Meditation Beads

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How to Use Your Meditation Beads

Using your meditation beads as tool to assist you with maintaining focus, avoid drifting, and giving an idea of time spent is an excellent choice. Other techniques can include counting, counting breaths, chanting, and other tools.

You can use your meditation beads together with other techniques. Most long sets are 108 beads that include a summit bead to mark one round. Often we will also 36 or 54 bead sets for shorter or other types of practice.

One can get as detailed as they wish in regards to the shou yin (mudra). The purpose of this is to introduce basic usage of the meditation beads. When holding the beads and moving them as counting through them.

Notice that in both pictures the index finger is not used.

Rotate the beads per repitition of chant, breath, or count.

The beads can become an important part of your grounding for your practice. Many students wear and bring them just as they do their shoes, incense, and clothes.

- mudra shou yin (hand seal) (hand positions)
- mantra (spoken words, chants)
- mandala (mental visualization, and symbol)
- chakra (focus point in the energy system)
- dharma (philosophy to contemplate)

Xuedou Temple