VM Heng Sure - Reverential Bowing as Contemplative Practice

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Reverential Bowing asContemplative Practice

Rev. Bhikshu Heng Sure

I Bowig as Gesure and as Conemplaion

The Gandhauha, the penltmate chapte of the Avatamsaka Sutra,

econts the pmae of the yoh Shana, who seeks nstconn the path to enhtenment. He meets y-thee teaches, an as

he gees hem an also as he akes eave of them, he bows to he on"contess tmes:' Shanas bowng as tal este of eveencebohknees, both ebows and foehea tochn the onbecame an con nBhs Asa. mages of the hmbe yoth wth back bent n postaonhave nspe eneatons of dhs pms and pentents, boh cey an laty. Reveenal bown s to ths ay a popa pacce, an wthnthe Bhst commnty ts pofon spa benes ae we known.

By pacng the boy n a pose expessve of hmty an vlne

aby, he pacce of eveenta bown combats pe an aogance anepaces atachmen to sef wth an ndesann of the emptness of sef an of a phenomena. Fthe, an nensey focse bowng pactce wllkeep he mn fom nnn away nto scsve thoht o scatengno anom waneng, ths ean the pacttone owa states of menta concentaton. Contemplatons that accompany each sep of thebown ese aow evoees to epent of oenses, to vsaze Bdhasan Bohsatvas, an to eect deepy on sace tets. o Bhsts, then,bown s no meey a este of cotesy o espect, no s t pmay a demonstaton of eveence towad an object of woshp. s a y eveoped nwa path tha leas he pactone to the tmate sptaloas of compasson an wsom.

The eectveness of eveena bown as a physca, mena anspta yoga has ense s pace o ths day as an mpotant feate of Mahayana lty. In Chna, snce he S-Tan peo, the specc gestes the one base on the nan sisabhivandate, whch n nan bowngcoesy ncates the hghes espect. Pope fom eqes boh knees,

ISSUE 5, OCTOBER 2005 73





Reverential Bowing a Contemplative Practice

The person bowing is "the worshiper;' and the Sage or divinity bowed

to is "the one worshiped. The "nature referred to is he Buddha nature

present in al beings. hese rst wo lines articulate he existential condition

of the conscious mind of the person bowing. "Empty and sil denes the

Buddha naures salient quaity. Empy and still, there is nohing to hold

on to or develop an attachment to

"The Way or "Path (dao) is a translaion of the Sanskrit marga, road.

In Buddhist lierature the dao is the road to Buddhahood. "he response

refers o transformations of mind that take place when one enters the deep

menta concentration of samadhi words and thoughts are transformed,

along with al conscious discrimination. he samadhi-stae is not accessible

to conceptual hought thus the expression "inconceivable.

"Bodhimanda is the Sanskrit original of the Chinese dao chang, eldof enlightenment. he term has a wider application, bu here it refers to

the venue where the repenance is praciced. The conemplator visualizes

his or her body as a bodhimanda and then ikens the bodhimanda to a

pear in Indras Ne, which adorns he ceesia palace of Shakra Devanam

Indra. he contemplator sees his or her own body as a pearl strung in the

endess, inerreecing ne of pears.

The nex visuaization is of he Buddha, Bodhisatva or other sage

whom the conempator is bowing to. The devoee says the name of he

sage and visualizes the sage appearing right within Shakras Pearl, inside

the devotees body. The next sep requires an interacive visuaization. The

conemplaor sees his or her body appear before the Buddha, bowing in

respect and aking refuge. Finally, " return my life in worship; in Chinese guei ming li, renders namah, the Sanskrit erm used o praise a Buddhist

sage One of namah multiple meanings is "to return my life back to its

sacred source: At the end of the visualization the practitioner ets go of the

conemplaion, making no attempt to retain or grasp he vision.

