rss feedAbout 300 Bows
By bowing, we are giving up ourselves to the universe. To give up ourselves means to give up our dualistic ideas and become one. When you become one with everything that exists, you find the true meaning of being.
—from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Japanese Zen master Shunryu Suzuki
Bowing is a repetitive full-body movement that involves strength, concentration, and balance. It is a means through which a person can become more aware of his or her thoughts, emotions, and habits, and through which they can reinforce or change them.1 Thus bowing is good for shifting very deeply ingrained habitual tendencies.2 It also provides a means through which the emotional heart can open, allowing a person to love and accept his or herself and others.
Besides the mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits, bowing meditation also invigorates and strengthens the physical body. It’s a meridian exercise that strengthens the back and legs, warms the body (especially the lower abdomen), stretches the muscles, oxygenates and circulates the blood, and makes you sweat.1 The health benefits are similar to those derived from sun salutations performed in Indian asana yoga.
What is a bow?
A bow is a series of consecutive movements that benefit the physical, energetic, mental and emotional, and spiritual bodies. Physically, a bowing stretches the body and increases blood circulation. Energetically, bowing increases and balances the energetic body. Mentally and emotionally, bowing calms emotions and focuses the mind. Spiritually, bowing helps one accept and connect inward, outward, and upward.
Structurally speaking, the form of a bow is extremely similar to that of a sun salutation.
How to do a bow: 4
- Calm your mind and bring your palms together in front of your chest.
- Move your hands downward and outward, stretching out your arms and moving themin a circle until your hands come together above your head. As you’re moving your hands upward, inhale and feel the energy of the earth and imagine your hands lifting this energy upward.
- With your palms together and your arms extended straight above your head, feel energy connecting to your 7th chakra (located at the crown of your head) through your fingers.
- Keeping your palms together, slowly lower your hands in front of your chest, connecting the energy gathered by your hands in a straight line past your heart.
- Still keeping your palms together, bend forward at the waist. Bend your upper body forward and downward as far as you can. The deeper you bow, the more humility will empty your mind.
- Kneel with the tops of your feet touching the floor and sit on your heels.
- Bending forward at the waist and neck, stretch out your arms completely so that the palms of your hands touch the floor. Turn your palms upward and lift your hands, exhaling. As you do this, lower your upper body as far as you can, convey your gratitude to heaven and earth and feel your soul in your chest.
- Turn your hands so that your palms face downward again and raise your upper body. Kneel and bring your palms together in front of your chest, and then stand up.
Why did I chose this training?
I wanted to do something that, as Ilchi Lee recommends5, will blow my mind if I accomplish it. I’ve never done more than 103 bows, so 300 sounds quite monumental. On top of that, bowing is a practice that I’ve long felt uncomfortable with. When I read that many of my peers share this sentiment, I felt comforted; and when I read that bowing can help purify the ego and the mind, I felt compelled. {read the full explanation on day 1 of this training}
- Read more on the Benefits of bowing meditation ↩
- Sr. Ellie Finlay of the St. John’s Center for Spiritual Formation in Tulsa, Oklahoma ↩
- Read more on the Benefits of bowing meditation ↩
- from Human Technology, by Ilchi Lee ↩
- in his book Brain Wave Vibration, which details how stimulating the brain stem can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system… ultimately helping the body heal itself ↩
