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Prayer Wheels
Land of Medicine Buddha is
home to three beautiful prayer wheels. The one outside the gompa is one of
the most powerful Prayer Wheel on this planet, packed with 64 billion om
mani padme hum mantras, microfilmed from an original written by His
Holiness Dalai Lama. The Prayer Wheel is a manifestion of the Holy Speech
of the Compassion Buddha. “Simply
touching the Prayer Wheel brings great purification of negative karmas and
obscurations. Turning a prayer wheel containing 100 million om mani padme
hum mantras accumulates the same merit as having recited 100 million om
mani padme hum. In that few seconds, you perform so much powerful
purification and accumulate so much merit. It is
also mentioned that prayer wheels stop harms from spirit and also stops
disease... Anyone with a disease such as AIDS or cancer can use the prayer
wheel for meditation and healing. Sick people could come to centers with
prayer wheels for several hours every day to turn the wheel and do
visualization.”
The Benefits of Prayer Wheels by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Given at Land of Medicine Buddha, June 1994 Transcribed
and first edited by Jindati Doelter; second edit by Briege Wallbridge;
third edit by Ailsa Cameron. Copyright
Wisdom Publications, Boston, MA, USA. In Solu Kumbu all the old men and women turn prayer wheels every day.
When they are at home in the morning and in the evening before they go to
bed, they hold a mala in their left hand, a prayer wheel in their right,
and recite om mani padme hung. And when they walk around, they
constantly turn the prayer wheel and recite om mani padme hung. I often used to think, "How does turning of the prayer wheel become
Dharma practice?" I had this question in my mind, simply because I
was ignorant as to the benefits of the practice. I didn't know what an
important practice it is and how beneficial it is in terms of
purification. Just touching and turning a prayer wheel brings incredible
purification and accumulates unbelievable merit. At Lawudo I found many old manuscripts, handwritten texts by the Lawudo
Lama. The previous Lawudo Lama was called Lama (Kunsang) Yeshe and some
people think he has something to do with my life. The Lawudo Lama did not
have a monastery, but lived in retreat in a cave. He put a lot of effort
into copying texts of the practices of various Vajrayana deities. At that
time such texts were very rare, so he wrote many out by hand. Because they had been stored in the cave which was very humid, the texts
were damp, and I used to dry them in the sun. If you don't dry them, the
texts grow fungus and are then destroyed by worms. The worms reincarnate
among the texts and make some interesting holes in them. One day when I was laying the texts out in the sun, I saw one old text
with the title Mani Kabum. It contains all the history of the evolution of
the world, including how Dharma came into this world and how the sentient
beings of Tibet, the Snow Land, became the particular objects to be
subdued by the Compassion Buddha Avalokiteshvara. Amitabha and the
Compassion Buddha are the same in essence and are very strongly linked.
