Mudras.,,,Yogic hand gestures

Mudras.,,,Yogic hand gestures

Yogic hand gestures can help you focus the mind and refine your awareness. I am a healing Hands guy so this is very important to Me.,,, Bud


Our hands play a special role in our lives. We use them to eat, greet others, do our daily work, communicate, create, and show affection. In yoga, martial arts, and South Indian dance traditions, the hands are considered important energetic centers; in ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, the different fingers are associated with specific organs, thus helping to regulate our health.

As organs of action and sites of sensory reception, the hands also have an intimate connection with the brain, both through neural activity and on more subtle levels. This means that the way we hold our hands can influence the way we hold our mind. And this is precisely why yogis have practiced hand mudras, or gestures, over the centuries.

“The mind follows the habits of the breath and the body,. “And the hands have a stronger relationship to the mind than much of the rest of the body.” If we place our hands in a position of calm or stillness, the mind can mirror the same qualities. Thus, a mudra can be an instrument to prepare the mind for meditation.

One of the most well-known hand mudras is chin mudra, in which we hold the forefinger to the thumb, and extend the other three fingers out.

This Pose is also known as jnana mudra) creates a non-linear attitude in the mind,  “which helps us break patterns of thinking that tangle us up in the past and the future, so that we can better connect to the present moment.”

The forefinger represents the ego or the self, and the thumb is seen as consciousness or God; when we place them together, there is a sense that the small self connects to the universe. Creating this attitude of connection in our hands influences our mind to create the same attitude.

Chin mudra can be practiced with the palms facing up to encourage receptivity and help us gain insight; or it can be practiced with the palms facing down, which encourages a sense of grounding.

To perform chin mudra in meditation, take a comfortable seated position either on the floor or in a chair. Keeping the jaw relaxed and the spine upright, rest your hands upon your knees or thighs and bring the fingers into chin mudra. Start to focus the mind by bringing attention to the points where your fingertips touch. Then move your attention to the breath and begin to move deeper into meditation.

If the practice works for you, you can experiment with other mudras, such as dhyana mudra, where the hands form a bowl shape in the lap or at the level of the navel center, with the right palm on top of the left and the thumbs touching. Often practiced in Buddhist meditation, dhyana mudra engenders a sense of calm and concentration.

Utilizing mudras throughout your meditation practice will help you cultivate stillness of mind, while refining and expanding your awareness. “When the mind is quiet and focused, it opens and allows universal consciousness to flow through,”. “That’s our yogic goal.”

The Origin of Mudras

It is not quite known when or where systematized and stylized gestures originated. Almost all ancient cultures made use of hand signs in one form or another. Hand Signs were employed even in earliest times in religion, in the rhetoric art, in social intercourse, in builders' and trade guilds, etc. The operative Masons--the Comacines, the builders of Europe's finest cathedrals, and the hoary trade guild known as the Dionysiac Artificers--who were responsible for the construction of ancient buildings and structures--all made use of hand signs as a system of communication and protection of their conclaves or secret meetings against unauthorized entry.

In Hinduism, as well as Buddhism, hundreds of mudras were formed for yogic purposes, for ceremonies, drama, and dance. Most of these were symbolic in nature, others, however, had metaphysical virtues. There are literally hundreds of mudra-gestures formed by the ancient yogis and sages; however, they are all based on four basic hand positions: the open palm, the hollowed palm, the closed fist, and the hand with fingertips together.

In the Occident, the study of hand gestures in ritual and its spontaneous movements is called cheironomy. It particularly relates to gestures used in esoteric symbolism and certain forms or signs used in religious ritual. In occultism, each hand gesture has certain significance as well as embodying a certain force. Ritual gestures were an important part of religious ceremonies in most ancient cultures. They were said to have the power to call upon the gods, to unfold powers, and to affect the surroundings in various ways.

The ancient Egyptians regarded the hand poses of their god-incarnate pharaohs as highly potent, even if it is just a pictorial representation. While depicting these pharaohs in murals or while forming statues of them, artists were careful not to misrepresent the mudras assumed by their sovereign for fear that it would evoke an unwanted force.
Power in the Hands

The hands when used systematically in mudra exercises result in a wealth of benefit for the practitioner. Not only does it improve one's health, they also generate the energies that would empower one to live a dignified life as a child of God. Specific hand gestures assist the unfoldment of one's divine potentials, or inner divinity lying dormant within one's being.

Mudras facilitate the awareness of our inner nature, the reality of Spirit, the oneness of the Cosmos. It arouses the spiritual heart to expand and express itself with effulgent radiance. Through love, selfless love, unconditional love, divine love, it is possible to conquer all things. It is with love that we approach God, not through fear; fear will never take us to the divine throne. To express love is the beginning of wisdom.

By practicing hand gestures we eventually find ourselves communicating with Nature, for some of her esoteric languages are signs and symbols. Mudras generate structured magnetic fields with forms that resemble computer fractuals and images. Abstract forms reach the higher planes of life where angelic forces reside. Thus, by performing mudras we may eventually find ourselves socializing with cherubim and seraphim.

According to scientists we use about 10% of our brain potential. Mudra practices may change all that, for the energies that it awakens clears all of the vessels--physical and non-physical--of obstructions and blockages that prevent the brain from being nourished and developed. New synapses between neurons are formed when the brain receives a good supply of chi or prana. An increase in I.Q., a strong memory retention, improved learning ability, and mental alertness, are some of the results of cleared energy channels. When empowered the brain forms new connections with the etheric brain. These connections resemble and function as miniature sutratma, which is the link between the lower quaternary of the microcosm and the higher components that we normally refer to as "the Spirit" of man. The more links between the etheric and physical brain, the more powerful and intelligent the brain becomes.

Mudras awaken the power of the hands to act therapeutically and magically. The psychic centers in the palms and fingertips are activated to their optimal level by the consistent application of mudras. This eventually facilitates the free outflow and influx of cosmic forces that may be utilized for various occult purposes. With such power, even a mere touch may mesmerize, enchant, fascinate, or quicken the "dead." Hands with such power would definitely be an asset not only to the metaphysical practitioner but also to those involved in social and business affairs.

Bud Karas.,,, Many blessing my friends