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he major goal of my life has been to preserveboth Tibetan Buddhist religion and culture, and

Prayer wheels have always been an integral part ofthat culture. In old Tibet, everywhere you looked,you saw people, particularly older people, spinningprayer wheels from morning to night, while recitingthe mantra Om Mani Padme Hum.

This mantra is the most widely used of all theBuddhist mantras, and it’s meaning is vast anddeep. In brief, Om Mani Padme Hum is themantra of Chen-rezi (Avalokiteshvara), theBodhisattva of loving kindness and compassion.Each of the six syllables represents one of the sixrealms of existence a being can be born into: thehell realm, the hungry ghost realm, the animalrealm, the human realm, the demi-god realm andthe god realm. Although difficult to accomplish,some very diligent people have been able torecite 100,000,000 Om Mani Padme Hums inone lifetime.

The word mantra comes from Sanskrit, and itsliteral meaning is ‘protection of the mind.’ InTibetan Buddhism reciting mantras is one of themost effective ways in which a person can activelycreate a peaceful, relaxed, and happy state ofmind. Spiritually, mantras manifest and catalyze theenlightened mind through sacred sound and theinvocation of Deities, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas,Dakinis, Dharma Protectors and other spiritualbeings1. The power of the prayer wheel comesfrom the incalculable compassion of all the myriadsof these spiritual beings who want to guideeveryone to enlightenment as quickly as possible.

PRAYERS GOING OUTThe primary goal of the traditional prayer wheelpractice is to relieve the miseries of all beings.Merit, peace, and kindness are radiated throughthe blessings of the written mantras inside theprayer wheel and by the intention andconcentration of the spiritual practitioner.

The largest prayer wheel in Tibet once held 100million mantras. At Sakya Monastery in Seattle, inNorth America, we have 32 traditional prayer wheelssurrounding a chorten; each of which contains100,000 block-printed mantras.

The idea for hi-tech prayer wheels using DVDsto contain the mantra rather than block printedmantras on paper came from Chuck Pettis, thepresident of Sakya Monastery. The new wheelsuse DVD optical disk storage technology to putmore mantras inside a prayer wheel than anyother ever created. By releasing1,349,580,000,000 mantras with eachrevolution, they are capable of radiating anincalculable amount of merit, peace, kindness,and relief from suffering to all beings.

Some people have asked, ‘How can mantrasbe put onto DVDs? Will they still work?’ Theanswer is yes, if we think the prayer wheel hasgreat benefit for all beings, then it does providegreat benefit.

The caretaker of the Earth Sanctuary, wherethe wheels are installed, introduces many peoplethat are doing spiritual retreats to the prayerwheels. Every single one of them has wanted to

SH ISSUE 56 2007 11

T Turningthe

Dharmathe prayer wheel traditions of Tibet

H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya(Dagchen Rinpoche)

spin them as part of theirretreat. When the prayerwheels were firstinstalled, he brought aNative AmericanSundancer to see them.The Sundancer spunthem and said he could

see the prayersspiraling out of thewheel. Now every

time he comesto the Earth

Sanctuary hemakes a point togo spin thewheel andactively

encouragesothers to do so also.

He feels the prayer wheel isvery good for the earth andfor all beings.

USING PRAYER WHEELSPrayer wheels should beturned clockwise with asingle-pointed concentrationof body, speech, and mind.The activity is easy to do, themeaning and purpose isgreat, and so is the benefit.It is easy and fast to turn theprayer wheel and it does notrequire great physicalstrength or many repetitions.

Mindfully turning a prayerwheel produces the same

merit and benefits as having recitedthe number of mantras inside theprayer wheel. You can spin a prayerwheel during your daily meditations,or while walking around a chortenor other sacred place, or even whilewatching television or listening tothe radio or music.

THE BENEFITS OF WHEELSThe practice of the prayer wheel

has many ‘magical’ benefits.According to tradition, the prayerwheel was brought to Earth fromthe realm of nagas (dragon-likebeings who live in oceans) by thegreat Bodhisattva Nagarjunabecause he was told by Chen-rezi,in a vision that the benefits to livingbeings would be enormous.Nagarjuna gave the prayer wheelpractice to the Lion-Faced Dakini,who in turn gave it toPadmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche),who brought it to Tibet.