And for more than twenty years, the Compassion Buddha and Amitabha have
guided not only Tibet and China, but also Western countries, especially by
spreading Dharma. In Mani Kabum I saw a short explanation of the lineage of the prayer wheel practice and a few lines on how to visualize and meditate when you do the practice. In Tibet, and generally wherever there are the Mahayana teachings of Vajrayana, the practice of the prayer wheel has spread. Nagarjuna gave the practice to Lion-faced Dakini, who gave it to Padmasambhava, who then brought it to Tibet. After reading this, I developed faith that the practice was not nonsense, but had valid references and was valuable and meaningful. From this text, I got some idea of how powerful the prayer wheel practice is in purifying the mind and in accumulating extensive merits. In 1987, when I was at Chenrezig Institute in Australia, I noticed that
the place had become incredibly peaceful. It felt so serene that you
wanted to be there, to live there. Chenrezig Institute had not been like
that before, and I wondered why it had changed. At that time, Geshe Lama
Konchog was there. Geshe-la has done a lot of Dharma practice. After he
escaped from Tibet, he spent many years in retreat in Milarepa's caves in
the Himalayas. He did 2,000 nyung-nays, the intensive two-day retreat on
the Compassion Buddha, that involves taking the eight Mahayana precepts
and doing many prostrations and mantras. Geshe Lama Konchog has trained
his mind well in the path, so I thought that the serenity of Chenrezig
Institute might be due to his bodhicitta. However, one day near the end of my stay there, the thought came into my
mind, "Oh, the change might be due to the prayer wheel—it wasn't
there before." The prayer wheel is much smaller than the one here at
Land of Medicine Buddha, but it also contains many mantras on microfilm
and is very nicely made. Some time later, when I was in Brazil at the
invitation of a meditation center there, a student gave me a book written
by one of Tarthang Tulku's senior disciples about his experiences when he
was in charge of building stupas and prayer wheels in Tarthang Tulku's
centers. In one section he mentioned that after a prayer wheel was built,
the area was completely transformed, becoming so peaceful, pleasant, and
conducive to the mind. This confirmed my belief, based on my own reasoning, that Chenrezig
Institute had become so peaceful because of its new prayer wheel. Somebody
else experiencing a similar effect from building the prayer wheel helped
to stabilize my faith. There
are earth, water, fire and wind prayer wheels. One of the benefits of the
prayer wheel is that it embodies all the actions of the buddhas and
bodhisattvas of the 10 directions. To benefit sentient beings, the buddhas
and bodhisattvas manifest in the prayer wheel to purify all our negative
karmas and obscurations, and to cause us to actualize the realizations of
the path to enlightenment. All the beings (not only the people but also
the insects), in the area where the prayer wheel is built are saved from
rebirth in the lower realms; they receive a deva or human body, or are
born in a pure land of Buddha. If you have a mani prayer wheel in your house, your house is the same as
the Potala, the pure land of the Compassion Buddha. If you have a prayer
wheel next to you when you die, you don't need powa. Having the prayer
wheel itself becomes a method to transfer your consciousness to a pure
land. Simply thinking of a prayer wheel helps a dying person to shoot the
consciousness up the central channel and out through the crown to
reincarnate in the pure land of Amithaba or the Compassion Buddha. Simply
touching a prayer wheel brings great purification of negative karmas and
obscurations. Turning a prayer wheel containing 100 million om mani
padme hung mantras accumulates the same merit as having recited 100
million om mani padme hungs. The prayer wheel here at Land of Medicine Buddha contains 11.8 billion
mantras, so turning it one time is the same as having recited that many
mantras. In that few seconds, you perform so much powerful purification
and accumulate; so much merit. Turning the prayer wheel once is the same
as having done many years of retreat. This is explained as one of the
benefits of prayer wheels. With the water prayer wheel, the water that touches the wheel becomes
blessed. When that water goes into an ocean or lake, it carries the power
to purify all the billions of animals and insects there. I have had a wish, which has recently become stronger, to build a prayer
wheel in the ocean. Because I have been requested to help with so many
other Dharma projects, the idea of making a water prayer wheel had been
postponed. However, when I was in the center in Taiwan recently, in a
conversation about prayer wheels, I mentioned the idea. One of the
benefactors, who has been running the family business for some years, was
very happy to make a water prayer wheel because his father had started the
business by buying fish. Since the family's prosperity came from fishing,
he felt his family owed a lot to the fish, and he already had in mind of
doing something to repay or to benefit the fish. When I mentioned the idea of the water prayer wheel, he almost cried,
and then he asked, "Why are you telling me to build this prayer
wheel?" After I explained the reasons, he was very happy to build a
water prayer wheel. I mentioned the idea of building it in the ocean near
Taiwan, but he thought to build it in Hawaii where the water of the
Pacific Ocean would touch the prayer wheel and bring great benefit. A fire prayer wheel is turned by the heat of either a candle or an
electric light. The light that comes from the prayer wheel then purifies
the negative karmas of the living beings it touches. It is similar with a
prayer wheel turned by wind. The wind that touches the prayer wheel is
blessed by the power of the prayer wheel and then has the power to purify
the negative karmas and obscurations of any being it touches. Because prayer wheels are so powerful in purifying negative karmas, I
think it is a very good idea to use them. After I explained the benefits
of prayer wheel a few years ago at Kopan, Lorna and Terry voluntarily took
it upon themselves to make prayer wheels available to other students who
wanted to do the practice. They generously made many small prayer wheels
and offered them to many students, including me. I then offered mine to the king of Nepal. When I mentioned to him that
having a prayer wheel helps when one dies, he suddenly became distant. I
think it's not a subject commonly talked about to him. He asked, "Do
I have to keep this?" So I said, "Yes." It is also mentioned that prayer wheels stop harm from spirits and other
beings and also stop disease, so one idea I have is use them for healing.
