Why 108 Appears So Often

108 shows up on malas, in japa, in some yoga lists, in popular astronomy-mythology (sun, moon, a digit). Traditional explanations multiply: 108 is 1+0+8, or 12×9, or a map of something sacred. Some of those explanations are late, tidy, and too pleased with themselves.

A working number

What 108 does, practically, is last long enough to be a sitting and short enough to finish. That is a good design for a round. You do not need a solar-system justification to use a well-sized loop. You also do not need 108. Twenty-seven is a quarter mala. One honest round beats a theatrical 108 you resent.

Any number you finish is finished. An abandoned 108 is just a story about 108.

If a tradition you belong to specifies 108, follow that tradition's courtesy. If you are a guest, be a guest: do not invent a cosmology to look initiated. Count, return, stop.