The "rosary beads" are also called beads, mantras, and beads. They are a kind of magic weapon for spiritual practice. Now that the rosary has been commercialized, we can buy a variety of rosary on the market. Many people have the impression that the rosary is an exclusive product of Buddhism, but it is not. From ancient times to today, the rosary has been used as an important method of practice in many religions.
For example, Taoist rosary is mainly 81, representing 81 kinds of changes of Tai Shang Laojun; Buddhist rosary is usually 108, which means to eliminate 108 kinds of living annoyances; Islam rosary is 33, and the number 99 is 3 rounds. It is used to help believers to pronounce 99 names of Allah; 59 Orthodox rosary beads are used to chant "The Virgin Rose Classics".
In this article, only the origin and role of rosary in Buddhism are discussed. The rosary is in the Buddhist family, called the rosary. Regarding the origin of the sacred beads, we generally refer to the records in the "Mu Zhe Zi Jing": "The Buddha told the king that if you want to destroy the troubled and reported people, you must run through the Mu Zhe Zi one hundred and always follow; If you sit and lie down, Hengdang has no distracting mind, saying that the name of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is a wooden mule. "The" king "in this Buddhist scripture refers to the king of Bo Liuli, which is ancient A monarch of India. After obeying the Buddha's suggestion, Bo Liuli began to make beads using wooden mules to aid in chanting the name of the three treasures of the Dharma monk, thereby eliminating the troublesome karma. It can be seen that the rosary for Buddhism started from this time. But it is worth mentioning that the original inventor of the rosary was not a Buddhist.
Buddhist beads are generally divided into three categories, namely holding beads, wearing beads, and hanging beads. Holding beads is the beads that are twisted by hand to aid in the chanting of the Buddha. Peizhu is a bead worn on the wrist or arm. And the hanging beads are the beads hanging on the neck. Peizhu is the most popular on the market today, commonly known as "hand string", with 18 beads. The beads are usually made of precious and brightly colored wood, which looks dignified and elegant. For example, the evil spirit beads spread in India are made from rare evil spirit wood.
Among the earliest people who used the beads in Han Buddhism, the Taoist monks of the Pure Land Sect of the Tang Dynasty are clearly recorded. According to the Biography of Continuing Senior Monks, monk Tao Chuo practiced very well, and he prayed to the Buddha 70,000 times a day. They also encouraged their disciples and believers to practice. They counted as Madou, and every time they said the Buddha ’s name, they got the next Madou. As the age goes on, many people who worship the Buddha gather eighty or ninety stone madou, and the few have twenty or thirty stone. Later, the monk Dao Chuo taught his followers to count the beads by wearing wooden mules. This started the use of rosary in Chinese Buddhism.
In Buddhism, the rosary is mainly used to count the chanting, mantra, and buddha. It plays a supporting role in capturing the mind and body and eliminating delusion. Buddhist disciples should first consider whether they are suitable for their use of rosary beads; whether they are holding beads, or wearing beads, or hanging beads, it is better to conform to their own habits.
And according to the Buddhist scriptures, the beads of different materials have different merits. Iron is five times the merit, red copper is ten times, coral agate is a hundred times, wood rafters are a thousand times, diamonds are a million times, and the highest is bodhi seeds, which are countless times.