Pathgate News
Prayer Wheel in Athens
A Cypriot member of the ordained Sangha of Pathgate Institute, Thubten Dawa Loday, and his father, Nikos Kouroussis, were invited by the Cultural Centre of the Cyprus Embassy, to hold a joint art exhibition at the ‘House of Cyprus’ in Athens, as part of their 20th Anniversary celebrations in December.
For his main exhibit Thubten Dawa Loday, a resident monk at the Palyul Nyingma Buddhist Association in Athens, designed and produced an electric-motor driven rotating Prayer Wheel which contains within it 2.2 million mantras of OM MANI PADME HUNG. This Prayer Wheel, also known as a Mani Wheel, is around 50cm in height. Its main body is made of brass, bronze and copper which, when it rotates, projects the mantra of OM MANI PADME HUNG in the form of light onto its surroundings.
The exhibit of the Mani Wheel provides a focal point of interest to a Greek audience who are introduced to the benefits of the Buddhist practices of mantra accummulation for the sake of all sentient beings. The opening of the exhibition was well-attended and many people commented on the feeling of well-being and peace they felt in the room containing the Mani Wheel.