String Of Pearls: How to use a Meditation String

A Meditation String, know as a mala is a counting device. It’s used to count the number of mantra recitations completed during a period of meditation—one repetition per bead.

A mala (Sanskrit for “garland”) is a counting device. It is used to count the number of mantra recitations completed during a period of meditation, one repetition per bead. A mala can also serve as a physical cue for reciting a mantra.

Walking down the street with one hand in a pocket, fingers sliding from bead to bead, the mind quietly sustains the mantra as a background to other activities occurring closer to the surface of attention.

A mala usually contains 108 beads (although some malas are made with half or even a quarter of this number). An additional bead, the tasseled bead called the meru bead, indicates the beginning and end of each cycle. 

Methods for using a mala have been passed along by generations of meditators.

The mala is usually suspended from the ring finger. The middle finger is drawn back slightly to create a small V between it and the ring finger. As the mala rests in that V, the thumb pulls the mala bead by bead. Sometimes the thumbnail needs to be used to hook the bead in order to pull the mala along. Some practitioners use the tip of the middle finger to help turn the bead as well.

STRING OF PEARLS

In the end, the movement of the mala follows the mind and not the other way around. As you recite a mantra you do not wait for the next bead to be turned, but time the movement of the beads to match the reverberation of the mantra in the mind. The mala is invested with spiritual meaning because it reflects the mental pulsing of an eternal sound. 

Tempted to get your own Mala? View our Meditations strings HERE