Making Buddhist Prayer Wheels:
World Peace the Spiritual Way

By Bob Russo

Walk into Berkeley's Nyingma Institute and you see in the lobby a small electric prayer wheel, constantly turning. In Tibet, Nepal, and surrounding countries, the prayer wheel is almost a "household appliance," as common as an iPod. Devoted practitioners spin them whenever they have a spare moment, reaffirming in their own hearts their intention to help spread peace and harmony.

Prayer wheels are designed to enhance the flow of healing energy in the cosmos. The science behind them was discovered by the Indian master Nagarjuna, one of history's greatest spiritual masters. Now his findings are being put to the test at the Nyingma Institute, where a major project is underway to make more than a thousand large prayer wheels dedicated to world peace.

At the back of the Institute, in a secluded setting that makes you forget you're just a block from the university campus, volunteers carefully glue together strips of paper that will be rolled onto a shaft to create the prayer wheels. Printed on each paper strip are mantras, prayers, and sacred texts whose power is said to be released when the prayer wheel is turned. Watch for a while, or join in, and you quickly see that the work of creating the prayer wheel is itself a meditation, calling for mindfulness, focused attention, and qualities of respect and appreciation. Some people come by for just a few hours, while others are full-time work-study students who live at the Institute, assembling prayer wheels during the day and taking classes in Buddhism, meditation, and Tibetan yoga in the evening.

Not everyone working on this project is a Buddhist. Ask them why they are doing what they do and you'll get a wide range of answers. Some speak of the satisfaction they find in working on a project dedicated to world peace. Others appreciate the healthy, supportive environment. Still others welcome the chance to engage in focused practice, hour after hour, watching the mind at play and learning how to work with their own consciousness.

The direct effect of a prayer wheel is subtle and cumulative. No scientific instrument can measure it. But for the people working on this unique project, there can be little doubt: through the work they do and the cause they serve, they are finding new levels of inner peace for themselves and spreading the virtues of non-violence into every land.