The Prayer Wheel: What It Is and How It Works

A prayer wheel is a cylinder on a spindle, made of metal, wood, stone or leather. Inside, a long strip of paper printed with a mantra is rolled tightly around a central core, so a single wheel can hold the mantra thousands of times. The mantra is often written on the outside too, in Tibetan script.

In Tibetan it is called a mani wheel or mani khorlo, after the mani mantra it carries. You find prayer wheels in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, Mongolia and Buddhist temples all over the world.

In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, spinning a prayer wheel has much the same effect as saying the prayers aloud. Each turn counts as reading every mantra on the scroll, so one turn of a wheel that holds the mantra ten thousand times sends it ten thousand times.

The wheel turns clockwise, the way the sun moves across the sky and the way the mantra is written. Pilgrims walk clockwise around temples and spin each wheel in a long row as they pass, a practice called kora.

Om Mani Padme Hum is a short Sanskrit mantra of six sounds. It belongs to Avalokiteshvara, called Chenrezig in Tibetan, who stands for compassion in Buddhism. It is often read as "the jewel in the lotus": mani is the jewel and padme is the lotus. It first appears in the Karandavyuha Sutra, and today it is carved on stones, painted on hillsides, printed on prayer flags and rolled inside prayer wheels. Here are more sacred mantras and their meanings.

Hand-held wheels have a small cylinder on a handle and a weight on a chain, so a gentle turn of the wrist keeps them spinning. Large wheels stand as tall as a person inside temples. Rows of wheels line temple walls for pilgrims to turn. Some wheels are turned by flowing water, some by the wind, and some by the heat of a candle or a lamp. There are also electric wheels that turn on their own.

The wheels turned by water and wind carry the most beautiful idea of all: the prayer keeps going even when no one is there to turn it.

Tibetan tradition traces the practice back to Nagarjuna, the great Indian Buddhist teacher. Historians also see links to the revolving bookcases of Chinese temples, where turning the case counted as reading the books inside. Either way, prayer wheels have turned across the Himalayas for many centuries, and they are still part of daily life there.

Amplify, inside Attraya, borrows that one beautiful idea: a wish that keeps turning while you live your life. It is not a Buddhist practice. It puts your name on your desires and sends each one into the universe up to 2,000 times a second, even while you sleep. Here is how the digital prayer wheel works, or start sending your desires with Amplify.