Customer Reviews

Dharma Beads: Making and Using Your Own Buddhist Malas

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Enough beads for making 3 small wrist malas (carnelian, an oddly colored tiger's eye, and an unfragrant sandalwood) are included in this very basic kit, along with an 80-page book that lightly touches on the history and use of malas, and beads in general. The photos and graphics are pleasant, but there is far less depth of information in this book than I was hoping for. A few mantras are included (along with some suggested affirmations) but not many, and the instructions for making the malas are so basic that if you've ever done any beadwork at all you could easily figure it out yourself. No information is included on using ornate knots for closing, or how to include a traditional tassel, and, in fact, the closure used for these three malas makes use of a specialized bead with an extra half-hole 90-degrees out from the usual holes -- I've searched but cannot find any more of these "mother beads" or "guru beads" out there so I don't know what use learning this method really is (unless you're going to drill your own). And, in fact, one of the three mother beads I got was very badly drilled and was useless.

I did learn a few interesting facts, and the chapter on the properties of various stones was perhaps the most useful. As well, I gained three very basic home-made malas (one with a mother bead I provided myself, tied off in a different manner than suggested), but overall this book and kit was a disappointment.

For those devoted to the Tibetan cause, it should be noted that the book and kit are made in China.

I thought that this slickly packaged kit was a great idea and was looking forward to learning how to make malas and finding out more about other traditions than my own (I am a Zen Buddhist).

Much to my dismay, I discovered that the small book included was definitely a case of style over substance. The info was sketchy at best and had very little hard information about Buddhist malas and their manufacture and use.

The beads included in the kit were the icing on the cake. They were alleged to be tiger eye, carnelian and sandalwood. I know these materials and the beads were nothing of the sort. The "tiger eye" beads were some kind of synthetic chatoyant material. The "carnelian" beads appeared to be white plastic with a reddish coating. The "sandalwood" beads were white softwood,with a black finish, and no perceptible sandalwood scent.

I was so taken aback by the disparity of the box and the contents, I took the kit back and got a refund for it. I also wrote a letter of complaint to the publisher protesting the inaccuracy of the labelling.

It was perhaps my own fault for buying a kit put together by someone connected with a fashion magazine rather than a serious follower of the Dharma.

This smacks greatly of exploiting a brief jewellery trend rather than any real attempt to bring this information and practice to others.

I was very, VERY disappointed.

I purchased this "kit" yesterday and was very dissapointed with it. Upon close inspection of the beads furnished with the kit I noticed that the "carnelian" beads, that the book leads you to believe are truely carnelian, are actually made of plastic. (You can tell by looking inside the drilled hole in the bead...it is white inside. True carnelian would be a uniform color inside and out.) I'm not really sure what the "tiger's eye" beads are made of. I'm sure they are some sort of synthetic fiber optic material. Also upon inspection of the drilled hole on the "sandalwood" beads i noticed that the outside of the bead has been stained to obtain its "natural color". How dissapointing! I'm guessing the makers of this kit didn't really care about the true nature of the religion the stamped on the outside of the box, but instead were thinking about capitalism!

Well, to be honest, I bought this kit at (a store), but I must also voice a concern with the poor manufacture of this product. The sandalwood beads did have an aroma....but not sandalwood. It was easy to tell that they had been stained to make them darker than they really were. The tigers eye varied in color, from yellow to almost to a green, and if it werent for that fact I would guess they were plastic. Perhaps the most offensive to my intelligence was the fact that the "carnelian" beads were not just plastic, but white plastic with red paint that wears off gradually with wear. I have cut apart the wrist malas and used the wood and "tigers eye" beads in other various necklaces and whatnot. The "carnelian" beads for the most part i threw away. The book was slightly better than the beads, but not much. The bulk of the book was spent talking about the special properties of materials it didnt include, and most of them they didnt even profess to include, and also talked about what a mala is (decent enough, although little information) and rosaries in various other religions (although judging by the quality of this product, it isnt likely that this information is 100% accurate). They gave rather confusing and vague instructions on stringing the mala, and didnt really even make that great looking a mala.
Also my kit was missing a few of the wooden beads! Please, do not purchase this product, you are better off learning about malas via the internet and purchasing your own beads from a craft store or something.

