SOLAR PRAYER WHEEL
I have always been fascinated by the ideas, held by the practitioners of the Tibetan version of Buddhism, that machines can do your praying for you.
I think mainly what caught my interest about this is that it is such an alien concept to the Christian religions, which of course require the personal touch and commitment for prayer to be meaningful. But the prayer wheel concept says that the act of turning the wheel itself is as beneficial as saying the prayer, and further that the turning wheel produces emanations which spread outward to affect everything in the general vicinity, whether they are 'believers' or not.
For a better explanation of the concept, see this website [deceased 2023 see the Wikipeda entry for 'Prayer Wheel' for similar material]:
http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/prayer-wheel.htm
In fact it believed possible even to turn your computer hard drive into an effective prayer wheel which will spread the benefits continually while your computer operates [deceased in 2023]:
http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/digital-wheels.htm#Credits
(This site also has the prayer wheel gifs used on this page and prayer wheel screen savers.)
As does this one [still alive in 2023]: http://www.all7.com/omg/dharma/index.htm
In addition, the prayer wheels are quite decorative, and reminiscent of the 'spirit houses' which are a common feature in many Asian buildings and dwellings. (The spirit house concept is, basically, that you build a house for the spirits outside your own house, and stock it with flowers, fruits, and incense in order to make the spirit house more a more desirable place for the spirits to dwell than in your own house. I'm not quite sure what the spirits do when they get into your house, but it is apparently bad.)
http://www.nongnit.net/thai_spirit_house.html
Another part of the prayer wheel concept is that whatever agency turns the wheel receives a benefit thereby and spreads that benefit to whatever it touches. Thus a wind or water powered prayer wheel causes the wind or water that powers it to have beneficial effects on whatever it touches in it's further travels.
The great grand-daddy of all
prayer wheels is a device called the Thardo Korlo (Great Liberating Sutras,
Mantras, and Scripts Wheel). This wheel contains many copies of numerous
different texts, and is said to be much more beneficial than the more common Mani
wheel. In 2023 you will have to refer to the Wikipedia article on Prayer Wheels. My
understanding is that a Thardo Korlo is a prayer wheel which contains certain sacred
texts, the exact titles making up an area upon which all practitioners may not agree.
Here is a document with
references to the texts contained in one Thardo Korlo offered for sale on the
web: http://falconlabs.com/KLG/prayerwheel.htm Then, I ran across this site [offering solar
owered prayer wheels] in my search for electric car components, and the idea seemed such a good one
(especially since most of the parts were already laying around the house) that
I had to steal the idea and make one for myself [no sign of Lotus Energy in 2023]. http://www.lotusenergy.com/mane.htm
Their site and device are the inspiration for this entire project and for the
prayer wheel documents on this site. THE SOLAR PRAYER WHEEL:
Next project: wind powered
prayer wheel to attach to my car and activate the wind for those drivers who
share the road with me; to reduce the bad vibes that so many folks seem to
build up when driving in the Florida traffic ! [2023 note] While I don't live there any more
I did recently have occasion to visit there. The need for more Prayer Wheels to soothe the jangled
nerves of Florida Drivers and help alleviate the other bad effects of the Florida traffic.]