ARTICLE - What's With All The Bowing?

For many months I'd resolutely refused to bow when I approached a Buddhist shrine. I just sat watching the ritual proceedings until the moment arrived, where everyone else approached with seeming ease. As one by one they did a bow or prostrated, placed a flower offering, lit incense and a candle, then returned to their zafu. I remained a nervous observer, forever teetering on the edge - ' maybe I'll get up - Now! ' I was still trying to be clear in my mind why you did it, how you did it, the what and when of it. 

Why did I make bowing such a big deal? I guess it is like this for most people in any religious tradition. It feels a much more important thing than the minutiae of bowing might indicate. It is an act of devotion, it is a commitment, it is an expression of belief, and it is also done in public while everyone else is chanting a mantra, and probably scrutinising your every fumbling devotional move. Yeah, bowing freaked me out.  Nevertheless it remains important to work out for yourself what it means to you, and why you do it.

There can be a lot of bowing in any religious tradition, not all of it taking place within devotional contexts. Buddhists traditionally greet each other with a bow. Unlike a handshake that has its origins in proving you mean no one any harm by offering your sword arm, a bow in greeting is a mark of respect. Respect from one human to another, a recognition of meeting a fellow Buddhist practitioner, and as a salutation to the potential for Buddhahood that lies within everyone, however unconscious or conscious that may in fact currently be. If a bow is to someone who is senior to you, or is leading a devotional ritual you are taking part in, the bow becomes a recognition of the sacred role that they are performing. Bowing demonstrates and honours the difference between you and them within that ritual event..

At the beginning of some Zen services, you bow towards you meditation cushion that you are about to sit to practice upon, offering respect simultaneously to what you are about to do and where you are about to do it. But also because it was through meditation that the Buddha became Enlightened. With each period of meditation practice you re-embark upon a similar journey. Bowing dedicates any meditation time on the zafu to this endeavour. In this way a simple bow can become both an act of deep respect and an expression of your gratitude. Bowing is intrinsically a humbling action, imbued with a feeling of indebtedness to the object or person in front of it. In its purest volition it is founded upon gratefulness.

Bowing can so easily become something executed in an automatic and unthinking manner. The volition of respect or gratitude perhaps lapses. Bowing can become just part of a form of ritual expression that you blithely regularly execute. Not necessarily mindlessly, but certainly without heart. Lets just first acknowledge that this does happen. Somehow repetition can dull the edges of our awareness,. Bowing turns into an empty vessel. It is the same for any devotional practice that is done regularly. Our engagement with it can wear thin at times. In the future, when my outward commitment to Buddhism was more firmly established, I would occasionally have a 'faith wobble'. At such times I'd find myself executing a more hesitant half-hearted bow, in response to the quivering of my own doubt.

What often happens is not that your attitude to the ritual of bowing is deteriorating. It's that the depth of your faith can sometimes lag behind any outward expression of your commitment. You can get ahead of yourself, by sheer force of will.  Bowing can be synonymous with letting go of many things, of control, of one's ego, of one's pride, to name but three. It asks you to surrender yourself to the moment of bowing without thought of what you will gain from it, or paradoxically what you are trying to achieve or express through it. In this surrendering of your agency and your Self to Other, is where what is Other - Buddhahood or Enlightenment - may move to greet you. This is the point where letting go of any idea of consciously attaining anything through practice begins to kick in. Though there is often a lot of self conscious rehearsing before any surrendering is able to manifests itself. So lots of time, equanimity and patience is required

Lastly, bowing within a devotional ritual is a small individual action within a much larger collective volition. You chose to come to a place to perform this ritual together with others. It is often said that potential for Buddhahood arises most strongly within collective practice and rituals. The fact that you are all doing the same thing gives it added potency. Its never just you bowing, your individual efforts at practice that necessarily makes the decisive difference. Hundreds of voices chanting a mantra can have hugely more impact on you, than your lone voice on its own. Even as you bow to your shrine alone at home, thousands upon thousands of other people will be doing exactly the same thing as you at the same time. Bowing unifies you with a wider network of the Buddha's disciples in the present moment. But also calls upon over two millennia of lineage of ardent Buddhist practitioners. All of which makes bowing pretty mind blowing.