Sakyamuni Buddha said thatturning a prayer wheel once isbetter than having done years ofretreat, intensive spiritual practice.He said, ‘Turning the Dharmawheel is better than listening,reflecting and meditating for eons.’

Use of the prayer wheelis one of the easiest waysto purify past negativekarma, nonvirtuousactions, defilements, andobstacles that prevent usfrom realising our true selfand understanding the truenature of reality. Otherprayer wheel benefitsinclude:• Transforming one's homeand property into a verypeaceful, pleasant, holy landor ‘high heavenly realm’.• Saving all the beings in thearea from rebirth in the lowerrealms (e.g., incarnation inthe hungry ghost realm).

• Purifying body, speech and mind.• Accumulating extensive merit foroneself and all beings in the area.• Preventing harm from spirits andnegative beings.• Healing sicknesses andprotecting people from contagiousdiseases and epidemics.

USING VISUALISATIONSpinning a prayer wheel is not amindless exercise, and should bedone with the proper intentions.The prayer wheel practice shouldbe visualised as a manifestation ofthe body, speech and mind of theBuddha. With our hands (body) wespin and move the prayer wheel.With our speech, we recite one ofthe mantras in the prayer wheel(e.g. Om Mani Padme Hum). Andwith our mind, we engage invisualisations or recitations, usingour motivation and intention to blessall beings and bring peace to oursurroundings and the entire world.

Visualisations and meditationsthat can be done while spinning aprayer wheel include:• Reciting Om Mani Padme Hum.This strengthens our mind andbrings the optimal intention to thespiritual practice and increases thebenefits to all sentient beings.• Visualising beams of light, brightlike the sun, radiating out from theprayer wheel in all directions. Thelight beams destroy the negativekarma and sufferings of all beings.• Dedicating the merit2 of one'sprayer wheel practice to purify theunderlying cause of someone'sillness in order to promote healing.

The Buddha once said that‘undedicated merit is like a drop ofwater on a stone; it soonevaporates and disappears.’Dedicating the merit of a spirtual

SH ISSUE 56 2007 12

“Turning theDharma Wheelis better thanlistening,reflectingand meditatingfor eons”SakyamuniBuddha

The Tibet-Techprayer wheels

are the first touse DVDs to store

mantras inside them

Here we see theDVDs inside andthe wheel from

the outside

The Lion-Faced Dakini,[above] gave the prayer

wheel practice toGuru Rinpoche, whobrought it to Tibet

practice or a ceremony is likeadding a drop of water to theocean; it will persist for as long asthe ocean exists.

After turning the prayer wheel,it is beneficial to dedicate the meritof this spiritual practice for theliberation of sentient beings, thegeneration of bodhicitta (love andcompassion for all beings), and thelong lives and works of one'steachers (Lamas).

MAKING THE DVD WHEELSThe Tibet-Tech prayer wheels arethe first to use DVDs to storemantras inside a prayer wheel.Each of the eight mantrascontained in the prayer wheel wereplaced into an evenly spaced 10by 5000 cell Microsoft Excelworksheet, which was converted toan Adobe Acrobat PDF filecontaining 50,000 mantras.

One thousand of these PDFfiles were compressed in to asingle file containing 50 millionmantras. As many of the files aspossible were copied to a DVD,The DVD duplicator used lasers toread and write the mantras, so it islike the mantras were written bylight onto a rainbow on each DVD.

Sixteen copies of each DVDwere made for each single prayerwheel so that a total of 128 DVDsare contained in each. They werestacked onto a sandalwood ‘life-tree’ obelisk painted with the threemantra syllables, Om Ah Hum,symbolising the body, speech, andmind of the Buddha. Below andabove the stack of DVDs are theEarth Wheel and Sky Wheelsymbols, etched into brass.

