So, in part because of this thread, I was browsing the intertubes looking at malas. As I said above, I'd like to get a wrist mala. But the sheer number of malas available, in every color, stone, wood and every other material is astounding. Yet another way to grasp and be attached! They go from a couple of bucks to more than a hundred dollars!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
But I still might buy one; a cheap one. As a reminder.
I have a nice wrist mala which has a figure of Kannon and the chinese character for Buddha carved onto the beads.it serves no particular use, but sits on my wrist nonetheless.
Taigu demonstrates another use for juzu: cut them up and toss them out!
http://youtu.be/GIORv3Kebd0?t=2m59s[/video]]
Except he doesn't really cut them... :-)Originally Posted by Kaishin
Oh yes he does!!!Except he doesn't really cut them... :-)
... thanks for all the info on Mala beads.
Al - I thought the Tricycle article was thoughtful.
Jundo - I found using the beads during sitting distracting - but I do occasionally use them for meditation on mantras at other times.
Before I joined Tree Leaf my understanding of Buddhism was a total mish-mash. I still like chanting the Nembutsu because
that's what I started with (minus the beads!) but I didn't know Pure Land from Soto Zen - and I'm still learning.
Guess I'll find my niche sometime along 'the way'
Gassho
Willow
Our ultimate "Niche" is the whole universe, reality, right here. 8)
Guess I'll find my niche sometime along 'the way'
Gassho
Willow
I couldn't resist to toss out that little Zen "fortune cookie"!
Gassho, J
Thank you, Alan. The portion of that essay I would like to highlight is this, common ground for all these Practices ...
We are not called upon as Buddhists to deny the world, and certainly not to escape from it. We are called to live with it, and to make our peace with all that is. In Buddhist terms, that peace is called Tathagata. The Thus Come One is enlightened as he is, not as he would wish himself to be. There is no escaping this. The world of worries we wish to escape from in the beginning of Buddhist practice is found to be enlightenment itself in the end. We don't understand this, of course, and so we keep striving for a distant, idealized kind of Buddhahood, only to reach its threshold and be turned back the way we came. In this way, we receive the teaching of the Buddha with every mala we say.
If once combines this with Shikantaza's life of fully embracing, allowing, flowing with, being life as it is, just sitting, Still Sitting in movement or stillness, Wholly Holy Whole (even amid this life of many holes and tears) ... the most radical change of no longer wishing for change or needing change amid the every changing changeless ...
... then twisting twirling beeds which are each separate and One, thus come and thus go and the space too, is just Shikan-nenju!
Gassho, J
a lots of information about something rather unknown
even everybody has them at home
nice article
thank you
:P
One more thing I came across about the unique metal ring on the Soto-style juzu represents the ringing of the bell at new year, when it is struck 108 times--any truth to that?
I have seen those before, but they don't seem so common in America. I'd like to know more about them too.
Well, it seems that the little metal ring is called the "108 ring". My educated guess (and nothing more) is that it is a mini-version of the rings found on the SHAKUJOU ??
Here is some information on that ...
I cannot confirm a direct connection to ringing the bells at New Year and the meaning (called Joya-no-kane (????), but we joined in that last year and a little about the meaning of "108" in that tradition ...A pilgrim's staff ... In Japan the shakuj usually consists of a wooden handle or pole topped with a metal finial with two sections, each with three rings, for a total of six rings, which represent the Six States of Existence -- the cycle of samsara, of suffering and reincarnation; in Japan, Jizo Bosatsu is often shown holding this staff. In India, the shakujou's metal rings were originally used by traveling priests to alert small creatures to keep them from accidentally being harmed by a priest when walking in the woods. It was also used to frighten away dangerous snakes or beasts that the priest might have encountered. The shakujou could also serve as a cane to help the priest walk. When begging, he rattled this staff to announce his arrival at the door or gate of a household without breaking the vow of silence. In Japan the shakujou is still used by monks, pilgrims, and practitioners of Shugendou ???, a school of Buddhism that teaches ascetic practices in the mountains (see En no gyouja ???). A yamabushi ?? or mountain priest may use it for magic or exorcism. In the Shingon ?? and Tendai ?? sects, the shakujou is used as a ritual object in special ceremonies. Some have short handles and are held when chanting.
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/p ... japan.html
http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=13750
Does that ring your bell? :lol:
Gassho, Jundo
Thanks Jundo, this is most interesting, I have a small replica of a SHAKUJOU which is a magnetic statue that stands on the dashboard of our car. It is a Kotsu-anzen-mamori (traffic safety charm) from Sanjusangendo http://bit.ly/bKUzSZ in Kyoto. I had never gone as far as to research the significance of its shape.
Also, looking further down on the linked site; you read about Shuin-chou:
Well, if I may be allowed a little "show and Tell / Bring and Brag" :roll: ; I happen to have a (completed) Shuin-chou for the Thirty-four Temples at Chichbu (circa. 1994); as pictured here:Pilgrims usually carry a stamp book, which they typically purchase at the first temple or shrine along the circuit. The pilgrim pays the custodian at each temple or shrine to stamp/inscribe their book as proof of their visit. The covers of these books are often quite artistic.
and here:
(Don't ask me how knew that if I kept this book it would come in handy one day!) :lol: :lol: 8)
p.s. My wife has the car at work right now but, when she comes home I'll add a picture of the shakujou
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