Readings: Hand Mudras Introduction

Relationship to the Mind

“The mind follows the habits of the breath and the body,” explains Eric Shaw, yoga teacher and scholar in Berkeley, California. “And the hands have a stronger relationship to the mind than much of the rest of the body.” If we place our hands in a position of calm or stillness, the mind can mirror the same qualities. Thus, a mudra can be an instrument to prepare the mind for meditation. – Karen Macklin

Source of Tremendous Power

Our hands are a source of tremendous power. With such profound dexterity, sensitivity, and utility, the human hands may be one of our most defining features as a species. Playing guitar, delivering a baby, knitting a sweater, building a house, wielding a sword, painting intricate figures: through the use of our hands we create and shape the world we live in. Hands an heal, hands can harm. One touch can convey a wide array of thoughts feelings or intentions. Hands tell the story of our mood or state of mind. When we feel angry, a clenched fist; when anxious, fidgeting fingers. Even plants and animals respond to the subtle nuances of our touch. With the hands playing such a central role in our experience of being human, it comes as no surpirse that many of the world’s great spiritual and artistic traditions have considered the hands as sacred. – Cain and Revital Carroll

Direct Higher Pranic Energies

The hands are our seat of pranic connection and expansion in Ayurvedic medicine, and much of healing is through the hands. Mudras can help direct higher pranic energies into the body and link us with beneficial pranic currents in nature and in the universe as a whole. Mudras relate to the marmas and nadis, the energy points and currents in the physical and subtle bodies. This can afford them tremendous healing powers and the ability to change how our energy moves and works… The mudra forms a vehicle for one’s prana, and helps both activate and exercise the prana that one has… Mudras can also serve to focus the mind and direct its power of attention. – Dr. David Frawley

Affects Elements in Body

When the fingers are brought together in a specific pattern and are touched to each other, or slightly pressed against each other, the formation is called a “mudra.” When the five fingers… form a mudra, it affects the levels of the five elements in our body, thus balancing those elements and inducing good health. – Advait