II Ia eceens Daxans ca Bwng Pacce

Reverential bowing is menioned equently throughou he Mahayana

scriptures. The occasion for bowing arises whenever someone comes into

the presence of or takes leave of a sage, or else rises from his or her pace

in he assembly in order to pose or answer a question. For example, in a

typical scene om the Mahaprjaparamita Sut, the assembly bows athe feet ofJewel-ike-Nature Buddha

Having received the owers and the Buddha's instructions, Universal

Light Bodhisatta, together with limitless hundreds of thousands of

kotis of nayutas of Bodhisatas, Mahasavas, both lai and mo-





nastics together, and with numberless hundreds of thousands of pure

lads and maidens bowed at the Buddha's feet, circled him to theright, and departed.4

As in the case of Sudhana's pilgrimage in the Gandhavyuha, bowingsomeimes plays a central part in a narrative Chapter 20 of the Saddharma-pundarika (Lotus) Suta for exampe, speaks of Never-SlightingBodhisattva, who bows to everyone he meets in order to discipline prideand nurture humility As he bows he reecs, "I dare not slight you; in theure you wil become a Buddha.

Bowing is also a topic in the commentaria literature. n his Maha prajaparamita Shast Dazhidulun) Nagarjuna says that here are threeforms of worship They are, in ascending degrees of respect, to bend he

wais, o kneel and naly, to make a prostration To place the head andface at the feet of the worshiped is to make a supreme oering5 Later inthe same work we nd:

There are three more forms of worship: the rst is verbal worship;the second is to genuect but not to touch the ground with the head;the third is to place the head on the ground This is called supreme worship The highest part of the human body is the head and thelowest part is the fee To reverence someone with the highest part of the body by placing at the lowest part of the worshiped indicateshigh respect.6

n his "Extensive Discussion of the Customs of India, Chapter 2 of his

Record of the Western Regions in the Great Tang the grea Buddhist pilgrimXuanzang (59-4) lists nine forms of respec hat he had winessedamong the Indian Sangha:

The rst form is upon meeting, to inquire aer anothers wellbeing.The second, when passing on the path, is to nod the head to showrespect The third is to raise the hands and bend the waist followedby placing the palms together at chest height. These are the standardcourtesy for greeting peers or ones juniors

If a senior monastic appears or the situation requires it, oneobserves the h level of courtesy and genuects, or the sixth kneels,or seventh places the hands and knees on the ground If ll gestures

of respect are called for then one pacces the eighth form by bending the four limbs and touching the head to the ground Finally, ultimaterespect is shown by bowing the entire body to the ground7

is to Buddhist historian and "Chinese St Benedict Daoxuan (59-

, however, tha we owe he codication of bowing ino a pracice hat

76 RELIGION EAST & WEST




became denitive for North Asian Buddhism. A portion of Daoxuan'sShimen guijing yi (Buddhist Rule and Breviary)8 deals specicay wih be

havior in iurgical observances. By codiing precedents from both Indiaand China, Daoxuan esabished he monastic standard for bowing tha issti observed oday.

In his Buddhist Rule and Breviary, Daoxuan reported the tradiionalIndian practices transmied in the vinayatexts; compared them to Chinasancient sysems of ritua couresy; dened the erms using both Sanskri and Chinese, and added commentary on scriptura references on the opicof bowing, among other aspects of proper monastic deporment. Whie hisntent was to estabish Buddhist bowing pracice rmy on Indian preceden,he waned to taior it to Chinese sensibiities. As a iterary schoar, he knew

the Chinese cassics and histories and so was abe to draw upon exts tha concern ritua procedure. In the case of ritua bowing, he referred o theZhouli The Rites of Chou He expained:

In the mundane world the Zhoui gives us the Nine Kinds of Bows . . . They are not an internal [not a Buddhist] teaching. [Buddhist]ritual practice however begins with the ordinary customs For thisreason I refer to the Zhoui.9

The "Nine Kinds of Bows incude "three gestures and sx conextsThe three gestures show how o bow, the sx conexts when o bow. Thethree gestures take he head progressivey ower to he ground. The rs is merely to ower the head. The second, "deferentia bowing' includes

kneeing and aso owering the head, but no as far as the ground. For thethird, the head is brought a the way to the ground

The sx contexts refer to specic socia siuations which ca for one or more of the three gesures. They are as folows:

Trembling bows. Whie bowing, one shakes with intense emotion or

agitaion. For exampe, according to protoco, one need not bow and ye one does, out of prudent caution, perhaps, or because ones aims may berthered by humbing oneself.