Anyone with a disease such as AIDS or cancer, whether or not they have any
understanding of Dharma, can use the prayer wheel for meditation and
healing. For example, sick people could come here to Land of Medicine
Buddha for several hours every day to turn the prayer wheel and do the
visualizations. There are two visualizations. With the first, you visualize light beams
coming from the mantras in the prayer wheel, illuminating you and
purifying you of all your disease and the causes of disease, your negative
thoughts and the imprints of these left on your mental continuum. You then
visualize the light illuminating all sentient beings and purifying all
their sufferings, as well as their negative karmas and obscurations. With the second visualization, beams are emitted from the mantras and,
like a vacuum sucking up dust, they hook all the disease and spirit harms
and, most importantly, the cause of disease, the negative karmas and
obscurations. All these are absorbed or sucked into the prayer wheel.
While reciting five or ten malas of the mantra, you visualize purifying
yourself in this way. At the end recite some malas while visualizing that the beams emitted
from the prayer wheel purify all the sufferings and obscurations of the
sentient beings of the six realms. These absorb into the prayer wheel and
all sentient beings, including you, are then liberated, actualizing the
whole path and becoming the Compassion Buddha. (You can also do
circumambulations with the same visualizations.) If someone with AIDS, cancer or some other disease meditated like this
and every day, for as many hours as possible, there would definitely be
some effect. I know quite a few people who have completely recovered from
terminal cancer through meditation. Even though the person might not know
about Dharma, about reincarnation or karma; because they want to have
peace of mind now and a peaceful death; because they care about having a
healthy body and a healthy mind, they should use this extremely powerful
and meaningful method of healing. I would like to emphasize that every large and small prayer wheel can be
used by sick people for healing. This practice is very practical and very
meaningful. Two years ago, I asked Jim McCann to build a prayer wheel here
at Land of Medicine Buddha, not only for people to do the practice, but
also to bless the land. It helps all the insects and animals as well as
the human beings. Jim and his wife, Sandra, put a lot of time and effort
into actualizing this extremely beautiful prayer wheel, though I'm sure
many other people helped them. From the depth of my heart I would like to
thank them very much for their achievement. A prayer wheel makes the place
very holy and precious, like a pure land.
