Malas and Rosaries are very important on your spiritual journey and they are a great support to helping you progress on the path. In Buddhism, generally a mala is a set of 108 beads, but it can also be used as a smaller bracelet. The word “Mala” is Sanskrit for “garland”. You can also call them japamalas or yoga beads. The reason for 108 beads is that it is an auspicious number.

Your mala is very useful for helping you keep track during meditation and if you are chanting you can use it to count your recitations. The longer you wear the same mala everyday, the more of your spiritual energy will accumulate on the mala, making it a great support for your spiritual journey.

The most standard and popular malas are made out of Sandalwood. Sandalwood comes in many different variations, such as Brown, Red, Green, Black and so on. Some malas are very cheap while others can be very expensive. What you decide on getting is up to you.

[Check out this Sandalwood mala.]

Different items in this world have different properties, some examples:

1) Silver –Is very protecting, it also helps and assists the bodies digestive functions.

2) Green colored jewelry – Such as Jade, helps you look younger from a distance, also makes your face look younger.

3) Red Coral – Attracts wealth (attracts beings called nagas who provide the wealth).

4) Turquoise – Makes your body appear more youthful.

5) Sandalwood – Helps your bodies energy channels to be more healthy, Sandalwood is also known as a neutral type of wood, meaning you can use it for both peaceful and wrathful practices in spiritual traditions.

6) Things made of bone – Helps your bodies skeletal system to be healthy and strong, is also used for more wrathful and intense practices in spiritual traditions.

7) Lapis-lazuli – This stone is known as the stone of the Medicine Buddha. It has very many healing properties.

8) Black Sandalwood – This is good for both peaceful and wrathful practices, red and black type items are useful for scaring away negative energy. Black Sandalwood also has warming properties and can be useful to wear if you live in a colder area.

9) Pearl – Useful to help relieve headaches.

10) Quartz – Any type of crystal you might wear like Quartz, Rose Quartz, Jade and White Jade and so on will have cooling properties, which is good if you find yourself too hot often.

11) Rose Quartz – Useful for attracting romance and relationships, this is true for the pink color in general.

12) Rudraksha seeds – These seeds are wrathful and are used in wrathful practices. They will scare away negative energy.

[Check out this cheaper mala here.]

[Or you can grab a whole set of cheap malas.]

If you are crafty enough, you can also make your own mala. You can find loose beads in many different places, all you have to do is grab 108 pieces. It is up to you if you wanted to add spacer beads and additional flair. Spacer beads are great for helping you keep track during meditation. Also, the finish of every mala should be the Guru Bead.

[Check out these Loose beads here.]

[There are various places to grab Guru Beads on the Internet, but here is one Tiger Eye Guru Bead.]

When you make your mala, you will need a string. Every bead is going to have a different size for hole, so make sure you find the matching string. Sometimes beads have too small holes for a real mala, this is because if you use too thin string for your mala it is break a lot faster than a more regular sized string.

A decent size for mala strings is 0.8mm or 1mm.

[Check out this 2mm cording string]

[Check out this 1mm cording string]