I don’t recall any Buddhist sutra or sutta that mentions prostrations as a Buddhist practice. I don’t know the history of how prostrations became a part of Buddhist practice. It may even come from the repulsive practice of bowing down to a king or some other authoritarian bully who commands it.
But a voluntary prostration practice having nothing to do with submission to authority is enjoyable and addictive. I was inspired to start a prostration practice by Rev. Heng Sure and his partner who did a three steps one bow (san bu e bai) prostration from Pasadena to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in the late 1970s and who wrote a book entitled News From True Cultivators: Letters to the Venerable Hsuan Hua about the experience. I still chuckle about the time they received an offering of orange juice and the less funny but more amazing things they encountered in the three years of their taking three steps and performing a prostration.
I discovered quickly that sitting in zazen became easier as my prostration practice increased. I could sit longer and I squirmed less. My knees, ankle and back all felt better. There is a mind/body connection – duh! And I felt better all over even when not sitting in zazen. It wasn’t long before I began to believe that prostrations were a very important part of Buddhist practice, at least for me. Looking back, I see my practice as BP and AP, before and after prostrations. So if you’re becoming discouraged with your zazen, try starting a prostration practice. It will invigorate all aspects of your practice.
That’s a monk in the photo, of course, but prostrations are something that we lay people can enjoy every day. Here’s a You Tube video of a lay fellow performing three very quick prostrations. His form is excellent but we can bow at a slower pace!
By the way, we bow to no one when preforming prostrations. We bow to our inherent Buddha nature, to increase our mindfulness of the moment. One mindful prostration is better than 108 mindless, athletic prostrations. How to perform 108 mindful prostrations without counting them is found in Advanced Zen.
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