The Benefits of Chanting om
mani padme hum Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s invitation to join the Chenrezig Institute mani retreat, composed by Rinpoche during a stay at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin, USA in July 2000, scribed and edited by Ven. Lhundup Damchö; excerpt edited by Dr. Nick Ribush. Rinpoche’s entire teachings at the retreat have been edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron and will be published for free distribution by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in Teachings from the Mani Retreat, due in late 2001. The benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha mantra are infinite, like the limitless sky. Even if you don’t have much intellectual understanding of Dharma, even if the only thing you know is om mani padme hum, still the happiest life is one lived with an attitude free of the eight worldly concerns. If you live your life with the pure attitude free of attachment clinging to this life and simply spend your life chanting om mani padme hum—this six-syllable mantra that is the essence of all Dharma—that’s the purest Dharma. It looks very simple, very easy to recite. But if you think of the benefits, it’s not at all simple. Here, I’d to mention just the essence of its infinite benefits. Reciting the Compassion Buddha mantra just once completely purifies the four defeats of breaking the four root vows of self-liberation and the five uninterrupted negative karmas1. It is also mentioned in the tantras that by reciting this mantra you achieve the four qualities of being born in the Amitabha Buddha pure land and other pure lands; at the time of death, seeing Buddha and lights appearing in the sky; the devas making you offerings; and never being reborn in the hell, hungry ghost or animals realms. You will be reborn in the pure land of Buddha or as a happy transmigratory being. When one who recites ten malas a day goes swimming, whether in a river, an ocean or some other body of water, the water that touches that person’s body gets blessed. It is said that up to seven generations of that person’s descendents won’t get reborn in the lower realms. The reason for this is that due to the power of mantra, the body is blessed by the person reciting the mantra and visualizing their body in form of the holy body of Chenrezig. Therefore, the body becomes so powerful, so blessed that this affects the consciousness up to seven generations and has the effect that if one dies with a non-virtuous thought, one is not reborn in a lower realm. Thus, when a person who has recited ten malas of om mani padme hum a day goes into a river or an ocean, the water that touches the person’s body gets blessed, and this blessed water then purifies all the billions and billions of sentient beings in the water. So it’s unbelievably beneficial; this person saves the animals in that water from the most unbelievable suffering of the lower realms. When such a person walks down a road and the wind touches his or her body and then goes on to touch insects, their negative karma gets purified and causes them to have a good rebirth. Similarly, when such a person does massage or otherwise touches others’ bodies, those people’s negative karma also gets purified. Such a person becomes meaningful to behold; being seen and touched becomes a means of liberating other sentient beings. This means that even the person’s breath touching the bodies of other sentient beings purifies their negative karma. Anybody who drinks the water in which such a person has swum gets purified. We are unbelievably fortunate to have met the Dharma and to have the opportunity to do recitation and meditation on the Compassion Buddha. It is an easy way of purifying whatever negative karma we have collected, in not only this life but in many previous lives as well. Because we have met the Buddhadharma, and especially this method--the practice of Compassion Buddha and recitation of his mantra--it is easy to purify negative karma and collect extensive merit and thus to achieve enlightenment. We are unbelievably fortunate. Therefore, there is nothing more foolish than not taking advantage of this great opportunity. Normally, we get continuously distracted and waste our lives. Not only that, but all the actions done with ego and with the three poisonous minds of anger, attachment and ignorance create negative karma, the cause of suffering. In all existence, there is nothing more foolish than using this perfect human body to create only suffering. In places such as Tibet, Nepal, India and Ladakh, there’s a well-established tradition of doing the Compassion Buddha retreat and reciting 100 million om mani padme hum mantras. The one held at Chenrezig Institute was the first such retreat held in the West and the first in the FPMT organization. This is to happen there once each year—only once each year! If you’re feeling guilt in your life, you can overcome this through the purification of attending this retreat. The retreat is not just chanting mantras with sadhanas, but also includes taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts, if not every day, at least frequently. Whatever merit you collect that day increases 100,000 times. This becomes such an easy and quick way to purify, collect extensive merit, achieve enlightenment and liberate sentient beings from unimaginable suffering and bring them to enlightenment quickly. Whoever attends a mani retreat is unbelievably fortunate. Even if you can’t attend the whole retreat, you can