Auspicious bows were the sandard form required by socia etiquette. One owered the head precisey when the situation demanded it and knet when it was right o do so. Specic bows were required, for exampe, when paying respects to family members on holidays and birthdays, when

making socia courtesy cas, and when it was necessary to show poiticaldeference in a variety of situations or instance, marquises and dukessaued the emperor by kneeling and bowing the head-the second of the "three gestures. Knighs and ministers bowed similary to he nobe

marquises and dukes. Ministers and knights woud do he same to their





counterpars from neighboring staes. Minisers inside he cour would nomake his second bowing gesure o fellow ministers, in order o preserveha privilege for their rulers As for the ruler, he merey bowed his head inorder o pay respecs to his ministers To do more was o make a gesureof extraordinary honor.

Bows in inauspicious situations, such as nerals, were bows to theground-he hird of the "hree gestures -and sometimes double bows,rs lowering the head while kneeing, then bringing he forehead o heground

Unique bows were bows of any ype performed only once; ha is, thegesure of respect was abbreviaed

Multiple bows were those made beyond he required number

Restrained bows were made by women; even he head was not lowered.he reference may have been o some equivaent of a curtsyDaoxuan noes ha in he Zhoul forms of bowing, here is no men

ion of inernal conemplaions. Rather, Chinese sociey's milenniumoldpredisposiion for bowing focused on exernal protocol. Here, Daoxuansresses, the Chinese radiion diers om he Buddhis radiion hat wasimpored om India.

According to the internal [Buddhist] teaching bowing is where it begins You can divide the focus of Buddhist practice roughly intoto areas body and mind Buddha-Dharma takes the mind as theroot and body as the branch.

Daoxuan's commens highigh how Buddhism skilly appropriaedChinese cuural observances and hen adaped them to accord wih theprinciples of Buddhis conemplaion

Daoxuan conrasts he socia eiquee of he Zhoul "Nine Kinds of Bowing o he spiritual progression of he "Seven Syles of Bowing described by he sixthcenury Buddhis Pariarch Ratnamati According tohe Supplement to the Lives of Eminent Sanghans10 Ranamai ("PreciousMind) was a naive of India and came o Loyang in 50 c.E., during theNorthern Wei dynasty11 Daoxuan's inclusion ofRanamati's list, along wihhis commentary on i, in he Buddhist Rule and Breviary ensured ha helis would become standard ts importance ony increased when he greaAvaamsaka inerpreer Chengguan (3-40) commened on i and added

o i in his celebrated Huayan Suchao (Explanatory Preface to the Avatam saka)12 The Buddhis Pariarch Zongmi (0-41), who was a sudent andlaer coleague of Chengguan, wroe a commenary to his eacher's Explanatory Preface and in i Zongmi oo commened on Ranamai's list





Ratnamati's seven styles of bowing are given below, together with se

ected remarks by Daoxuan, Chengguan and Zongmi The ist of bowing

styes moves om he eas to the most profound and spirituay potent.

Sle One: Arrogant Bowing.

Paraphrasing Ranamati's discussion of the aws in Arrogant Bowing,Dao

xuan depi cs a gure famiiar to anyone who attends monastic iturgies, a

sangha member or layperson who sands consed in a ceremony and who

bows wihout understanding the reason for it Such a person acks insigh

and merey foows the crowd Focused on externas, he acks respect and

is prevened by his arrogance from learning from others.

Daoxuan cites the Confucian Analects to ilustrate he wrong atitude,

ie, somebody who fears that he wi ose face and so holds himsef aoof om the bowing. One who has no foundaion in Dharma o rey on can

entirey miss the poin of the spiritual exercise and bow mechanicay, ike a

peste pounding rice Chengguan borrows this ine in his paraphrase ofDa-

oxuan. Daoxuan, in turn, is quoting Ratnamati. Dao

xuan says hat this style is futile, sterile and paradoxi

ca in hat, athough the person is bowing, his wrong

attiude ony increases his deusions. He gets a resut

tha opposes the purpose of bowing; that is to say, he

increases his attachments o he wrong view of sef.

Bowing's benefts depend

on attitude and intent.

