Benefits of prostrations?

[Jetsun]

I was wondering does anyone have any experience of the health and energetic benefits of doing prostrations for a long period? for example in Tibetan tantric practice they prescribe doing 100,000 prostrations as preparatory practice which is said to balance the body and mind and eliminate pride. Supposedly the the hands clasped at the head, throat and heart purify those centres while when you are prostrate having the knees, elbows and head on the floor grounds the energetic currents so they can be released into the earth, which is meant to balance the meridians.

 

I was wondering if anyone can testify to the benefits of this practice as I was working out to do 100,000 you would need to do over a hundred a day for a few years which is quite a prospect

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I was wondering does anyone have any experience of the health and energetic benefits of doing prostrations for a long period? for example in Tibetan tantric practice they prescribe doing 100,000 prostrations as preparatory practice which is said to balance the body and mind and eliminate pride. Supposedly the the hands clasped at the head, throat and heart purify those centres while when you are prostrate having the knees, elbows and head on the floor grounds the energetic currents so they can be released into the earth, which is meant to balance the meridians.

 

I was wondering if anyone can testify to the benefits of this practice as I was working out to do 100,000 you would need to do over a hundred a day for a few years which is quite a prospect

 

Let me give this a try...Prostrations are something that I deeply yearn to do, my ideal is to someday circumambulate Mount Kailash while doing prostrations. Prostrations don't have "benefit" in the way that ordinary cultivation does, in that you develop certain powers, or your meridians are balanced (although they may be)...the 'point' of doing prostrations is to lose the little self, and merge with the Self...in a sense, to prostrate over and over and over and over again, tens or hundreds of thousands of times, is to merge, like a wave merges, into the ocean of the Self, or Supreme Reality. It is turning away from all the things that are you, and you just become a being doing prostrations, enduring the suffering of knees elbows hands and the ground, and is both an act of surrender and of will...ultimately, it just becomes surrender, nothing more. Mind is turned off, there is just the repetition and surrender of again and again, until the prostrations are 'doing you'...Any other 'benefits' are beside the point.

 

At some point on the spiritual path, this will make sense to you. This is my own interpretation, there may be greater esoteric meaning, or perhaps each prostration brings a single insect rebirth as a higher insect, i don't know, but this is what is meaningful to me.

[Jetsun]

Let me give this a try...Prostrations are something that I deeply yearn to do, my ideal is to someday circumambulate Mount Kailash while doing prostrations. Prostrations don't have "benefit" in the way that ordinary cultivation does, in that you develop certain powers, or your meridians are balanced (although they may be)...the 'point' of doing prostrations is to lose the little self, and merge with the Self...in a sense, to prostrate over and over and over and over again, tens or hundreds of thousands of times, is to merge, like a wave merges, into the ocean of the Self, or Supreme Reality. It is turning away from all the things that are you, and you just become a being doing prostrations, enduring the suffering of knees elbows hands and the ground, and is both an act of surrender and of will...ultimately, it just becomes surrender, nothing more. Mind is turned off, there is just the repetition and surrender of again and again, until the prostrations are 'doing you'...Any other 'benefits' are beside the point.

 

At some point on the spiritual path, this will make sense to you. This is my own interpretation, there may be greater esoteric meaning, or perhaps each prostration brings a single insect rebirth as a higher insect, i don't know, but this is what is meaningful to me.

 

Thanks this has made a lot of things clearer for me. The question I am having is that if the practice is meant to almost consume your life that you merge with the practice for a time then for someone who has to do a job and work for the majority of their day then they may not ever get to that stage of surrender in the practice. I'm guessing then that the 100,000 prostrations is meant more as a monks practice to be done all at once continually over a period of a few months rather than spread gradually over a few years, although im sure prostrating every day can do no harm.

[Apech]

Prostrations are the first part of ngondro and involve also visualization and prayers. They are called preliminary practices but this is bit misleading as actually a kind elongated version of the first part of a complete practice which you work through.

 

If you are a biddhist then you should ask a lama for the right instructions and so on before starting.

 

I haven't completed 100k and am no longer practicing vajrayana but I completed 75k and can say they do involve several hours each day and are a major commitment.

Edited March 19, 2011 by Apech
spelling

[torus693]

they're very hard on the low back, kidneys and knees.

The discs and connective tissue down there stretch

a lot after 100's repetition. Blown out knees take

a long time to heal.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

From Bhagavan Das' book, 'It's Here Now (Are You?)':

 

"I have done it all. I have done the deepest, most intense spiritual practices. When I was doing my one hundred thousand prostrations at Bodh Gaya, I had my board and I was out there at four in the morning for three hours, one hundred thousand prostrations. . . sixty to seventy thousand prostrations into doing this, I did a prostration, and I completely slide off the board into infinity. I went into this complete realm of golden light and bliss, I saw nothing but golden Buddhas shining a light upon me. And I opened into a whole realm. And then I got up and did the next prostration. . . In a way, that's what life is. Life is like doing prostrations. . .The point I'm getting to is that it takes one hundred thousand prostrations to get one good one."

[Machin Shin]

Which wisdom deity is in the Buddha Hall?

 

What are the teachings that are taught?

 

Basically you pacify yourself and the karmas of those that create your obstacles.

[Trunk]

[Mandrake]

they're very hard on the low back, kidneys and knees.

The discs and connective tissue down there stretch

a lot after 100's repetition. Blown out knees take

a long time to heal.

 

 

From what I understand, if that happens, one is doing the prostrations the wrong way. There's correct physical movement/support and gradual increase to hold in mind.

 

 

Mandrake

[rex]

My teacher says that prostrations are the best form of yoga (ok so he's not neutral). I still drag my feet in doing them though so that must mean something. Chagdud Tulku has quite a detailed exposition of the spiritual benefits of prostrations and how they are a training in bodhichitta, the six perfections and natural awareness in his Ngondro Commentary compiled by Jane Tromge. I notice a subtle but distinct shift in energy after having done any of the practices of the ngondro especially noticeable when doing sitting practice as the mind is calmer and more peaceful.

 

The form of the prostration varies slightly with different traditions, here's the version I was taught:

 

 

They're good aerobics as well so if you can bang out about one prostration every ten seconds and maintain this rate for about seventeen minutes then you would have clocked up one hundred. Good form helps prevent injury and using techniques from deadlifting (sticking the butt out as if you're going to sit down on a chair or squat for a dump!) and hindu squats (weight on heels) helps too. It's look like a cross between the video above and Trunk's animation. There's no objections to wearing elbow and knee pads either.