Europe’s biggest prayer wheel to be built in Hungary

From next year on, Hungary might become a bit more relaxed place, since Europe’s biggest prayer wheel will be built here, reports magyarorszagkul.nlcafe.hu. All needs to be done is that everyone who wants Buddha’s blessing to spread buys a contemporary painting.

What will make Hungary calmer? We need to go all the way to Tibet to find out. “Its central part is a closed cylinder which revolves around a spindle. Within the cylinder there is a long, spooled piece of paper, on which sacred texts, mantras (sngags) can be written or printed, and these can repeat themselves thousands of times. The prayer wheel must always be turned rightwards, the same direction as the sun goes, the same way as Buddhists walk around their sacred places.” – says Béla Kelényi about prayer wheels in his book written on Ancient and Oriental art.

The basic object of Buddhist religion is also marvellous because it does not even matter how big it is or how it looks, the main thing is that it fulfils it function. And this depends on the user, not the wheel itself.

There are small  prayer wheels that fit in a hand, tiny table versions, there used to be some wheelsthat worked on water but now most of them have and engine. The biggest prayer wheels are near monasteries or sacred places. Size is important from two aspects: one is the amount of text that fits on the piece of paper inside, the other is the strength of the blessing spreading in all directions.

The central part of the wheels is a metal wheel into which traditionally the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is carved. Dalai Lama explains its meaning thus: “the first Om is the unclean body, speech and thought of the one praying and at the same time, the clean body, speech and thought of Buddha. Mani means jewel and symbolises the method: enlightenment, and the ancient will of love. Padme means lotus and stands for wisdom. Hum stands for undividedness. So the six syllables mean that we can transform our unclean body, speech and thought into Buddha’s clean body, speech and thought practicing the way of undivided regularity and wisdom.”

Why is it all important? Because the biggest prayer wheel is to be built soon in Hungary.

Photo: www.magyarorszagkul.nlcfae.hu – Designed by Lajos Kováts, Dániel Taraczky and Gergő Kovách

The Four Noble Truths Foundation came up with the idea and did a lot of lobbying in order to make this plan come true in 2018.  The only problem is that the construction is planned to be 3 metres tall and 8 tons of weight will cost a lot of money, so the foundation holds a contemporary art auction. A few names from the Prayer Wheel Project Fundraising: Imre Bak, József Bullás, László Fehér, András Gál, István Haász, József Szurcsik. It is an extraordinary event to have so many great artists gather in one place, in Studio Kvarda in óbuda from 29 November.

The exhibition can be visited daily between 12.00 pm and 7.00 pm, and the catalogue can be found on Blitz Galéria website. Auction starts on the 5^th of December at 7 pm, when it will turn out whether we will have a gigantic wheel of prayer. Lajos Kováts, Dániel Tarackzy and Gergő Kovách already have plans concerning its outlook.

Source: http://magyarorszagkul.nlcafe.hu