A Truly Personal Mala
During my workshops, I share about the history and significance of meditation malas but then always encourage my guests to create a mala that is meaningful & special to them. One ways to make a mala necklace that carries a personal significance is to incorporate traditions & mantras from your own religion or spiritual path, and to include unique beads or charms that were once a part of another piece of jewelry.
I’ve had participants bring a charm, pearls, or other large unique bead to use as the guru bead, but one of the most touching malas I saw created was one that incorporated beads from a necklace a participant had inherited from her mother and was hand-knotted with inspiration from a religion other than Buddhism and Hinduism.
Sue came to a workshop at the recommendation of a friend and brought along one of her mother’s necklaces, made of a beautiful unique, faceted rose quartz beads. She had worn it in her younger years and now wondered how she could incorporate it into her new mala. Knowing that she would use the tradition of saying “The Prayer of the Heart,” also known as “The Jesus Prayer” she spaced the special beads after every 10 (or decade of beads, similar to a Rosary. Sue explained that The Prayer of the Heart is meant to be said repetitively until it becomes second nature, and that is has been said for thousands of years by months, scetics and in prayer circles. All countries across the globe have spoken this prayer in meditation and it is said to draw one to a deeper level of spiritual knowing.
Sue’s mala reveres G-d as well as her lasting love for her Mother, whose memory is woven into the beaded mala necklace.
