Buddhism: Prostrations Part II

[maiashakti]

Thank you so much for giving us these instructive and peace-filled videos. Prostration practice helps us to see past the duality of mental vs. physical, and to appreciate our selves and the universe with deepened holistic insight. Tashi delek, to all!

[ruzickaw]

Could you explain me where the psychology fits into this tool? I see it just as gymnastics.

[ruzickaw]

Did the Buddha ever do prostrations or is it just a Tibetan distorsion?

[LazarusRemains]

@ruzickaw The word 'distortion' implies that Buddhism is a fixed phenomenon - infact, like all traditions, it is constantly in change, so while I don't think the Buddha himself did this practice, that really has no bearing on whether the practice is helpful or not.

Sometimes people think that Theravada must be the most 'pure' Buddhism, since it is closer to what the Buddha taught, but all traditions share common theory, only differing in their tools. Prostrations are a psychological tool.

[ChironWapitiIndus]

@ruzickaw All sects, (at least all that I'm familiar with) including Zen, Tibetan, and Theravada, have some sort of prostration practice. In the earliest Buddhist writings there are several instances of people prostrating to the Buddha while he was still alive. Of course, the different sects all prostrate in different ways.

[ruzickaw]

@ChironWapitiIndus Prostrating to the Buddha as a form of respect and greeting , is one thing.

But what the Tibetan monks are doing with their countless prostration has nothing to do with Buddhism.

As a gymnastic it is ok., because just sitting and meditating, and sitting and chanting without doing any bodily work makes people weak.

They lose contact with the earth and get lost in abstruse mind games.

[HotelCA83]

Doing this will prevent prostrate cancer.

[Otheresque]

Very nice video. Thank-you very much for explaining so clearly and articulately.

[Otheresque]

@RussellUpsomgrubb Buddha is not and was not a God...

[obscure1956]

too much ritual. i'll stick with zen, but very informative. ty

[LilyAndUsKids]

is this for life alert??? My grandma could really use this!!!!

[tangenss]

who did Buddha bow before?

[lamrimeater]

@tangenss Previous buddhas and Bodhisattvas!

[seanpatrick78]

Thank you for these most instructional videos! ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་། : བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། : (thanks and good luck!)

[MrWiduri]

The Buddha is not a god. A Buddha is someone who has already accomplished everything and all his activity is aimed at accomplishing the welfare of others.

[dmm985]

Buddha actually means - "Enlightened One", and is certainly not a god!

[obscure1956]

@dmm985 awakened one actually. the only people who say buddha is a God is ignorant of buddhism or is intentionally trying to create conflict.

[TheCase4Utube]

this resembles the traditional jewish prostration

[psz34]

Thank you very much for this video! It is very helpful

[lavoska]

Thank you for the clear instructions joyfully presented with a flavor of freedom of pure mind! Powerful practice!

[BuddhaShop]

thank you very much

[mallorysmind]

Thank you for the clear and beautiful teaching of prostraton.

[Irtidad]

Way to make Buddhism look like Catholicism, with all its rote repetition and unnecessarily complex rituals. What does this have to do with the Dhamma as taught by the Buddha and recorded in the Pali scriptures?

[ChopstickTech]

@Irtidad It is Tibetan Buddhism, there are differences in practice from Theravada.

[HerrNebuchadnezzar]

Thank you Ven. Thubten Chodron!

Really helpful. I always did a prostration with my handpalms closed without knowing about the supplementary visualizations :p. In books one can't learn rituals etc. that adequately :).

[ACIMgal8]

This video is so helpful to me! I understand the meanings that she explains so lovingly. Thank you.