participate for two months, one month or at least a few weeks. You can do even just one week. I especially hope this retreat will also be established in Mongolia, since their main food is meat and so many animals are killed there every day. This practice helps purify that. After our temple in Mongolia has been built, I hope that thousands of people will attend mani retreats there. Gradually too, I would like this retreat to be established in other parts of the West. This retreat also blesses the country where it is held and brings so much peace, happiness and prosperity. Even if you know the teachings on how to meditate on bodhicitta, you still need to receive the special blessings of the deity, Compassion Buddha. You receive these by doing the meditation and recitation we practice in the mani retreat. Therefore, recitation of om mani padme hum is one way to actualize bodhicitta--to transform your mind into bodhicitta and make your meditation on bodhicitta effective. Generally, according to my experience, in my home of Solu Khumbu in the Himalayas of Nepal, there are people who live their lives chanting om mani padme hum but have no idea of the three principal aspects of the path--renunciation, bodhicitta and the right view of emptiness--not even the words. Even though they can’t read and don’t even know the alphabet, they have great devotion to compassion and bodhicitta and live their lives reciting om mani padme hum. Such people are warm-hearted, very kind, very compassionate. This is proof from my experience that it has the effect of transforming the mind into a good heart and compassion. Without bodhicitta, you cannot cause all the happiness for all sentient beings. You cannot do perfect work for all sentient beings, and you cannot achieve the complete qualities of the realizations and cessation, even for yourself. Thus, everyone is most welcome to join the 100 million om mani padme hum mantra retreat. Footnotes
The
Meaning Of The Short Chenrezig Mantra Om
Mani Padme Hum MANI
is method, PADME is wisdom; so MANI PADME is method-wisdom. Buddha
revealed the lesser vehicle teachings, the mahayana paramitayana teachings
and the mahayana vajrayana teachings. There is method-wisdom in the lesser
vehicle teachings, method-wisdom in the mahayana paramitayana teachings
and method-wisdom in the mahayana vajrayana teachings. So MANI PADME
contains everything: the hinayana lesser vehicle teachings of
method-wisdom, the mahayana paramitayana method-wisdom and the mahayana
vajrayana method-wisdom. By
practising method-wisdom together, as signified by MANI PADME, one
purifies the stains of body, speech and mind. This is signified by the OM
– A U MA – these three sounds integrate to make OM, which signifies
the vajra holy body, holy speech and holy mind of Buddha. By practising
the method-wisdom signified by MANI PADME together, one purifies one's own
ordinary body, speech and mind and they become inseparable from Buddha's
vajra holy body, holy speech and holy mind. So the OM – AH U MA –
signifies the three vajras. Then,
MANI PADME also signifies the mahaanuttarayoga tantra path. What I
explained before is general. Now, more specifically, by depending on the
path of the generation stage, which is the method of the profound secret
mantra that ripens the mind, and on the completion stage, which liberates
the mind, you can cease the circle of suffering, the base-time ordinary
birth, death and intermediate state; actualize the path-time dharmakaya,
sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya; and achieve the result-time dharmakaya,
sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya. So achieving these three kayas, which are
inseparable, is signified by the OM – A U MA. Then,
another meaning of MANI PADME: PADME is lotus, MANI is jewel. The lotus
grows from mud but is unstained by the mud, so the reason why the
Compassionate Buddha is holding a lotus is to signify that the
Compassionate Buddha has completely purified and abandoned the root of
samsara, ignorance – the concept of true existence. Not only that, but
the Compassionate Buddha has purified even the subtle imprints and
obscurations by the great wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. Therefore
the Compassionate Buddha is not abiding even in the lower nirvana, the
extreme of samsara. The Compassionate Buddha is not bound in that blissful
state of peace, that is why he or she – whichever way is manifested –
is holding the white lotus.
The reason why the Compassionate Buddha is holding a jewel in the
hand, which in Sanskrit is "MANI", is that the Compassionate
Buddha has achieved the highest peerless peace, the great enlightenment
and because the Compassionate Buddha's holy mind is bound by great
compassion he or she is not just abiding in that state of peace but
instead manifesting in whatever form fits the different sentient beings
with their different characteristics of mind. In this way, the
Compassionate Buddha reveals various skilful means to fit the different
sentient beings, and, like a wish-granting jewel, eliminates every single
problem and suffering of the sentient beings and grants every single
benefit and happiness to the sentient beings – temporary happiness and
ultimate happiness. Because the Compassionate Buddha fulfills the wishes
of all sentient beings the two hands are put together in the mudra of
holding a jewel. Now
the meaning of HUM. In the root tantra Dorje Tsemo ("Tip of the
Vajra") it is mentioned: I am going to explain the meaning of HUM. HUM destroys the suffering.