Thus, the commentators make the point that bowing's benets depend on

attiude and intent

When Zongmi takes a urn in discussing Chengguan's commenary onthis bowing style, he picks up the thread of bowing as an antidote to ar

rogance He denes arrogance as a view of sef tha exists in he mind The

wrong way of seeing, the mistaken idea tha a sef exists, creates an aitude

tha interferes in reationships and causes troube. He lists three mistakes

tha combine to obstruct the practitioner: rst, one perceives a sef; second,

one compares one's sef to oher selves that one perceives existing separate

om onesef; and third, one fees superior as a resul of the comparison

Zongmi quoes Xuanzang's Shastra on the Doctrine of Consciousness-Only3 as it describes the psychoogy of arrogance Suering hat arises om

repeated deaths and rebirths among the various destinies resuts from he

mental process of perceiving a sef and a mistakes tha begin with that

view. Using the mind wrongly in this way obstructs spiritual cutivation.Bowing counteracts he wrong view and creates its opposite, an attiude of

respect, reverence and faith in one's innate goodness





Sle Two: Sing-along Bowing

This style of bowing, ike he rst, is dened by the commentators as evi

dence of a fauly mental attiude. Daoxuan expains that here the problem

is not pride but ack of focus. The singaong bower aso ooks outside his

or her mind to nd meaning in spiritual practice, so the benets are few and

shaow. Daoxuan shows us he hypothetica participant chaning mindessy

amid the crowd, so obivious o the deeper reigious vaues of he ritual that

he or she hods he text upside-down, unaware of the error.

Sle Three Respecl Bowing

This third stye evokes enghy discussion among the commentators. Dao

xuan provides a detaied instruction on how he devoee may visualize

interaction with the Buddha. Daoxuan's comments here quoed in lldemonsrate the contemplative aspects of bowing.

When you hear the sound of the Buddha's name, you bring to mind

the contemplation of his body You visualize him as if he were right

before you with all his thirwo hallmarks and eigh special char

acteristics, complete and adorned, dazzling and resplendent Once

you envision all the hallmarks in your mind, then in fact you nd

yourself facetoface with the threefold bodies. The Buddha extends

his hand to rub the crown of your head and he purges all the oense

karma created by the view of a sel Then you are truly respecul in

both body and mind with no rther extrneous thoughts. You make

oerings and show respect and you never grow weary of it This is the

state of mind of bowing to the Buddha When he appears in ont of

you, you pay atention without any unclari of mind. You will then

be able to lead and to benet both humans and gods in the highest,

most sublime manner Although such a person has vast merit and

virtue, still it is not his own wisdom, and many people who atain

this state later reeat om it

Chengguan begins his comments here by saying,

Because one's mind feels respect, that feeling courses through the body

and mouth and inspires one to bow universally to all the Buddhas

Bowing rids the heart of the obstacle of arrogance and fosters thoughts

of respect, faith and good karmaHe aso mentions the "ve imbs ouch the ground contempaion

from the Sutra on the Questions Asked by the Bodhisaa WisdomFreeom

Delement about Methods for Bowing to the Buddha, 14 and Zongmi quoes

the reevan passage. The sura says that every gesture of the bowing ritual





can assume a deeply reverential meaning. The movement of each limb gen

erates a vow from the heart and has a higher signicance than the mundane

gesture of bowing to the Earth. hus, already in the third bowing stye, the

physical gesture is thoroughly inegraed wih menta conemplations.

Sle Four: Bowing That Goes Beyond Appearances

Daoxuan interprets he fourth bowing stye in erms of"emptiness (Chi

nese kong, Sanskri sunyata). Here we meet for the rst time the concep

of interpenetration, a principe tha is typical of the Avatamsaka, and one

that wil return throughout the rest of the bowing scheme. Interpenetration

here appears in terms of subject and object. The contempations prescribed

for the person bowing include an interactive visualizaion tha penetrates

the boundaries of time and space For example, the person bowing makes his or her mind pure and hen envisions multiple Buddhas appearing As

the practice develops, the visualizations grow cearer, and the time and the

place begin o expand and shif Daoxuan expains in this way:

