On Bowing

This short talk concerns the act of making prostrations, or bowing. Bowing is common in all Buddhist traditons, and represents not only a gesture of respect, but equality within a spiritual relationship.

Transcript

This idea of bowing cuts across Buddhist traditions.

Really all schools of Buddhism involve bowing in one form or another.

And as I was just saying,

It's been part of Buddhist practice since Buddhist time in India.

Back then within the monastic community,

People would do dozens,

If not hundreds,

Of frustrations a day.

On special ceremony days,

Apparently they would do up to 10,

000 prostrations in a day,

If you can imagine that.

But there is this misunderstanding about what it is.

And especially here in America,

I think people see this bowing thing and they don't like it.

It makes them feel like they're putting themselves into a subservient position,

Engaging in an act of worship.

And I know a lot of people are coming to Buddhism because they're,

You know,

Recovering Catholics or whatever they are.

And so they're not looking for it.

And the good news is that's not what it is.

It's not an act of reverence.

It's not an act of deference either.

What bowing does is it provides a moment for stopping and contemplating.

It provides a moment for mindfulness.

It provides an opportunity for our minds to reveal our own dualistic thinking,

Our discriminations,

Our emotional attachment.

And it's important to have moments like this.

It's important to create moments like this.

It's very difficult to be arrogant when you're bowing.

You know what I mean?

It's very difficult really to be anything other than honest with yourself and what it is you're doing is bowing.

Making prostrations helps us to create moments like this.

Times when we can see and understand our oneness with all beings,

Like we're talking about this morning.

Times when we remind ourselves and feel our Buddha nature and allow that Buddha nature to express itself.

The fellow Norman Fisher who I mentioned this morning,

He's from the San Francisco Zen Center tradition,

He's a Soto Zen priest,

He once saw his teacher,

Dainan Kattagiri Roshi,

Who you used to read,

Who as he bowed,

Who mumbled his phrase in Japanese.

And Norman Fisher,

Who was his attendant essentially,

Asked him to translate it.

What is it you're actually saying here?

And the translation was something like this.

The one who bows and what is bowed to are one by nature.

The bodies of one's self and another are not two.

I bow with all beings to attain liberation,

To manifest the unsurpassed mind and return to boundless truth.

So this is real.

This is this idea of dependent co-origination.

There's a metaphor in Buddhism talking about the gift,

The giver,

And the receiver as a way of demonstrating this idea of independence and the not separate nature of things.

That in the moment of offering a gift and receiving a gift and the gift transferring from one hand to another,

It's all one thing.

It's not really a separation in that moment between the gift,

The giver,

And the receiver.

Another Soto Zen priest,

Yokoyama,

Said ultimately in Buddhist practice there is no separation between giver,

Receiver,

And gift.

Whatever we do,

Whatever we offer,

We are not practicing for other beings.

We are practicing with other beings as a being ourself.

It's infinitely interdependent.

So when we bow,

When we make these prostrations,

Again it's not divinity that we're acknowledging.

Again,

Buddha was not a God,

As you all know.

Buddha was just a person.

So it's not divinity that we're recognizing or acknowledging or worshiping.

Rather,

It's our own capacity for awakening and in expression of the non-duality of existence.

That's what we're reverencing.

That's what we're paying respect to.

That's what we're giving homage to,

Is our own capacity for awakening.

We're recognizing the Buddha as someone who has also done that,

As someone who has gifted us with a teaching and with an example.

So it has a certain amount of respect to it.

But it's not a power imbalance.

Bower and one who is bowed to are not separate.

Does that make sense?

It's like a spiritual exchange in which we recognize the unique importance of each being in the universe as well as that interconnection that we share in the field of inherent Buddha nature.

Remember that image I gave you last time we're here of Indra's net,

Which if you picture a hammock net,

You know,

Where the strings come and they form the squares and they have this series of knots everywhere.

So if you picture that spreading throughout the universe,

Just endless,

And where each knot is,

Is a jewel.

And in each knot is a reflection of each other jewel.

So there just is no separation.

The unique quality of bowing is that its primary function is internal.

Norman Fisher said,

Bowing is a mental training that helps us cultivate an attitude of love and appreciation for the Buddha nature within ourselves,

And to appreciate that same nature in others.

Not their Buddha nature versus our Buddha nature,

But Buddha nature itself,

That which we all hold in common,

And which that energy of bodhicitta calls us to honor.

This fellow Seth Segal,

Who's a psychologist and Zen priest,

Said that the beauty of bowing practice is that it's bodhicitta in motion.

When we make prostration,

It's that spirit of wanting to aid the enlightenment of others in motion.

In bowing to the Buddha,

We bow to ourselves as part of everything.

We see the smallness of our own egos,

The vastness of being,

And the way of awakening.

So again,

Norman Fisher sees this as a training method.

He says we offer our whole body and mind to wisdom,

To compassion.

We open ourselves in the act of the bow to that quality of bodhicitta,

Which is letting go of everything in our life but for that quality of compassion.

Bringing it out,

Making it big,

Fashion it day by day,

Bow by bow.

A Buddhist nun in Thailand,

Damanananda Bukini,

Bukini is the female form of the word bhikkhu or monk,

Said the importance of understanding the significance,

Was talking about rather,

The importance of understanding the significance of this kind of humble gesture.

She said,

When we bow,

It means we're able to let go of the importance of the self.

We bring our head below our heart,

We bow with body,

Heart,

And mind,

And by so doing we gain merit.

And we're going to talk about merit in a minute.

When a student bows before a teacher,

Norman Fisher said,

When a student bows before a teacher,

It's the student who gains merit,

Not the teacher.

Because the student is able to let go of the self,

The teacher gains nothing at all.

Want to hear that again?

That's kind of a profound thing.

When a student bows before a teacher,

It's the student who gains merit because she is able to let go of the self.

The teacher gains nothing at all.

So the act of bowing,

The act of prostration,

Is an act of ourselves.

As I say,

It's not in reverence,

It's not in deference,

It's not an equal power relationship,

It's an honoring of Buddha nature in ourselves and in everyone.

The teacher just returns the bow,

Like Kattagiri Roshi said,

Bowing is mutual.

Just one bow,

Bowing back and forth.