[Yavanie]

This is such a wonderfully diverse group of people I don't hesitate to ask for your help.
I am presenting a short talk this weekend at church about prayer beads and rosaries. I am trying to get info about the history of prayer beads in other cultures and religions because I know they are way older than catholic and anglican rosaries. Particularly I am interested in some short comments about prayer beads used by Buhddists and muslims, as I have found photos to illustrate at least these two cultures and faiths.
Comments welcome, any info, personal experiences, or places to get general info all welcome. Post here or pm me, your preference and thanks for your input!!!

I only have about 48 hours to pull my final comments together, thanks.

[LuthienTinuviel]

I'm Muslim.

We use our 'tasbih' or prayer beads to basically recite the name of God; Allah repeatedly (usually 99 times), Allahu Akbar (Allah is great) and so forth after prayers, during our 'sunat' prayers, sometimes done in the middle of the night. It is not deemed necessary and as a follower's willing act of obeisance to God.

The beads are of 99 beads, or 44 I think. I'm not sure. I'm not exactly a very faithful Muslim. My Mom prays a lot, but her daughter... *cough*.

[krazykataave]

http://www.thebeadsite.com/brn-dex.htm

This gives you several options to look at ancient beads and research names and histories. Hope it helps.

Kat

[ellisk]

I am Buddhist and some Buddhists also use prayer beads in meditations or while chanting. Indeed there is a sutra on prayer beads. It goes like this: A King was talking to to the Buddha and said that in his kingdom there had recently been much famine and disease and suffering and the formal religion of the land was too complex to practice. He asked the Buddha to tell him the most important thing to do--the central point of religion. And the Buddha responded: King, if you want to eliminate earthly desires and to put an end to their suffering, make a circular string of 108 beads from the seeds of the Bodhi tree and recite ‘Nam Buddha, Nam Dharma, Nam Sangha’. Count one bead with each recitation.

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are the Three Jewels or Three Refuges. Buddha is the Enlightened One who realized the nature of the world and inspired others to see it. The Dharma are the Buddha's teaching including the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. The Sangha is the community of monastic and lay Buddhists in whom we find strength and support. When a Buddhist becomes a Buddhist, they take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha saying, "I go for refuge to the Buddha; I go for refuge to the Dhamma; I go for refuge to the Sangha." So these concepts are very central and I have explained them in the simplest of terms here.

There are 108 beads because that is the number of earthly desires that cause mortals suffering. The 108 bead are usually placed between 2 other beads called the Mother and Father Beads. They represent the Buddha. There are also 4 smaller beads that represent the four Leaders of the Bodhisattvas of Earth. A Bodhisattva is a person that has attained enlightenment (or is striving to) but chooses to continue being reborn to help others obtain enlightment. The Dalai Lama is considered to be such a person.

Different types of Buddhists recite different prayers or chants using the beads. In the type of Buddhism I follow, we say, "om mani padme hum." It means literally: the jewel in the lotus. We believe that saying this out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. We believe that all of the teaching of the Buddha are contained in this phrase (so it's meaning is much more complex than that literal translation of the words that I gave you.) In the words of Kalu Rinpoche, "Through [this] mantra, we no longer cling to the reality of the speech and sound encountered in life, but experience it as essentially empty. Then confusion of the speech aspect of our being is transformed into enlightened awareness." That enlightened awareness includes whatever we might need to understand in order to save any beings, including ourselves, from suffering. For that reason the entire Dharma, the entire truth about the nature of suffering and the many ways of removing it's causes, is said to be contained in these six syllables.

Different types of Buddhism say different words but the meaning/thought behind them is largely the same.

That is probably more than you wanted to know but I hope it helps in you paper.

[ellisk]

Here is a good site on Buddhist prayer beads from the Japanese perspective--slightly different from my Tibetan one-- but it has some dates in it and quotes to sutra I refered to.

http://www.uwec.edu/greider/BMRB/culture/student.work/fujitam/

It mentions a japanese tree the beads are supposed to be made of. Tibetan tradition says they should be made of the Bodhi seed because that is the tree Buddha sat under when he obtained Enlightenment. Anyway....

[Yavanie]

Luthien, Krazy and Ellisk,

thankyou so much for the information, especially the personal accounts.
Luthien, I have some pictures of muslims with prayer beads and now I can call them by their proper name.

Krazy, thanks for the link it has been most interesting to visit.

Ellisk, thankyou for the brief and easily understandable assesment of buddhism. I now feel like I can say something intelligent and be able to share something meaningful with the rest of my group.

Prayer and meditation are important aspects of any healthy spiritiual life, I believe, and understanding it's significance to other cultures and religions advances our understanding of each other.

my training is a as a cultural anthropologist, with almost a minor in geology (failed college chemistry and advanced algebra) anyway,
my talk is entitle "Rocks to Rosaries" and will center on prayer beads as an aid to meditation and what substances cultures and people have chosen to craft prayer beads from and then what meaning may be associated with particular colors or materials.

I claim much ethnocentricity in my understanding of other religions. This has been very enlightening and I thank you all so very much for your contributions.

Of course, it will suprise no one that knows me that this info came from fellow Tolkien geeks.

[Eruanna]

I know ellisk forgot to mention, but Orlando Bloom was formally inducted into the Buddhist sect of Soka Gakkai (Japanese) last year.

He is very low-key about it, and to his credit did not make it a media event. I have seen some promo shots of him and the Buddhist prayer beads.

Just FYI.

--Eruanna

[Rocheron]

[Eruanna]

Hi, Yavanie!

The significance of various cultures' prayer beads usually serves, as we've noted, to represent the spiritual tenets or the number and types of prayers made.

In the Japanese Buddhist prayer beads (called "o-jizu"), the pom-poms at the end (tassels for some) represent the form of a human being: three pom-poms at one end represent the head and arms, while two at the other end represent the legs. They are usually carried on the person, or in the purse, much like the Catholic Rosary. They are not so much used as "charms" but as tactile reminders of one's dedication to faith.

From the psychological standpoint, the touching and feeling (tactual/kinesthetic aspect) of the beads is said to actualize prayer, making it more "papable," rather than just a thought.

I hope this helps.

I know your talk will be well received. World unity will only be realised by looking into commonalities of religion and culture, not by looking at what is devisive. Too many "holy wars" have plagued mankind; these wars are sadly still with us.

--Eruanna