So in this video I will be talking about a
third technique of meditation which is generally used as a warm up practise
before doing the walking and the sitting meditation. This technique is called mindful prostration.
Now prostration is something which people of various religious traditions are familiar
with around the world.
For instance in Thailand it is used as a means to pay respect
to one's parents or one's teachers or figures of religious reverence.
In other religious traditions it might be used as a form of worship for a divinity,
a god or an angel or an object of worship. In the meditation practise we’re using
the prostration as a means of paying respect to the actual
meditation practise itself. So what we mean by mindful prostration is,
besides simply being a warm up, it’s also a way of
creating a humble and a sincere attitude towards the meditation practise,
so that we have a feeling that what we’re doing
is not something as a hobby or just for fun, but something that we seriously hope to incorporate
into our lives and to make a part of who we are.
And what we’re practising here is something of great significance,
of great importance, and something worthy of our respect.
So this doesn’t mean that we are worshiping or we are bowing down to an individual or
an entity of any sort. It’s a way of paying respect
to the practise which we’re about to undertake. It also can be thought of as simply a warm
up exercise, so instead of doing a simple prostration
we’re going to actually be focusing on the movements of the body
as we do the prostration. But in order to get a sense
of what is meant by prostration I’m going to give as an example
the method of prostration used by the Thai people
when they would normally pay respect to someone higher than themselves.
This is because that particular prostration method
will then be used as a model on which we can then do our mindful prostration.
So in order that you get an understanding of
what the prostration should look like I’ll first perform for you to see a
traditional Thai prostration. And so the prostration is typically
three prostrations; three bows of respect. It is performed on ones knees,
traditionally with the person sitting on their toes,
but if this is uncomfortable you can also sit down
on the tops of your feet. You can do as is most comfortable for you.
To start, the hands are placed on the thighs, the back is straight, the eyes are open
and one begins by bringing the hands up to the chest,
then touching at the eyebrows, and then out in a W shape
with the thumbs touching, down to touch the floor in front.
The elbows will touch in front of the knees, and the head goes down to touch the thumbs
between the eyebrows. Bringing the head up again,
and then the hands up to touch together in front of the chest.
This is one prostration. Then one goes on to do the second prostration,
up to the forehead, and out again,
and back up. And a third time.
And, after the third prostration, we then bring the hands up to the forehead,
but instead of out again we bring the hands simply back down to the chest.
And this is a traditional Thai prostration. This is going to be the model
for what we call the mindful prostration. So it’s a means of using this bodily movement
as a meditation technique or as I said as a means of paying respect
and building up states of humility and of respect,
of sincerity in regards to the meditation practise.
So we begin in the same way by putting the hands on the thighs
and we start with the right hand, one hand at a time,
because here we’re going to be watching the movements of the hand.
Again we’re focussing on the body as our primary meditation object.
As the hand turns we say to ourselves ‘turning’ and we say it three times,
‘turning, turning, turning’. Again keeping the mind, keeping the noting,
the mantra, the clear thought in the present moment.
So as the hand begins to turn we say ‘turning’, when it’s in the middle we say ‘turning’
again, and when it finishes ‘turning’.
We say it three times, saying to ourselves again
‘turning, turning, turning’. When the hand raises we say to ourselves
‘raising, raising, raising’. And when it touches the chest we say
‘touching, touching, touching’. Then the same with the left hand,
‘turning, turning, turning’. ‘raising, raising, raising’.
‘touching, touching, touching’. Then up to the forehead,
‘raising, raising, raising.' 'touching, touching, touching.’
Then back down to the chest, ‘lowering, lowering, lowering.'
'touching, touching, touching.’ So instead of going out we’ve brought the
hands back down to the chest again. Then we do the actual prostration.
First we bend the back, ‘bending, bending, bending.’
And then again bring the hands out but this time one at a time,
‘lowering, lowering, lowering.' 'touching, touching, touching.’
'covering, covering, covering.' ‘lowering, lowering, lowering.'
'touching, touching, touching.’ 'covering, covering, covering.'
‘bending, bending, bending.’ 'touching, touching, touching.’
‘raising, raising, raising’. ‘turning, turning, turning’.
And here it starts over again, so again we start with the turning three times,
this time from the floor, and then the hand up
‘raising, raising, raising’ and so on ‘touching, touching, touching’.
‘turning, turning, turning’. ‘raising, raising, raising’.
‘touching, touching, touching’. ‘raising, raising, raising.'
'touching, touching, touching.’ ‘lowering, lowering, lowering.'
'touching, touching, touching.’ ‘bending, bending, bending.’
‘lowering, lowering, lowering.' 'touching, touching, touching.’
'covering, covering, covering.' ‘lowering, lowering, lowering.'
'touching, touching, touching.’ 'covering, covering, covering.'
‘bending, bending, bending.’ 'touching, touching, touching.’
‘raising, raising, raising’. And then a third time as well,
exactly the same way. And again each one step at a time,
bending and so on. And after the third prostration we come up
‘raising, raising, raising'. 'touching, touching, touching’.
and then after the third time up again to the forehead,
‘raising, raising, raising.' 'touching, touching, touching.’
‘lowering, lowering, lowering.' 'touching, touching, touching.’
And instead of bending again to do a fourth prostration,
instead bring the hands down to rest on the thighs
‘lowering, lowering, lowering.' 'touching, touching, touching.’
'covering, covering, covering.' ‘lowering, lowering, lowering.'
'touching, touching, touching.’ 'covering, covering, covering.'
Once we finish that we continue on with the walking meditation
and then with the sitting meditation. So it’s important that once you finish this
you don’t just get up to do the walking meditation
you continue on with the mindfulness. As you go to stand up first you say to yourself
‘sitting’ and then ‘standing’ and you stand up
and then slowly go to do the walking meditation making sure that your mindfulness,
your awareness, your clear awareness of the present moment
is continuous. So that’s all for today,
this is the practise of what we call mindful prostration
and I hope again that this practise brings you
both peace, happiness and clarity of mind. Thank you.