Talk:Buddhist prayer beads

Use??
Unfortunately this article gives no hint of what type of prayers are said when these counting-beads are used. What is their source? Are they said in Pali or do the individual devotees use their own languages? Thus the main reason for being of such aids to devotion is left out of the article. 65.206.122.30 (talk)

reply
I think the reason why is because they're used in almost every prayer or mantra. To list every mantra in Buddhist canon would be quite an undertaking.

Nian ju
I changed "thought beads" to "mindfulness beads". The characters 念珠 mean nenju, and 念仏 mean nembutsu (see the Nianfo entry). Nembutsu is translated as "mindfulness of the Buddha" so I think "mindfulness" gives a more accurate impression of the meaning than thought.

9 planets?
In whose "ancient cosmology" were there "9 planets"? Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the 5 actual planets visible without a telescope. Then things like the sun, the moon, or Earth may or may not have been included, but that brings a maximum of 8 as far as I know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.220.147.254 (talk) 18:04, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Astrology is definitely not a part of Buddhist teachings, so this point is invalid. I removed that part and expanded on the other points.  --Ph0kin (talk) 05:50, 13 June 2008 (UTC)


 * see buddhist cosmology's article. Buddhists knew about the big bang - big crunch cycle:

"various eons of cosmic expansion, various eons of cosmic contraction BHS Tripitaka

--Bodigami (talk) 23:18, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Merge

 * Merge and redirect Japa mala to Buddhist prayer beads

Should be self-explanatory. - jc37 02:08, 17 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Everything in Japa mala is already merged into this article, and even explained better. However the Japa mala article was restored, since somebody pointed out that Japa Malas are used both in Hinduism and Buddhism. Actually maybe Japa mala should give two links, one to Buddhist prayer beads and one to Hindu prayer beads. Since the use must be different in the two religions (I do not know much about the use in Hinduism), this could be an idea. Also, using the english naming would be better according to the WP:STYLE guidelines. Siru108 (talk) 08:01, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Should be two artilces. They discuss different things and respectively 8 and 11 interwiki's show that this difference is made in other languages too. Davin (talk) 13:36, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

I moved Japa Mala to Hindu prayer beads. Think it works that way. The english article name should be used (not Mala/Japa Mala) according to WP:ENGLISH. Siru108 (talk) 09:06, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

use of rosary as a name
i prefer lotusary (english) or lotusario (spanish and italian)... or buddhist's mala over "rosary".--Bodigami (talk) 23:12, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

it is mAlA not mala
in sanskrit it has a different meaning (mālā != mala)--Bodigami (talk) 23:15, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Circular Citation
This article cites Religion Facts, but the Religion Facts page cites Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by NathanWalther (talk • contribs) 20:56, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

New Age isn't Buddhism
The section detailing what type of bead should be used for what purpose has no basis in Buddhist teaching. It seems that this is simply new age ideas imposed on a Buddhist topic. Even if a reliable source can be found for that, I don't think it should be taking up as much of the article as it is. What the bead is made from is of little to no relevance for most Buddhists. The beads are a practical, meditative tool. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bonsai Ent (talk • contribs) 23:11, 7 October 2012 (UTC)

This depends on the tradition of Buddhism you're coming from. The different materials for different purposes business is more of a Tantric thing, although personally I'd associate it with Hindu rather than Buddhist Tantra. Hindu Tantra in particular is obsessed with getting the right materials for various ritual purposes. I doubt some of the sources are as ancient as people would like to think, but New Age? No. (Not that New Agers don't use the same idea, but the idea that it doesn't exist natively in Asian practices is incorrect.) --Snowgrouse (talk) 10:49, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

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Unbalanced and unclear section
Whole section Mala writes from a Tibetan Buddhist point of view but is not clearly identified as such. Does not discuss other existing schools. The use of a lot of jargon makes the section inherently non-understandable and thus of very little use. Waerloeg (talk) 05:21, 16 November 2019 (UTC)