about this number. I hope you consider doing this the next time you turn on your browsers, but it’s important for me to note here that in numerological modalities of thinking, 1 + 0 + 8 = 9, and 9 is a significant number also. First off, it’s considered the lucky number of Thailand – and also in China, where it represent “yang” energy, and the masculine forces of strength, wisdom, action and power. (SWAP.)
15 malas, 15 people – a little bit extra, actually, if you among those who’ve been asked to share your mala with a sibling, child, or a significant partner = 18 in all, really, and 1 + 8 = 9 and we’re back where we started, with the luckiest number in Thailand and the power of yang as well.
Now. This note will end up computer generated and printed because it needs to go out to so many folks, but each of you will also receive a hand-written note (and they’re all done now, praise goddess!) my hand-writing sucks, honestly, but hand-written notes mean more than type-written ones, (don’tcha think?) explaining exactly why you are among the ones I have chosen to receive this gift.
According to local belief and rumor in Dharamsala, each bead on these malas are carved from yak bone and are made in the Tibetan motherland. It is, however, entirely possible that “yak bone malas” are actually made of plastic and are, sad to say, made in China. The trifling sum that you pay for one makes it seem quite possible that the latter assertion is, in fact, correct – however, what makes these items priceless to me, and perhaps to you also, is that once I purchased them, I took them down to the temple and had them blessed by Tenzin Gyatso, otherwise known as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, XIV. The limit on such a blessing is 15 malas, forcing me to choose from the thousands of people I have met, the hundreds of folks I have known well, and the dozens of people that I consider pretty close to my heart.
“Doing a mala” is a fairly simple exercise. As I do it now, I do three prostrations on my knees and re-enact my vows of refuge with the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha – but y’all don’t have to do all unless you want to. I then sit cross-legged (lotus position is ideal, but “Indian-style” is fine also) on a cushion emblazoned with an image of the Double-Vajra, which combines wisdom of self and compassion for others into a rather dramatic icon of peace, strength, hope, love, and compassion. I then focus my eyes on a small figure of the Buddha (carved wooden “laughing Buddha” which was made in Thailand and given me to me by my mother, and really has almost nothing to do with Tibetan Buddhism, I believe it is an icon that is Chinese in origin) and then I close my eyes and enter into a space of mind known as “analytical meditation,” where you essentially treat your mind like it’s a puppy in need of gentle training, to reach a moment or two of “no thoughts.” It’s complicated, but also quite easy once you get the hang of it, though it generally takes years of “practice” to reach a state of being able to achieve this destination for a duration longer than a few seconds.
When I’m done training the puppy – a period that can be as short as 30 seconds to a half an hour (depending on what I’ve got to do that day and how rambunctious the puppy happens to be,) I then open my eyes and take the mala from either around my neck or my wrist (wrist is traditional, but I like wearing mine around my neck generally, as I have very tiny wrists and it just doesn’t fit right, plus it gets in the way when I’m writing or typing, which I seem to do an awful lot of these days) and I hold it in my left hand and focus on the Buddha again.
Now, the Buddha is not a “creator deity” – he’s a person who may or may not have lived, (everyone in Asia believes he was a real person, but people all over the world believe all kinds of things that are pure mythology now, don’t they?) who functions as a “teacher-icon,” who became “enlightened” 2500 years ago as he sat beneath “the Bodhi Tree” in Bodh Gaya, India. The Buddha, in essence, is a reminder that the real “deity creator” of our entire experience of the universe is our minds, and we “practice” meditation to “re-mind” ourselves and train the puppy to stop thinking thoughts so we can achieve peace, wisdom of self, and compassion for other human beings.
The “beginning” of the mala is the large bead at the “bottom” of the string of beads. I hold it gently between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand, say a short prayer of sorts about my desire to “work for enlightenment until all sentient beings are free” (that’s a Mahayana thing and you can look that up too, you can spend days on wikipedia researching all kinds of stuff about all the different flavors of Buddhism, let me tell ya) and I begin in a clockwise direction with the smaller beads, I sorta spin them a little bit one by one as I say (or “think,” really, it’s sort of an inaudible mantra for the mind rather than the tongue) these six syllables:
Om Mani Padme Hum…
Now, y’all can look that up on wikipedia, (I did, ultimately, and included wiki’s version of HH-DL’s definition at the top of this letter) but let me just give you the basics of what I’m thinking about what it means. “Padme” means lotus, and in my mind, what I’m thinking about is this – my mind is encased in the mud of delusion and ignorance and this is how I view samsara, but through practices such as doing a mala or meditating, I am clearing away the mud of delusion and ignorance to reveal the jewels of wisdom of self and compassion for others that the LOTUS (and the Double Vajra also, as I understand it right now) represents.
Repeat 108 times and you’re done. Or, like the monks, you can carry a mala around in your left hand and do it all day long, on busses, in the backseat of taxis and auto-rickshaws, walking down the street, sitting in the temple…wherever. As the Thais like to say, “Up to you.”
It will take lifetimes (literally) to really unpack everything I learned in India, not only about Tibetan Buddhism (which is really something else, let me tell you,) as well as yoga and meditation, but also about myself, my family, my friends, and the world at large. It was just that dense, and despite the fact that I wrote something resembling a “book” while I was there (entirely on facebook, a real pain to compile and edit, but an exercise in what the social media phenomenon is really all about), all this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg of what I believe were really profound changes in the way I look at the world, my life, and what I’d like to do with the rest of it. A monk in Thailand told me I’d live to be 81, (8 + 1 = 9) – but a tulku in India told me I’d live to be 85 (8 + 5 = 13, giggle), so one way or the other, it seems I’m meant to be around for a good long while, and I’d certainly like to make the most of it.
15 malas. 18 people. You are among my very best ever. Love is not a good enough to describe the way I feel about each of you. Done. Deal. I want to thank each and every one of you for being in my life – and if karma is really true (and I think it is) we will all be seeing each other again, in this lifetime – or perhaps also in the next one.
With eternity…
Gregory J. Pleshaw
aka “gregoryp(tm)”
August 31, 2010
