What are your favorite practices?

[Rara]

unless a person has some sort of physical limitations, i would shake for at least 15 minutes. the sessions at my house will go for 20-30 minutes depending on the day, with an additional 15 minutes in Yao Feng Bai Liu (flowing breeze, swaying willows), where we just stand in surrender, allowing the flow of energy to have its way.

 

I lasted about 4 mins yesterday. Though I then moved on to some martial art training of 45 mins...

[Marblehead]

what about the fact that it's just a beautiful expression of reverence & submission. isn't that more important (in this context, at least) than its utility as an exercise component? perhaps it's more an emotional component than a physical one, being that it's a spiritual practice.

Hehehe.  Yes, I did think about that while watching the video.  And what you say is true although it isn't my truth.  I'm the Materialist, remember?

[Marblehead]

I lasted about 4 mins yesterday. Though I then moved on to some martial art training of 45 mins...

Yes, getting down and doing pushups is one thing but the prostrations above require a lot more mental concentration as well as energy because so many of your muscles are involved.

[Stosh]

Favorite practices?

Does a smoke and a cup of coffee count?

prostrations,? Not so much for me .

But go right ahead.

[Aetherous]

I've only learned kneeling prostrations so far...totally not a physical exercise kind of thing involving pushups. But very good for a person to do.

[Fu_doggy]

Full prostrations are physically demanding when a lot of them are done. I was taught to do them in multiples of 30. In other words do 30, or 60, or 90 or 120, etc.

 

I tend to stay on the low end of that, doing 30 per day first thing in the morning. That said based on some info in this thread maybe I'll get motivated to bump it up to 60.

 

To the OP, long prostrations are far pretty far away from my "favorite" practice. I keep doing them to burn off bad karma from my misspent youth.

 

 

 

 

[C T]

Full prostrations are physically demanding when a lot of them are done. I was taught to do them in multiples of 30. In other words do 30, or 60, or 90 or 120, etc. I tend to stay on the low end of that, doing 30 per day first thing in the morning. That said based on some info in this thread maybe I'll get motivated to bump it up to 60. To the OP, long prostrations are far pretty far away from my "favorite" practice. I keep doing them to burn off bad karma from my misspent youth.

Interesting! The method we use for purifying karma is to recite one round of the 100 syllable mantra for every prostration - after the first 1000 rounds, the practitioner is encouraged to get a sense of the form of Vajrasattva sitting on a lotus at the crown of one's head, while reciting the mantra and doing the prostrations all in one seamless go. From hereon in it can get even more complex but interesting and beneficial. One is reminded to try and remain 'playful' with this. Do not get overly serious and contrived, and dont over-exert. Always try to maintain comfort and ease - thats the priority. 

[Fu_doggy]

C T - good info thanks. The Master who taught me this practice once did 1,000 long prostrations per day for 100 straight days. Yup, that's 100,000 in 100 days. Amazing. I have not been taught the 100 syllable mantra, but was taught to repeat a different set of syllables with each prostration. Based on this thread including reading through some of the links, I'm encouraged to put more focus on doing prostrations as a greater part of my daily practice.

[Fu_doggy]

Ok, after reading this thread I got motivated and did 120 long prostrations yesterday. I was bathed in sweat by the time I finished. I must say at around the half way point there emerged a spiritual exhilaration that counterbalanced the physical rigor, and that made the practice surprisingly..... enjoyable. I plan on doing 120 again in the morning. I'm not ready to say doing prostrations is my favorite practice, but maybe C T is on to something here.

[Taomeow]

,

Edited March 16, 2015 by Taomeow

[Marblehead]

Sometimes silence is better than any words we could even speak or write.

[Jetsun]

Full prostrations are physically demanding when a lot of them are done. I was taught to do them in multiples of 30. In other words do 30, or 60, or 90 or 120, etc. I tend to stay on the low end of that, doing 30 per day first thing in the morning. That said based on some info in this thread maybe I'll get motivated to bump it up to 60. To the OP, long prostrations are far pretty far away from my "favorite" practice. I keep doing them to burn off bad karma from my misspent youth.

 

What are you prostrating to?

[Fu_doggy]

Many spiritual practices include prostration. Go to Wikipedia and search "prostration"....you'll probably be surprised.

 

In my case prostration to a Buddha.

[Trunk]

What are you prostrating to?

 

The unmanifest.

 

The animated prostrations gif that I posted earlier contains physical metaphor in action of both manifest and unmanifest. The practice (of prostrating, not necesarily in just the way I posted, lol) is a traditional internal arts gesture, has an impact on a lot of layers.

