Tibetan prayer wheels (called Mani
wheels by the Tibetans) are devices for spreading spiritual blessings and well
being. Rolls of thin paper, imprinted with many, many copies of the mantra
(prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum, printed in an ancient Indian script
or in Tibetan script, are wound around an axle in a protective container, and
spun around and around. Typically, larger decorative versions of the syllables
of the mantra are also carved on the outside cover of the wheel. Tibetan
Buddhists believe that saying this mantra, out loud or silently to oneself,
invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessing of Chenrezig, the
embodiment of compassion.
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Viewing a written copy of the mantra is
said to have the same effect -- and the mantra is carved into stones left in
piles near paths where travelers will see them. Spinning the written form of
the mantra around in a Mani wheel is also supposed to have the
same effect; the more copies of the mantra, the more the benefit. |
Tibetan Buddhist Mani
wheels are always spun clockwise, as viewed from above, for any or all of
several reasons: It rotates the syllables of the mantra so that they would pass
a viewer in the order that they would be read, it follows the direction of the
sun, and it matches the clockwise circumambulation of stupas. Practitioners of
Bon, the pre Buddhist spiritual tradition of Tibet, spin their prayer wheels
counter-clockwise, the same direction they use in circumambulation