by: Gertrud Hirschi
I have been interested in mudras for
many years. Meditation is a huge part of my path, and I love the
idea of being able to add a hand position into my meditation practice
to call forth specific energies. But I had never really done an
in-depth study of them, only picked up a few of the more common ones
here and there along the way.
This book was fascinating from start to
finish and definitely not only gave me a great foundation for adding
mudras into my practice, but also for further study into the topic as
well as associated ideas presented in the book.
I really like that the book starts off
with an explanation of mudras, a brief history and some general
suggestions for how to use mudras. There is an emphasis, throughout
the book, on approaching mudra work as an ongoing practice and not
expecting instant results (although it definitely mentions that it is
possible to have immediate effects). I think this is an important
point, and am glad to see it presented here. Just like meditation,
mudras can have both short term and long term effects, and I agree
with the author that when practicing these things, patience and
openness are great qualities to apply to your practice.
As mudras are but one system that works
through the hands, the author also includes several other systems
that revolve around the hands such as reflexology and palmistry.
These examples are provided as a way to appreciate how complex our
hands are, and how many different cultures and approaches have worked
with the hands. Each system is given a very brief explanation to go
along with a picture of the hands and how the system applies to them.
I found this to be really interesting and definitely something that
can lead to further research. But even with just the tiny amount of
information in the book, I thought it was a great inclusion as it
helped demonstrate how much connection could be found in our hands
and gave many different examples of how we can use those
correspondences towards different means.
I absolutely loved the included
meditation exercises for each of the fingers. They are simple
exercises, but offer up a great experience. Each finger is simply
held, and a visualization is given to help open you up to the energy
of that particular finger. I definitely feel that these exercises
will give a lot of depth to any other mudras as well as being great
exercises on their own.
The meat of the book is the 52 mudras
presented in detail. Each mudra has a couple of pages which include
a lovely hand drawn picture of the hands holding the mudra. The
illustrations are quite good, and I only had trouble figuring out a
couple of them based on the picture and accompanying text
description. The text then talks about what the mudra is used for,
often including additional information that can be used to better
understand the mudra and it's effects. There is also a suggested
herbal remedy to enhance the mudra. Finally, each mudra is
accompanied by a visualization to be used while holding the mudra and
an affirmation.
I adored the meditations. I thought
they were a really great addition, and one of the things that I
appreciated most in this book. I find that I always learn best when
I have a bit of a story behind why things work, and I found that in
these meditations as well as in the supporting text. Some of the
visualizations are quite simple. You might be holding a color or a
feeling in your mind. Others are more complex and guide you through
several mental actions over several breaths. But I found all of them
quite relatable to the mudra they accompanied. And I think that
using the visualization and affirmation with each mudra will help me
to remember individual mudras better.
The book wraps up with a short section
on whole body exercises that are also known as mudras. These are
illustrated and explained, and are also accompanied with an
affirmation, though they are not given a visualization or herbal
remedy.
Finally in the appendix, a few more
associated topics are briefly discussed. Much like the earlier hand
systems, these areas are not looked at in depth, but more included as
an example of related ideas that the reader might find interesting.
The book also has a very nice index,
which you can use to search for mudras by the areas they effect. So
if you are experiencing sinus trouble, you can look up 'sinus' and
easily find mudras that are appropriate. Which is really handy as
many mudras cover multiple things.
I really enjoyed this book. The way it
approached the topic of mudras, from many angles and with multiple
examples and suggestions along the way gives me a lot of things to
think about, which I love. I know I will be coming back to this book
time and time again, to re-read sections and deepen my understanding
of particular mudras. And that deeper understanding is something I
have found lacking in other things I have read about mudras
previously. While many sources will talk about how to do a mudra or
what it might address, I haven't run across many that give you tools
to understand the mudra beneath the surface.
I finished reading the book, excited to
start working with mudras. Even while I was reading it, I was
constantly trying out the mudras as I came to them. My biggest issue
now will be deciding which mudra to work with first!
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