[BADTimmyD]

i love buddhism, i was a buddhist...now im atheist...(reason) all religion is flawed....but if any religon is true...its buddhism, they have all my respect

[saustrabeck]

Interesting. I'm a Buddhist, & read an article from Ven. Paula Chichester in 'Mandala'* magazine on challenges & obstacles in a 5-year Yamantaka retreat:

"The retreat blew apart every relative attachment, even to Dharma. It was very scary because it affected everything I have faith in - even the deity and the guru. I came to see that my view of the guru/deity was attachment, that my connection was tinted by attachment." What a profound lesson, which only strengthened her practice thereon.

[dharmabird67]

Just a note on the physical practice - Ani-la is doing prostrations on carpet but it is difficult especially if you are doing very many like in ngondro - a lama told me it is better to do on polished wooden or tile floor so your hands move more smoothly, even buy some linoleum roll to put over the carpet when you are practicing. Around Boudha and Swayambhu they have wooden prostration boards that Tibetans use. Of course spiritually it makes no difference what surface you use. :)

[afrogirlandfamily]

I love how you talk. your voice is so soothing and sounds as if you're peaceful

[lisamann]

This is very good instruction! Hope it is helping people do these prostrations without hurting themselves!

[Darknizzle]

these days im leaning more towards correlation, and away from causation...some events can correlate forward and backwards in time, others are unidirectional through time, non-theless, i dont see how causation is scientifically significant, just correlation. however, in relation to mind purpose/intent/will, its useful to think of understanding causing transformations. As for these movements, do yoga and tai chi and youll start to realize movements arent arbitrary :)

[brothermuslim1984]

return to Allah, the only true God. worship Allah alone. He's the only God deserving to be worshipped. there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger. Become practicing Muslim today. Commit to Islam, the only perfect way of life. attain salvation and Allah's Mercy in acceptance of Islam. there is no other way but Islam

[harryteaks]

Thankyou for the invitation but no thankyou.

It is my belief that islam is a very virtuous and worthy path to follow. But its simply not going to work, attempting to convert others! You may want to try to deepen your understanding of the teachings of islam and then this may not be such a predicament to you .

[KU106]

thats a good point, you cant judege a religion by observing the actions of its followers, but you can only judge a religion by analysing its sources!

[ChoesangDolkar]

you are right man but allah must feel really lonely there alone.

[KU106]

he is above that you FOOL, dont talk about somthing you have no knowledge, be careful what you say, this is an advice.

[ramzi205]

WHAT DO BUDD WHATEVRE BELIEVE IN?

[uranian99]

Well, for one thing, they believe in good spelling. ;-)

[adamobaid]

sister god bless you for respecting your faith. I m a muslim i like to learn about popular religions. muslims prosrate its on the tura,ingeel, bible and the quran. share with me and learn about islam

[chaiyah12]

i have some ( respectfull) questions about Buddhism and id like to learn more about it generally . Can any one reccomend a good website? - i dont have money for books unfortunatly.

[ChoesangDolkar]

write on google The Four Noble Truth and learn it well wiht inteligence and if you have a good karma you will understand good luck my friend muslim.

[deathtrip66]

whats the web site somone plz tell me

[ribassribass]

ALL HUMANS ARE THE SAME BEING CREATED BY THE SAME CREATOR.

CHRISTIANS, HINDUS, BUDDHISTS, MUSLIMS AND ALL THE RELIGIONS ARE ON THE GOOD SIDE. GOOD.

The part of me that is ashame of being human is that part of attacking other religions and forcing them to kneel under mine.

PLEASE TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE DEPTH OF YOUR RELIGION EVERY DAY.

AND LET'S MAKE THIS LIFE BEAUTIFUL.

WE ARE GIVEN A GIFT.

OUR LIFE.

[sonofburma]

nothing can be created or destroyed by supreme being. mind and matters occur, because of cause and effect.

[KU106]

dont stars explode? if you create a house can you not distroy it?

if there is control, doesnt this mean theres a controller? isn't this cause and effect?

if there is design, there must a designer? if there is accomodation, there should be an accomodator? if there is food, there must be a provider? shouldnt we show our gratitude that that being? and not to anything else, isn't this a crime?