When I first purchased the kit, I was pleased that there was a product on the market that was both entertaining and might get kids interested in meditation and/or Buddhism. I also thought it would be fun to make my own mala (I am a Buddhist).

Like the other reviewer, I found the accompanying booklet an odd mixture of accurate, inaccurate, and incomplete information both on malas and their usage. Furthermore, the booklet contained general information on the healing powers of gems which, although interesting, had little to do with the malas themselves.

What bothers me the most about this product are the materials supplied. The kit indicates that the purchaser is obtaining genuine tiger's eye, sandalwood, and carnelian beads. It also contains instructions that refer to a particular assemblage of beads around the "guru bead." To my dismay, I discovered that the "tiger's eye" beads are not tiger's eye at all; they are at best a different natural stone known as a "cat's eye," and look extraordinarily like synthetic, fiber-optic cat's eye beads. I do not know enough about carnelian to comment on the genuineness of the carnelian beads, but given the nature of the "tiger's eye" beads, I suspect that the carnelian beads are synthetic as well (they bear marks of being manufactured, such as uniformly pale areas where the holes are drilled). If the wooden beads are sandalwood, they are not perceptibly fragrant; and given the fact that they are dyed black rather than kept in their natural blonde color, I doubt that they are sandalwood at all. In any event, the workmanship on the wooden beads is very poor.

To top it all off, the kit supplies no tapered "head bead," contrary to what is shown in the instructions, but rather a barrel-shaped bead. The buyer is left to infer that he or she must use the "extra" separator beads to provide a place to tie off the elastic cord; otherwise, the knots just slip through the barrel-shaped bead.

On a trivial note, the connecting elastic string lengthens with stretching, and the cut ends fray very rapidly and look "cheap."

How unfortunate! I think this product was well-intentioned, but cost-concerns must have led the publisher to substitute grossly inferior materials for what is promised on the box and in the instruction book.

I would recommend that Buddhists and non-Buddhists avoid this product. Real malas are not terribly expensive, are beautiful, and are actually conducive to meditation.

This book is full of pretty pictures, but that's about it. It lacks any sort of indepth knowledge or teachings about the subject of prayer beads....

I would save my money or purchase the book, "Beads of Faith" by Gray Henry and Sussnah Marriot!

I don't recommend this book to anyone unless you really want it! It's a total waste of money.....borrow a copy from your local library!

Well, having read some of the reviews, I can say as a chinese pureland buddhist, the beads are overpriced. I have been to china on pilgrimages and full sets of the 108 beads are very much cheaper than what this set is priced. As I have strung and did decorative knots for many prayer beads for myself and others, readers should note that the beads are of the chinese type and wrist beads of 21,27 beads, normally do not have the tassels, only 36,54 and the 108 set have the decorative knots. however as readers have noted, the book should also feature the full set of 108 beads, how to string them either with extra seperator beads at every 27th bead ie 4x27=108, and how to tie the decorative chinese knots. I mean surely the publisher do not want to restrict the readers to learn how to tie the 21 wrist beads only, right? The photos featured the full 108 type used by serious buddhist for formal occasions. For those whose do not have the barrel shaped bead, I reccomend that a smaller round bead of the same colour be used. As for the frayed elastic strings, use a lighter to burn the ends after the knots are tied. As for the beads being of chinese origin, I urge people not to byocott chinese goods, I am neutral on the tibet issue but the chinese people are innocent, even chinese buddhist were persucuted on a similar scale.

Really fun to put together and the book has a ton of information regarding the beads and the functions.

Contrary to some of the other reviewers, I've really enjoyed this kit. Certainly, the beads that are included are not the gorgeous malas that practicing Buddhists would be looking for, but I can't tell you how many complements I've received on the mala that I've made with the kit. Putting together the malas was simple, fun, and the book that came with the kit gave a nice background to the use of prayer beads in several religious backgrounds. If you're looking for an interesting kit with Buddhist influences but a pop cultural flavor, I would recommend it.

The writer of the last review did not say anything special about the kit and still managed to give it a top-notch rating. I presume he had read some of the other comments and yet had no response to their detailed and specific criticism.

Could it be that a certain book seller gets someone to check out low-scoring reviews and plants a 5-star review to "improve" the average on display?

I sure hope not because that would be DISHONEST AND WRONG.