Now I understand that my own mind i emp and connected without

obstructions, and I practice bowing to the Buddhas I accord with the

mind's abili to bow to a single Buddha and thereby bow to all Bud

dhas whatsoever All Buddhas are merely a single Buddha Because

the Buddha's Dharma-body pervades all places identically, bowing to

a single Buddha makes the connection through to all Buddhas

Chengguan's expanation is terse: "One deeply enters the Dharma

Naure; there is no doer and nothing done

Sle Five Bowing That Takes Eect

Daoxuan expains:

In this way we study and practice the Dharmadoor of the Dharma

Realm It proves to be greatly benecial and ultimately arrives at

this understanding Those who fail to study do not know Therefore

cultivators must undertake these contemplations equently The merit

and virtue one accrues is incomparable Since I know that my body is

contained within the Buddhas body, how could I continue to commit

karma based on inverted views and falsethoughts?

Using metaphorical language, Daoxuan goes on to say that mirrorspervasively reec back and forh inside he bowers Dharma-body, so tha

the function of muual reection is imitless. He says that some people can

perceive this dimension of bowing, while others do not, adding that some

peope have eyes o see while others are blind





Sle Six: Inward Reection Bowing

Bowing at this poin, according to the commentators, has taken on a pro

found level of spiritua accomplishment. Daoxuan remarks that peope

already have a pure nature; why then do they need o look ouside for

another naure? He exhors studens to not seek anything exerna o the

pure mind that dwells within the Buddha nature.

Sle Seven: Ulmate Reali Bowing

Ultimae Reaity Bowing is the last of Ratnamati's seven syles I diers

from the ohers, aoxuan says, in tha no dualities remain:

The sense of this style of bowing is similar to the above sles. The

dierence is that the prior sles preserve the dualities of worshiper,

contemplation, self and other Now in this case distincons of seandother no longer remain. Mortal and Buddha become a unied "thus-

ness; past and present are not dierent. When one sees the Buddha,

one doesn't distinguish beween bowing to him or to a person who

holds seriously incorrect views.

In Utimate Reality Bowing there are no rther disincions Here bow

ing can bring one to ultimate realiy, a sate of mind beyond thought

Chengguans Three Additions

In his Huayan Suchao Chengguan applied to bowing a mehodoogy par

ticular to the Avatamsaka Sutr' doctrines, that of presenting everything in

decanates, or lists of ten, a number which symbolizes the perfection of hecircle Accordingly, Chengguan added hree bowing styles o Ranamai's

seven syes His three additions are Great Compassion Bowing, Generay

Inclusive Bowing and Innite Bowing

The rs of these suggests "great compassion for al those who share

the identica essence Zongmi's commentary adds,

That is to sa living beings and I are not wo separte entities; for

example, since I bow living beings also bow. When I leave arrogance

behind living beings also leave arrogance behind That is the source

of the name "Great Compassion Bowing.

According to Zongmi, Generally nclusive Bowing, the ninth stye,

incudes the prior sx styes (hree through eigh) in their various evels of superciality and prondity, and merges them into a single contempation

Finaly, Chengguan says of nnite Bowing, the tenth style: "The bower

enters the sate of Indra's Net Boh Buddhas and bows are multi-ayered

and inexhaustible





Zongmi adds this verse from he Avatamsaka:

In a single particle I see every BuddhaSurrounded by multitudes of BodhisatvasEvery particle in the universe is the sameWherever these Tathagatas areI bow to them innitely

III. Cncu Reectons

One of the reasons for crren rapid growh in he Wes of Bddhistmediation pracice may be ha mediaion appears egaiarian an ee

of dogma; i makes no demands of faith or adherence to a creed Bowing,on he oher hand, appears inherenly neqal, ndemocraic, hmiiaingand sbmissive. Jdih Lief sggess ha he reasons why Weserners nd bowing dic are compex:

As Westerners we tend to think of prostrating as a gesture of defeat or abasementWe think that to show someone else respect is to makeourselves less. Prostrating irritates our sense of democra, that ev-eryone is equal On the one hand we want to receive the teach-ings but on the other we don't really want to bow down to anyoneor anything.15

Eric einders sggess anoher reason for a Wesern disase for bow

ing. In his "The Iconocasm of Obeisance Proesan mages of hineseReligion and the Cahoic hrch16 Reinders amens the lac of research

by Western schoars on Bddhis bowing, and he races his o the EropeanProesan iconocass' aversion for physica gesres of deference, a haredof reigios hierarchy tha ed to the spli wih Rome. einders sggessha the Proesan srgge wih oman Caholicism in Erope has beenprojected ono Asian reigions. The sight of Bddhiss, paricary hineseBddhiss, bowing o Bddhas, o their eachers and o each oher, stirredp the Proesan disase for idoary and for he ineqaiy of insiion-alized reigios hierarchies.

