Common steps and sub-activities
Praying
Why do we clasp our hands together when we pray and concentrate on the finger tips – any idea?
The praying could be done lying down gazing at the ceiling, with our hands at our sides – far more comfortable; but all of us when we were small were taught to put our hands together and concentrate very hard on the fingertips.
The answer is that if you stare at the fingertips with your hands clasped together you are practising sensory deprivation – the hands aren’t moving and the eyes aren’t moving. Do it for long enough and you have created an unchanging environment for your eyes – very effective sensory deprivation.
The praying – unless it is repetitive and suppresses learning - has no effect. In fact if we concentrate hard on trying to find all the things we want, it is totally counter productive. Instead, we have to ‘zone out’.
All us Christian souls along with a fair few Islamic souls know all about this gesture, but it is of course also an important technique in Buddhism. In some systems it is called Gassho and is defined as:
“A ritual gesture formed by placing the hands together in a prayer-like position in front of the mouth - the fingertips at a level just below the nose. … This gesture is also used to show reverence to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Patriarchs & Teachers”.
Gassho literally means "two hands coming together" and it is used in Reiki. Dr. Usui called it Gassho Meditation [Gassho Meiso] . This meditation was practised each time at the beginning of his Reiki workshops/meetings with the objective of “calming and opening the healer’s mind in order that they could heal”
But you need to be like this for a long time for anything to happen. It is meant to be practiced for at least 20-30 minutes after getting up and/or in the evening before going to sleep.
Observations
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