[klownphish]

this tree is tall,this tree is small

[KU106]

whats yout point?

[klownphish]

no point at all

[No1Traitor]

Why God Created Terrorists???.

[Finn1million]

Humans created terrorists, by there own choices.

[No1Traitor]

So humans can create ?.May be humens created God.

[KU106]

whoever gave this life, we should worhip him. Not show our gratitude to the created but to the creator of all. If you were to feed someone, to clothe them, to give them shelter, food, and everything else. How would you like it if this person were to thank someone else for it?

[almostdetroit]

i think a person or being that created all of this would obviously be kind enough to not want to be worshiped or thanked. wouldn't he have just done all of this because that is how great he, she, or it is.

[KU106]

thats true what you say, that all human beings are created by the same creator. But there is only 1 truth, there cant be more than 1 truth, e.g is there reincarnation or judegemnet day? is the co-ordinate of this leaf 20.888 or 20.99556? there is only 1 truth, there is only one way God wants us to worship him, we can come to know the truth by resoning or proof

[hippy2010]

Kind sir or ma'am, religion and math are 2 very different subjects. Math is an exact science and religion is beliefs. But if you want to talk math; a math genius named Albert Einstein professed that Buddhism is the religion of the future because it transcends many things that cause fights. Buddhists do not worship stones. I see you are happy in your faith, that does not mean you must try to disprove or convert other people from their own beliefs. To do so is childish and unwanted. Thank you.

[ChoesangDolkar]

created by the same creator really ????? so could you please ask him not to create bad people.

[Ganeschar]

Looks like doing gymnastik

[Ganeschar]

4 times? Tibetan do only 3 (crown/forehead/throat)

[jmlee369]

You're supposed to touch the crown, forehead, throat and heart. Tibetans may do it in a hurry and just put the hands wherever.

[Ganeschar]

There are both 3 and 4 times. Nothing to do with hurrying. Please inform better before you give a statement!

[jmlee369]

But you see Tibetans rushing through with prostrations and not being careful of where they place their hands. All the instructions such as ngondro and so forth state that one should touch the crown, forehead, throat and heart.

[Inuyashabuddha]

well i have been told that the reason we do our postrations in a hurry is because we are symbolizing our liberation from samsara and because we want to be liberated quickly we prostrate quickly

[jmlee369]

That only applies to when one is rising up from the ground.

[Inuyashabuddha]

oh ok ,but i think it comes with practice . ive done postrations everyday for a number of years no and so out of habbit i know to kep m hands flat and fingers closed.but as you do i you get faster. are you buddhist too

[jmlee369]

Yes.

[ChoesangDolkar]

the most importante things is not the moves but the motivation in your mind.

[KU106]

its true that intentionos are important, but is this how our creator wants to be worshipped? To go to a stone and call it God and to pray to it? How do you know that he isn't being offended?

[jmlee369]

How do you know there is a creator? You do not even understand the basics of Buddhism for if you did, you would not think they Buddhists worship images, nor do we consider the Buddha as a god, nor do we consider the stone to be Buddha. Did you not hear of the master who used a statue for firewood?

[seiferganon]

Sounds as though you are attached to form.

[PuppyG3rl]

Thank you o.o that is cool O_O;; Good info =]

[Tanfeliz]

Thank you so much! I've really been doing them wrong.

[SatNamTree]

Recently read her straight forward words in Shambhala Sun magazine and was pleasantly awed.

[margraviat]

merci pour tout

[phatcrayonz]

thank you for your time

[051705LTER]

Thank you for your clarity.

[poise3]

Very detailed... thank you

[LiveVegan]

Thanks for sharing. Thanks to the venerable for making this available.

[dayron25]

thank you so much for these! :) many blessings

[Lynnsky77]

Truly wonderful she is... Very inspiring, thank you..

[BuddhaBlurbs]

What a good nun!

[dabeisyin]

She is so precious

[snowlion78]

Thanks for sharing this video!