Neverheess, the words reigios tradiions, wih few exceptions, vae bowing as an eecive spiria practice daism, sam, and Easern and

oman ahoicism, as we as Easern devoiona radiions sch as Hind-ism and Brahmanism, incde bowing in exs and irgies. n hese oherreigions, he pracice of making prosrations has a argely exerior focs,consistent wih he spporing heology. n Bddhism we see he pracice of

bowing appied in ways ha parae and overlap with he other radiions,

SSUE 5, OCTOBER 2005 83



Re. Bhikshu Heng Sure

yet a signicant dierence also emerges. In Buddhism, the focus of bowing

turns back to the mind of the bower insead of moving ouwards towards

a transcendent other.

Buddhadharma's approach o bowing invies the practitioner to con-

tempate the nature of his or her heart/mind. The myriad practices relae

bac to a centra theme, the mind and its nature, which are ndamentally

Buddha. The "goal reached at the end of the spiritual pah is to gradualy

remove al aspects of the view of sef, until one rediscovers one's nondual

naure. As a road to the nondual, bowing helps empty out and puri false

conceps wihin. The fase, illusory self can be erased as one bows. �

This arcle is based on the author's doctoral dissertaon, Sacred Literature

into Liturgy: Jingyuan (1 011-10) and the Development ofthe AvatamsaskaLiturgy in Song China" Graduate Theological Union, 2003.

Noes

1. Especialy notable are he mages of the Gandhayuha plgmage carved i stonei he iezes of he Borobudur Supa in Indonesia. See Jan Fonten, e Pilgrimageof Sudhana: A Sdy of Gandhauha lusaons in China, Japan, and Java (TheHague: Molton, 1967), and Bedrich Foman, Borobudur: The Buddhist Legend inStone (New York Doset Pess, 1992).

2. Fo example, he Great Compasson Repentance, the Repentance befoe TenT housand Buddhas, he Compassonate Empero Liang's Repentance, the SamadhWater of Geat Compassion Repentance, and others.

3. Fahua sanmei xingshi yunxiang buzhuyi. T 46.4942.955c.

4. T 5.220.3b. Ks and nayutas are numbers; mahasatva or grt being s an honoric oen appled i the sut to Bodhisatt.

5. T 251509130c.6. T 25.1509.751a.7. DatangXuyuji, T 512087.877c.8. T 45.1896.862c. Daoxuan also compiled the Fou-Part Vinaya, (T 40.1804 and

40.1806) and wrote voluminous commentaies, supplying dealed descripions o f the various aspects of practice.

9. Shimen guijing yi, T 45.1896.862b.10. Xu Gaosheng Zhuan (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 1991), 191.11. Ranamati is said o have lived at Eernal Peace Monastery and o have been

accomplished i the Fivefold Curriculum. He was pocient i the Daost ar ts and regularly lectured on the Avatamsaka Sutra.

12. Alabe as Huanjing Shuchao (Tabe: Hua Lianshe Pubicaons, 1942) and Flower

Adoment Sutra Preface (Tamage, CA: Buddhst Te Translaon Societ, 1979).13. Cheng weishi lun, T 31.1585.31b.14. Ligouhui pusa suowei lifofajing, ansated by Nadi around 655 c.E.

(T 14.487.698c).15. "On Pracice: Bowng, i Tricle: The Buddht Review , 1 (Fal 1994), 33.16. n Numen: The Intational Review for the Histo of Religions 44 (1997), 296322.

84 ELIGION EAST & WEST

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VM Heng Sure - Reverential Bowing as Contemplative Practice