Tibetan prayer wheel (called Mani wheels by the Tibetans) is device for spreading spiritual blessings and well being. Tibetan prayer wheel is a cylinder used in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan prayer wheels are also called Mani wheels by the Tibetans . A Tibetan prayer wheel is a wheel on a spindle, and on the wheel are written or encapsulated prayers or mantras . According the Tibetan Buddhist belief, spinning such a wheel will have much the same effect as orally reciting them.

Tibetan prayer wheel is common religious objects in Tibetan culture.  They are often referred to as Tibetan prayer wheel, Dharma Wheels, or in Tibetan, mani chho-khor.  A hand held Tibetan prayer wheel is a hollow wooden or metal cylinder attached to a handle. Mantra are 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. Attached to the cylinder is a lead weight with a chain, which facilitates the rotation. Tibetans use Tibetan prayer wheels to spread spiritual blessings to all sentient beings and invoke good karma in their next life. They believe that every rotation of a prayer wheel equals one utterance of the mantra, thus the religious practice will in return help them accumulate merits, replace negative effects with positive ones, and hence bring them good karma. The religious exercise is part of Tibetan life. People turn the wheel day and night while walking or resting, whenever their right hands are free while murmuring the same mantra and carry Tibetan prayer wheel around for hours, and even on long pilgrimages, spinning them any time they have a hand free.

Buddhists turn the wheel clockwise. Bon followers turn the wheel counter clockwise. Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying this mantra, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. It is then said that these prayers are to ascend to the heavens to benefit all.   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.

The Tibetan prayer wheel dates back five or six centuries and is a Tibetan innovation.  The idea has its origins in a play on the Sanskrit phrase 'to turn the wheel of the law' meaning 'to teach the Dharma' and refers to the event when Shakyamuni Buddha began to preach".  Although, Tibetan prayer wheels have not simply stayed in Tibet .  Since the 1950s, when tens of thousands of Tibetans became refugees, dharma wheels have begun turning in new lands."  So as the Tibetan cultures preads, so does the Tibetan rayer wheel. Traditionally wheels were not used at all in Tibet except for spiritual purposes -- carts and similar wheeled devices were known from other cultures, but their use was intentionally avoided. The earliest known mention of prayer wheels is in an account written by a Chinese pilgrim, in 400 AD, while traveling through the area now known as Ladakh. The idea is said to have originated as a play on the phrase "turn the wheel of the dharma," a classical metaphor for Buddha's teaching activity.

Tibetan prayer wheels vary in size from small (from 3 inches in height) to Larger Tibetan prayer wheels, which may be several yards (meters) high and one or two yards (meters) in diameter, can contain myriad copies of the mantra, and may also contain sacred texts, up to hundreds of volumes. So not only Tibetan prayer wheel are hand held It is common for bucket-sized Tibetan prayer wheels to be lined up on wooden racks along walking paths circling monasteries and other sacred sites, for the benefit of visiting pilgrims. Large Tibetan prayer wheels are built so that they are empowered by the flowing water, the flaming light, and the blowing wind which drive them, and can later pass their positive karma to all who touch them.

BENEFITS OF TIBETAN PRAYER WHEEL

One of the benefits of the Tibetan 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 Tibetan prayer wheel to purify all our negative karma 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 theTibetan 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 Tibetan 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. In Simply touching a prayer wheel brings great purification of negative karmas and obscurations. Turning a Tibetan prayer wheel containing 100 million om mani padme hung mantras accumulates the same merit as having recited 100 million om mani padme hungs. The Tibetan 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 Tibetan prayer wheel once is the same as having done many years of retreat. This is explained as one of the benefits of prayer wheels.

TRADATIONAL MECHANICALTIBETAN PRAYER WHEELS

This section offers information on how to purchase traditional Mani wheels, and how to make your own.

Hand held wheels, the most common type, are made to be spun with one hand. They are generally made of a cylindrical body of metal (sometimes of wood),  penetrated along its axis by a metal axle mounted in wooden or metal handle. The cylinder, along with the mantra roll it contains, can be kept turning with a slight rotation of the wrist, thanks to a weighted cord or chain.

This particular image shows the wheel leaning on a wooden rest, and shows the mantra roll removed from the protective case. In the case of a small hand-held wheel like this one the scroll can be a 20 or more yards (meters) in length. 

A NOTE ON BUYING TIBETAN PRAYER WHEEL

The cases for Tibetan prayer wheels are often made separately from the mantra rolls, which are inserted in the case before the wheel is sold. Occasionally the cases are sold without the mantra rolls. If you buy a Tibetan prayer wheel in a store, you can take off the top (or ask the shopkeeper to do it) and look to see the mantras inside. If there is no mantra roll, you can ask if they can get you one. If you buy a wheel from the Internet online and find that there are no prayers inside, you can ask the vendor to supply them for you. 

If you already own a wheel that has no prayers, one of the Tibetan stores or Internet vendors can probably get a mantra roll for you if you tell them the size of your wheel case (height and diameter of cylinder).

Best way to buy quality tibetan prayer wheel online is through www.himalayanmart.com

PRAYER WHEELS FOR HEALING

It is also mentioned that Tibetan prayer wheels stop harms 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 karma 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 karma and obscurations. All these are absorbed or sucked into the prayer wheel. While reciting five or 10 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 circumambulation 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 Tibetan 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 Tibetan 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 Tibetan prayer wheel makes the place very holy and precious, like a pure land.

By Lama Zopa Rinpoche

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