So when we put our hands together--we put method and wisdom together--then we touch
our crown ... then we touch our forehead ... our throat ... our heart ... and then we go down
and we put our hands down. When we put our hands down our fingers are together. So they're
not spread out and they're not made into fists, they're just flat together. And your hands
go down before your knees. So you put you hands down, then your knees, step out once
with both of your hands together [at the same time], lie down, stretch your arms out, and
then step back once with your hands--move both of your hands back together--step back
twice with your hands and push yourself up.
So, while you're doing this your feet basically stay in the same place. Of course they curl
up because you've laid down.
So let me show you again. So it's the crown ... forehead ... throat ... heart ... hands,
knees, hands, lie down, stretch the arms out ... step back once with your hands ... step
back twice with your hands, and then come up.
If you have a prostration board it fine to slide down on the board. Otherwise step like
this. You might want to also have a pad for your knees or for your forehead. When you
do a lot of prostrations sometimes they get a little bit sore.
When you're bowing to each Buddha [in the 35 Buddha's practice] you can do the visualization
with the white, red, and blue as I described. Or you can think that when you're going down
just white light is coming and filling you up and purifying, and then when you're coming
up from the prostration that golden light is coming from the Buddha, filling you up
and bringing the realizations. So that might be a little bit simpler, rather than the red,
white, blue. But you can do either/or, or different ones at different times.
When you do the prostrations you can either make one prostration to each buddha--and while
you're making that one prostration say the name of the buddha many times over and over
and over again. So if you do it that way then you know you've done 35 prostrations, when
you've gotten done with the 35 buddhas. So that's one way to do it.
Another way to do it is to just say the names one right after each other and just prostrate
however many times you want to while you're doing that. That way is a little bit harder
to count because you might be doing different numbers of prostrations
as you go through the 35 names.
Try and memorize the verses as soon as you can. We'll make a tape that we'll put on the
website, so you can learn it by practicing with the tape, but then try and memorize the
names and the confession prayer--which goes together, the three heap prayer--so it's confession,
rejoicing, dedication. Try and memorize those as soon as you can. Because when you say those,
then you also accumulate the good karma verbally, from actually confessing. Whereas if you just
let the tape recorder do it, then it may not be coming from your heart, and certainly not
coming out of your mouth.
So this is quite a beautiful practice, very inspiring.
When you're bowing you can also imagine all of your previous lives in human form all around
you, filling universes, and that they're all bowing with you. Or you can imagine all sentient
beings surrounding you and they're all bowing and reciting the names of the buddhas together
with you. So it's really quite a lovely practice to really cleanse a lot of the negativities
and obscurations from our mindstream, and develop a lot of faith in the Buddha, but
it's faith that's based on understanding the Dharma. It's not blind belief.
So have a good time on your holiday with the 35 buddhas. And instead of swimming at the
beach with your friends you can go on holiday with the 35 buddhas, bowing to them the whole way.
You'll get just as much exercise. Thank you.