Prayer wheel. When you travel to Tibet, you will often see Tibetan prayer wheels mounted on the walls surrounding temples, held in hand, installed on hilltops, circulating on wind energy, or fitted into the riverbed, circulating with the kinetic energy of moving water.
The mini wheel is made of a hollow cylinder, usually constructed from metal and Leather. It is beautifully decorated with embossed Tibetan signs and symbols and often painted with the Mani in Skastrit. Inside the primary container, we would tightly put a scroll of printed mantra. The wheel will be mounted on a rod handle in the center. Prayer wheels come in different sizes. The smallest one is hung on a handle to rotate in the hand, the medium one mounts on the wall surrounding temples and monasteries, and the largest one is powered by wind and water.
In Buddhism, a Mini wheel is a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully designed, mounted on a handle, and containing a tight scroll printed with a mantra. It comes in many sizes. They may be small, attached to a stick, and spun around by hand, medium-sized and set up at monasteries or temples, or very large and continuously spun by a wind or water mill.
Tibetan Buddhists primarily use prayer wheels in Tibet and throughout the Himalaya and Inner Himalaya regions. Devotees would carry handheld prayer wheels or circulate one that is available around temples and monasteries.
For us, it also represents the turning of the wheel of the Dharma by the Buddha. We believe turning the prayer wheel is just as valid as reciting the mantra aloud. We believe that by turning the prayer wheel, we are spreading the mantras in all directions, thereby spreading blessings and positive energy.
In Tibet, we turn this wheel every day, from morning to evening, before going to bed and reciting the mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum.” Prayer wheels are one of the essential spiritual items some can own in their life.
Spiritual blessing and tradition of the prayer wheel
The practice of the prayer wheel has spread with the Mahayana teachings of Vajrayana. Nagarjuna instructed the prayer wheel to be given to Loin face Dakini, who then passed it on to Padmasambhava, who brought it to Tibet. Simply touching and turning the wheel brings incredible purification and accumulates an unbelievable amount of merit.
When the mani wheels are made, the area is utterly transformed into pleasant, peaceful, serene, and conducive to the mind due to the power of compassion.
The practice of the wheel is so powerful that it purifies the mind and accumulates great merits. It contains billions of mantras. Turning it once is the same as reciting that many mantras.
In those few seconds, you perform a remarkable purification, and you will accumulate a great deal of merit. Turning the prayer wheel once is equivalent to having completed many years of retreat.
Another benefit of the wheel is it embodies all the deeds of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of all directions. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas reside in the prayer wheel to benefit sentient beings. The mini wheel purifies all our negative karmas and obscurations, leading us to the realization of the path to enlightenment. All beings in the area of the wheel are saved from rebirth in the lower realms of the wheel of life, and their next life will be as a Deva, a human, or born in the pure land of the Buddha.
If you have the wheel in your house, the house is as auspicious and holy as the Potala (the pure land of Buddha of compassion) during the time of death. Suppose you have it nearby. You don’t need Po-wa. The mini wheel helps to transfer your consciousness to the Pure Land. It enables the dying person to project their consciousness through the central channel and out from the crown above their head, allowing them to be reincarnated in the pure land of Amithaba or Avalokitesvara.
Different kind of prayers wheels
There are four different types of prayer wheels, each corresponding to one of the five elements: earth, fire, water, and wind prayer wheels.
Water Wheel
A water wheel is a type of prayer wheel that turns with the power of moving water. When water touches the prayer wheel, it becomes blessed. As the water flows, it carries the power and purifies billions of animals and insects along the way, as well as in the ocean.
Fire Wheels
A fire wheel is turned by the hearing of a butter lamp, candle, or light. The light emanating from the prayer wheels then purifies all the negative karma of any living being that comes into contact with it.
Wind Wheel
The kinetic energy of the moving wind turns windmills. You will find wind prayer wheels along the way when traveling in Tibet. In the wind prayer wheels, the wind touches the wheel, blessed with its power, and then it purifies the negative karmas and obscurations of any being it touches.
Earth Wheel
It is the standard hand-held wheel where energy from a living object is turned into a spiritual blessing. It also spreads the grace to the ten directions, and it is most commonly used in Tibet.
Visualization of the Prayer wheel
Visualization of the power of the Mani wheel is essential to understand why we use it. There are two Visualization you can practice.
In the first visualization, you will visualize light beams radiating from the mantras in the wheel, illuminating you and purifying all diseases and their causes, as well as your negative emotions and thoughts and the imprints of negative karma on your mental continuum. You can better visualize these lights illuminating entire sentient beings and purifying all their sufferings and negative karma.
In the second visualization, beams radiate out to all sentient beings, and they will suck up all disease, negative karma, and obscurations like a vacuum that sucks in dust. Absorb back into the prayer wheels, and all sentient beings are liberated, actualizing the path to Buddhahood and becoming the Buddha of compassion themselves.
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