Contemplative practices from unexpected origins
Melody | Tuesday, 7 August, 2007 at 10:42 AM In some spiritual traditions, strands of beads are used during times of prayer and meditation. My background did not include such a tradition but from what I've read, it helps to quiet the mind and retain the focus. I think, too, just the practice of moving one's fingers along a strand of smooth beads while sitting in contemplative silence must be more than that, too. It seems perhaps the practice itself must be more intertwined with the activity itself. There's something prayerful, meditative, about calming one's mind and repeating a step. Of course I return to the quiet mind, so perhaps I'm belaboring two sides of the same point. If you quiet your mind by allowing the busy part of your mind focus on this seemingly inane activity, the thinking part of the mind can be free to follow its stated purposes.
I thought of these prayer beads earlier when I realized I'm designing a new necklace in my mind this morning, but first I want to sort beads. Tomorrow I'm teaching another beading workshop to "my seniors" and along with the supplies I ordered to supplement my recent design-frenzy, I ordered some new beads for them, as well. Some of these beads have come in assortments. Experience tells me I'll do well to sort those beads for my ladies before I walk into that room. Everybody'll be much happier if I do.
Thinking of sorting the beads coalesced with the music that's centering my mind while I move through my morning, and I found myself feeling more calm... even by imagining the sorting process. And so maybe sorting beads, then, is for me a bit like using a strand of prayer beads.
One can only hope. Because I have rather a lot to sort...
Melody
So throughout my little Sorting Beads Can Be A Little Like Using Prayer Beads experiment, I kept thinking, "Oh, so this is what they mean by 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'" A phrase over which I mulled and contemplated off and on throughout my bead sorting extravaganza since writing earlier.
It seems I've changed my mind rather a lot since that writing. I think prayer beads are probably best used if your intention is to still your mind and occupy the unfocused part of your brain, and sorting beads is a way to entertain all those thoughts while keeping another part of your brain occupied. Of course, I'm still making assertions regarding matters over which I'm only partially informed. So maybe I'll get myself some prayer beads one day and see what I really think.
Meanwhile I've sorted the fool out of some beads today and have now quite contentedly followed my stream-of-consciousness thinking to the next logical space. Which is to say I'm looking at a selection of beads, have added to that selection two pendants to which I've added curled and hammered copper, and am deciding if I'm actually ready to choose one and make a necklace out of it, already. It's been a few days and while I'm no longer in that zen-like state I'd achieved when I was preparing to take my new inventory over to The Marshall Art Gallery, I've reclaimed my creative impulse - perhaps by sorting beads and perhaps by listening to music and perhaps, instead, just because creativity never really went away and I'm now merely giving it the space to resurface and lead the way to something new and beautiful.
I guess we'll see!
Reader Comments (6)
Hmmm...ideas are popping into my head! What if you made and sold prayer beads -- in my tradition, they're called malas (108 beads for a standard mala, which is strung on something that isn't really flexible, or a wrist mala with 24 beads on what looks like stretchy fishing line).
Here's a link:
http://www.tibetarts.com/products.php?cPath=23
Or the seniors could make them and then learn to use them with meditation? If your intent is positive when you make them, think of all the light you could spread around! :-D
I knew that!!! About the 108 beads!!! From reading Eat, Pray, Love I learned about the one hundred and eight beads. Cool, huh? WHAT a wonderful book!
Thanks for the link...they're so pretty!
We'll have to see about me making them...maybe I'll make a strand for myself sometime (when, as they say, the Spirit moves me,) and see how that feels.
Interesting idea about the seniors. I could mention it to them and see what they say. (I can hear them now: "Sure, little girl, you're gonna' help us make prayer beads. Didn't you promise three months ago you were also gonna' teach us how to make that other kind of necklace with the silk ribbon covered wooden beads that woman brought in here to show us? See how THAT'S turning out for us." They're very patient with me and my forgetful ways.)
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna' think about making my own, for real. But I guess first I'd have to figure out which kind of stone bead I'll want to use, eh?
Be well...
In my tradition, you know that we've got beads. In fact, we're told that they were given to us by a higher power. Seeing as how I'm a very liberal Catholic, I don't doubt that they were completely inspired by a higher power, but I am also very much a realist.
Nonetheless, the process for me is quite . . . peaceful. Something about that repetition repositions priorities and calms the mind. Unfortunately, it's not a process that I indulge in often enough. ('Course, that might just be my good Catholic guilt speaking . . .)
Prayer beads, worry beads (κομπολόι in Greek) ... it makes no difference. Stone beads have a certain kind of magic to them. Doesn't matter what you use them for, people gaze at them because they're so unique and unexpected.
Sounds like fun! :-D
Lizzy, someone once tried to convince me I was Catholic... they referenced the guilt. Said I must be. Hm. I like the way you put that: "Something about that repetition repositions priorities and calms the mind." Can't decide which I need more - a general repositioning of my priorities or a calming of my mind.
Sean, now to report back to you from my seniors class. We were perhaps halfway through. The 9 ladies and one guy (not the same guy as I've mentioned before...seems one goes away, and another one comes in his place,) were working fairly steadily, sorta' quiet. I was adding clasps to a necklace one of the ladies had just finished. Something about one of the beads she'd used reminded me of the strand of malas on the site you pointed me to. Then I remembered your suggestion. Here's the conversation that followed my recollection:
Me: Do any of your traditions use prayer beads?
Senior 1: Prayer beads?! That's Catholic!
Senior 2: I'm not Catholic. She's not Catholic.
Senior 1: You don't need no beads to pray.
Senior 3: I call 'em worry beads.
Senior 1. Don't need beads to pray. Just pray, I say!
Me: I think some people find they help calm the mind from distractions while they're praying.
Senior 1. Just pray.
Me: My friend thought maybe you would like to make some prayer beads in this class.
Senior 2: We don't have any Catholics in this class.
Senior 3: Worry beads. Maybe they help...
Senior 1: Did you forget about me over here? I want to make some earrings to match!
And that was the end of the conversation about prayer beads.
But I still might make my own one day. Seeing as how I don't know that you have to be Catholic or Buddhist to use beads for calming your mind while you pray.
I'm sitting here, stuck in my office doing work on deadline, laughing my butt off at your class! :-D