[C T]

The unmanifest... nice.   Or, the manifesting continuum of one's pure potential directly influenced by, and integrated into, one's longing for inner freedom. In this way there is the presence of awareness of motivation, urgency, commitment and inspiration.. some of the key factors in keeping one's practice fresh and fulfilling. 

 

Every prostration performed can be a symbolic gesture of renouncing obstacles that get in the way of achieving one's deep spiritual potential. The action is vital. Then it no longer remains as mere lip service. 

Edited March 17, 2015 by C T

[C T]

The action is vital.

 

The act of prostrating?

 

Or the act of achieving one's deep spiritual potential?

 

 Ideally, the practice and the result arising from that becomes inseparable, seamless, at some point. I think total integration means exactly that. In Vajrayana it is said that there is no distinction between ground, path and fruition. Of course, for beginners like myself there is still a lot of conceptualisation around this, but if practice is maintained on an even keel, then gradually, and with mindful attention, i can see how the layers start to interweave. 

[Marblehead]

 

Or the act of achieving one's deep spiritual potential?

 

But is that really an act?  I think that is something that comes to us when we are ready.

[GrandmasterP]

Stretching is good for the spine.

If prostrations do nothing else they offer good stretching.

[liminal_luke]

Sometimes it makes sense to do what feels good, to follow our desires.  At other times, not so much.  Sometimes not feeling drawn to a particular activity is actually a good sign that we need it.  I suspect that might be the case for me with prostrations.

 

Basically, I have two objections: one physical, the other psychological.  I don´t want to do prostrations because they´re hard work.  Why take on such a physically demanding practice when I could instead lie down comfortably in my bed and breathe?

 

My other objection has to do with the attitude of submission that seems to be kind of the point of the practice.  I´m kind of an ornery fellow and not a fan of submission or surrender or even devotion.  Bleck!  On the other hand, it´s kind of hard to argue with the rightness of honoring my own potential for growth, or, as Trunk puts it, the "unmanifest."

 

Hmmm....

 

Liminal 

Edited March 17, 2015 by liminal_luke

[Aetherous]

My other objection has to do with the attitude of submission that seems to be kind of the point of the practice.  I´m kind of an ornery fellow and not a fan of submission or surrender or even devotion.  Bleck!  On the other hand, it´s kind of hard to argue with the rightness of honoring my own potential for growth, or, as Trunk puts it, the "unmanifest."

 

If you're prostrating to some being such as an external Buddha, then it can seem like giving away your power, or being submissive in the negative sense. It can help if you consider it as prostrating to your own Buddha-nature. It's still surrendering, but it's surrender the lesser (such as negative emotions) to the greater (such as beneficial feelings, like loving-kindness for all)...which only makes sense. It helps to receive more legitimate teachings so that the practice will make more sense...such as knowing what the Buddha-nature is, for instance that a quality it has is unconditional loving-kindness.

[multiarms]

I've done prostrations in the past. My teacher told us to first visualize the whole lineage tree of that particular tibetan sect and then prostrate to it. There was a nice little lineage prayer/chant as well that could be done beforehand.

 

Ultimately, just like many other forms of sadhana or practice, I found it too restricting. So now I'm happy with my kunlun and red phoenix practices since they are more spontaneous (and kunlun is really very much like the shaking we've been discussing).

 

I also really like practicing a completely objective-less form of contemplation where I just sit down (or stand or lie down) and literally do nothing. But it's not really something I practice, more like something that just happens to me on occasion. Some of my most profound transformative moments have come from those sessions. I never plan them or set timers or anything. But every now and then it's like I'm just called to stillness and silence and I think of it as a fun vacation and complete relaxation of identity, purpose, and responsibility. And it's great.

[freeform]

Interestingly I found myself doing prostrations spontaneously. Although they rarely look exactly like Trunk's animation. Sometimes I get 'stuck' to the floor, kneeling, forhead on the ground and hands in prayer position... I've been stuck like this for almost an hour a few times. My mind always complains when prostrations come up

[freeform]

Does anyone work with the voice? Or make sounds or anything like that?

[C T]

Does anyone work with the voice? Or make sounds or anything like that?

Sound energy and tapping into that indestructible reservoir of power is an integral part of Buddhist metaphysics (Mahayana). 

[multiarms]

I do some vocalizations as part of my red phoenix practice. There's also a certain droning nasal tone that I use to resonate inside the niwan and through the 9 palaces. That's a very weird sound when you hear someone make it. And when I make it myself it is rather trance-inducing. My cat loves it.

 

And I occasionally use 3 other vocal sounds to activate/harmonize the 3 dantiens. Very basic practice, that.

 

But my favorite vocalization is laughter. Usually spontaneous, although sometimes it's fun to force yourself to start laughing, especially with other people because then you start laughing for reals.