Finally the DVDs were enclosedby a copper and brass cylinderhousing, and Om Mani Padme

Hum was embossed into the outercopper casing.

Each cylinder sits on top of a boxwhich contains the bearing andmechanisms to count eachrevolution of the prayer wheel. Theprayer wheel is turned by puttingone’s hand on one of the four armsat the bottom of the cylinder andspinning the prayer wheel clockwise.

After the prayer wheels wereassembled, on May 13, 2004, theywere blessed and consecrated bymyself. The blessing ceremony hadthree parts. The first part was apraise of the mantras, then theprayer wheels were consecrated,and finally, a ‘Dedication of Merit’prayer was recited to benefit allsentient beings and to work for amore peaceful world. As long asthe Universe exists, these mantraswill remain potent.

We initially built three Tibet-Techprayer wheels to be installed at theEarth Sanctuary nature reserve andmeditation parkland on WhidbeyIsland near Seattle. After feeling thepower of the prayer wheels however,I kept one for my shrine where I spinit in conjunction with my dailyspiritual practices. I can feel mybodily sensations change as I spin it;it feels like a spiritual and pure ‘high’as I am motivated to generatemaximum bodhicitta. It gives mypractices more meaning and myhome has become very peaceful.

I always ask people how theyfeel while at the Earth Sanctuary.Almost everyone says, ‘peaceful,’with a big smile on their face!

We are all very blessed to beborn as human beings and to havethe opportunity to practice spiritual

traditions. The prayer wheel is oneof the simplest and most powerfulTibetan Buddhist spiritualpractices, and I encourage allpeople to do prayer wheel practicefor the happiness and relief ofmisery of all beings in all realms.

Sacred Hoop wishes to thank the staffof the Snow Lion Newsletter and SakyaMonastery for their help in producing thisarticle. Main photo on page elevencourtesy of Professor Warren G. Gold,University of Washington.

NOTES:1: There are many beings in TibetanBuddhism besides Sakyamuni Buddha.Bodhisattvas are beings who havereached enlightenment but have vowed tobe reborn until all other beings havereached enlightment too.Dakinis (Sky Dancers or Sky Walkers) areenlightened female spirits, sometimestaking human birth.Dharma Protectors are fierce beings whoprotect the teachings, people and sacredplaces. Many of them come from pre-Buddhist, shamanic Tibet. Tradition has itthat when Guru Rinpoche(Padmasambhava) brought Buddhism toTibet he went through the landconfronting the powerful land spirits, andmaking them swear oaths to protect theDharma until the end of time.

2: Merit is the benefical energy aceremony or meditation creates. InBuddhism it is generally dedicated to allbeings ‘so that all beings can reachenlightenment’, or can also be dedicatedto a specific situation such as a sickperson or tragic situation. It is similar tothe Native American tradition of dedicatinga ceremony to ‘all my relations’, so thatthe positive effects can radiate outthrough the web of all creation.

H.H. Jigdal DagchenSakya (Dagchen

Rinpoche) is a HeadLama of the Sakya

sect and SakyaMonastery of TibetanBuddhism in Seattle.

He was raised andtrained as a religious

leader in old Tibet. TheSakya leaders hold aposition third only to

His Holiness the DalaiLama in rank. DagchenRinpoche is also one of

the few elder non-sectarian (ri-me)

lineage holders livingtoday. He is currently

working on completionof his four-volume

biography telling of hislife in old Tibet and his

life in the West.

Sakya Monastery108 NW 83rd St,

Seattle, WA.98117. USA

Tel: (001 from the UK)(206) 789 2573

www.sakya.orgmonastery@sakya.org

Tibet-Tech prayerwheels are available to

buy. Contact ChuckPettis of Earth Sanctuarywww.earthsanctuary.orgTel: (001 from the UK)

(425) 637 8777cpettis@earthsanctuary.org

The power of theprayer wheel comesfrom the incalculable

compassion of allthe myriads of thesespiritual beings who

want to guide everyoneto enlightenment asquickly as possible.

below: prayerwheels in the

Jokhang monastery,Lhasa,Tibet