Beading a path through my mind

I chant every morning for at least 35 minutes. This may means getting up a bit earlier yes, some people have two hour plus practices and wake up at three am every day. As I sit down I reach for my prayer beads. Growing up Catholic I remember the rosary and I remember that being what old people did, sitting in church praying for what only they knew.  It was during my time at the yoga studio that I picked up my malas. Mala being the sanskrit name for prayer beads, meaning Garland (Adams), these strings of beads are usually 108 beads or divisions of that number.(Anthropology)  108 represents many things from the number of energy points in the body or 108 desires to overcome. 100 of the repetitions are considered for the practitioner and the other offering to the divine. (swamij) My first encounter with malas was a display in the entrance to the yoga studio I frequented. Each mala like the ones below was made out of semiprecious stones; displayed in its own box with a card talking about the properties of the stone.

 Source: atmaimport.com

Malas are used as a tool for counting prayers, mantras, or even just breaths. This allows the practitioner to focus all their attention onto their practices while working their way around the beads. Starting with a bead to right side of the large bead or guru bead, this bead represents who or what you are praying to. If multiple rounds are done then before the guru bead is reached, the mala is turned around and worked back the opposite way.(Pendragon) In my previous post "Into the Chant" I discussed the known physiological benefits of mantra recitation on the mind, and body. It is then that repetitions through the use of malas allows for a deeper practice, it is considered that mantra siddhi or mastery of the mantra happens after 125,000 repetitions, or 1250 rounds of mala.(swamij)

The mala is a tool, some people wear them as jewelry, and some collect vast amounts of different materials and designs. In the end it isn't the mala but the practice you do with it that make it effective. This practice must be maintained. It is as the yoga sutras say "Practice (mantra practice) becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness."(Sutras) There may be some instant feelings associated from first practicing mantra with or without malas, but like all great things in life over time it becomes something completely different and amazing.

work cited
Adams, Tom. "Prayer Beads - Tibetan Mala" Eastern Healing Arts. E.H.A. 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2013

Bharati, Swami Jnaneshvara. Traditional Yoga and Meditation of the Himalayan Masters. Abhyasa Ashram. n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2013
Buddhist Prayer Beads.Shanghai Xinhong Cultural Development Co.Ltd, 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Museum of Anthropology. Museum of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science, University of Missouri. CAS, 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Rowan Pendragon [Jess Carlson]. "Everything You Need to Know About Malas." Rowan Pendragon. 5 Sept. 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Satchidananda. "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali". Yogaville. Buckingham, Virginia: Integral Yoga Publication, 2011. Print. 30 Sept. 2013