Have you ever noticed the oddly contrived hand gestures the gurus and gods of Indian art use?
Well, I’ve been curious enough to have learned that those hand signals are called ‘mudras’ and that they’re used in yoga, dance, and martial arts, but doubted I’d ever learn enough to use them myself. Yesterday, though, I found an explanation of mudras and their workings that helped me to see some connections I’d missed in the past.
By comparing yoga and martial arts, it demonstrated that both Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine supose our bodies to be ‘wired’ with energy lines that connect our various organs and systems. They also supose that these lines usually ternminate in our hands (and feet) and that, where they do, they absorb and emit energy. They agree too, that by touching two or more of these termination points together – as one does in a mudra – one can create a ‘circuit’ of sorts, and affect or direct energy flow through our bodies.
As I skimmed the information offered about chakras and accupuncture points, prana and chi, my relative familiarity with TMC helped me to understand Ayerveda (an yoga) in a way I hadn’t before. It also helped me to picture our bodies as ‘computer systems’, our energy lines as ‘wiring’, our hands as circuit boards, our accupuncture points as ‘terminals’ and ‘switches’, and the energy discussed as ‘electricity’.
Suddenly, mudras seemed to have less to do with esoteric possibilities and more to do with scientific probabilities!
Excited, I flipped through chart after chart mudras and explanations of the affects they have on our bodies, while trying to mimmic the postures demonstrated, until my boydriend unfortunately found me and dragged me away from the computer. Later, though, when he was distracted by the t.v., I slipped off the couch to do a little yoga and my mind wandered back to what I’d read.
‘Could something as simple as ‘touch’ really heal an organ?’ I wondered, but even as I did, I recalled the accupuncture treatments I’d undergone in the past and the bennefits I got from them. ‘So, why doubt one system,’ I thought, ‘and not the other?’ Then, before I could let embarrasement keep me from trying, I settled myself into a kneeling posture and tried one of the mudras I’d seen that morning.
To my great surprise, I felt the same sort of sensations – energies flowing and shifting – that I felt with accupuncture. And, as I moved through the three or four mudras I could recall, I felt those sensations shift and change with each.
Of course, there will always be someone who’ll ‘poo poo’ this or chalk it up to ‘wishful thinking’ but that was all it took to convince me that mudras are heap big magic and now I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn and do with them in the future!