Mala or No Mala?

A mala is a counting machine with a culture. Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Muslim strands all have beads; they are not interchangeable jewellery. If you use one from a tradition, learn its courtesy: meru bead, hand, where it lives when you are not practising.

You may also count on fingers, on breath, on a walk's lamp-posts. The tool should serve the return. When the tool becomes the identity — the Instagram mala — you have inverted the practice.

Beads are a kindness to a mind that loses its place. They are a poor god.