From the breath-centered practices of Buddhism to the Christian tradition of contemplating sacred scripture or studying a concept or quality, malas or rosaries have been used and cherished in order to help count mantras and prayers. In my life, my grandmother’s rosaries where gifted to me when she passed and have been gifted to my family on memorable occasions.
Repeated periods of practice with ever-increasing levels of mastery with mantras will take you down the road to whatever goal you seek— whether it is a quality of mindfulness in your everyday life, a specific goal or result, or deeper and deeper states of concentration that will eventually lead you to the very source of thought itself.