It kills the evil beings by the mantra... This means the many sentient
beings who harm or destroy the teachings of Buddha, the source of all
sentient beings' happiness. ...and
it cuts the lasso of samsara. A lasso is something that you use to tie
things, like tying an animal to a stick, post or hook. The "lasso of
samsara" is attachment, which ties us to samsara. So HUM cuts the
lasso of samsara. Therefore,
remember the HUM is the supreme one. MANI
PADME is the Compassionate Buddha Chenrezig's holy name. So MANI PADME is
like calling "Mum!", "Mother!" or "Father!"
MANI PADME is just like calling out to your mother or father. HUM
persuades the Compassionate Buddha's holy mind. It is an imperative:
"May the blessings of your holy mind, the great compassion, enter my
heart, my mental continuum!" So that is the essential meaning of the
HUM in OM MANI PADME HUM. Other
than this, MANI is dependent-arising, the truth for the all-obscuring
mind. All of existence can be condensed into two truths: the truth for the
all-obscuring mind or dependent-arising and the truth for the absolute
wisdom. So MANI signifies the truth for the all-obscuring mind,
dependent-arising, and PADME signifies the truth for the absolute wisdom.
Then HUM is the unification of dependent-arising and emptiness. Also,
MANI is appearance. First we label "I", then there is the
appearance of an I existing from its own side, independent and unlabelled.
So the MANI signifies appearance: the appearance of samsara,
nirvana, the appearance of whatever is in this room, of oneself and
others, everything. All these appearances appear to exist from their own
side and not as merely labelled by the mind. Then PADME signifies
emptiness. So you see, all these appearances including I, action, object,
samsara, nirvana, all these things that are appearing to us as existing
from their own side and not as merely labelled by the mind, all these are
completely empty, right there. They do not exist at all, not even the
slightest atom. Because everything that exists is merely labelled by the
mind, everything is empty. So MANI is appearance; PADME seeing that all
these appearances are empty of true existence; HUM the inseparability of
emptiness and appearance. For
example, while you are seeing a mirage, there is the appearance of water
but at the same time you understand that there is no water. Similarly, all
these things appear to you as truly existent but you understand at the
same time that this appearance is not real, it is empty. So MANI signifies
appearance; PADME signifies emptiness; HUM unifies these two. From
the general meaning I gave in the very first explanation of OM MANI PADME
HUM you can see that depending on how much you understand the
method-wisdom of the lesser vehicle path, the paramitayana path and the
lower tantras such as kriya tantra you can elaborate on your understanding
of the mantra. There are also ways to relate OM MANI PADME HUM to the
generation and completion stages of highest tantra, mahaanuttarayoga
tantra. And you can relate OM MANI PADME HUM just purely to the completion
stage: MANI is the illusory body, PADME is clear light, and HUM the
unification of these two, the result – the unification of
no-more-learning. So
by reciting HUM, you persuade Chenrezig's holy mind and the blessings of
Chenrezig's holy mind enter into your own heart. Because of this cause
blessing, you actualize the method-wisdom of the whole path to
enlightenment – sutra, mahayana, vajrayana – which is signified by
MANI PADME. Your ordinary body, speech and mind are purified and transform
into, for example, the Compassionate Buddha's vajra holy body, holy speech
and holy mind, which is signified by AH U MA – OM. When
somebody who knows the whole path recites OM MANI PADME HUM, it is like
doing a direct meditation on the whole path to enlightenment. So by
thinking of the meaning, you can meditate on the whole path by reciting OM
MANI PADME HUM. (Edited by Ven Sarah from a talk given in Singapore, 25 January 1993). For information on Chenrezig, Avalokiteshvara, the
Buddha of Compassion, click here.
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