Tibetan prostration benefit

Hi all;

Welcome back to my blog, let me jot down the benefits of Tibetan prostration, as  this is a frequently asked question by  some non Tibetan friends.

 Let me share my little knowledge about it.

 As you know being a Tibetan, prostration became part of our daily ritual, we were born in a Buddhist society hence rituals like prayer , prostration, chanting mantra , meditation, automatically adopted in  our life from the moment we were born. 

When I was in Lhasa, I remember whenever  we visited monasteries like Jokhang temple, Sera monastery, Dephung monastery, Gaden monastery.. Before stepping inside the monastery first thing we need to do is remove our hat, prostrate 3 times and then  prayer for the whole sentient being free from suffering and be happy, which symbolises respect to the temple and god, then we can step inside.

Not only during monastery visit, even inside every Tibetan home we have  altar, a special  room decorated with religious items like status of Buddha, prayer wheels, butter lamp, incense, Buddhist text,  we consider this room  is a  holy place where we practice daily ritual like meditation, prostration, prayer, invite monks to chant mantra during special occasion or when love one no more ...etc.

Benefit of prostration:

Prostration is an act of devotion and purification in which acknowledge respect to the Buddha.

Accumulate merit:

We believe that when we prostrate we can cultivate a compassionate soul, accumulate merit by  prayer for the whole sentient being free from suffering and be happy.

Eliminate negative karma:

Every human being on this planet I think we all did  sinful act no matter how big or small its,  so in order to eliminate negative karma that we did in previous or current life, we believe if we prostrate we can Purify negative Karma  from our life, we call it DIKSHAK in Tibetan.

Health benefit:

As you know prostration is a stretching movement that exercises our  entire body so if you prostrate regularly you can keep your body fit and healthy. 

Note: for prostration we don't need to visit a temple, there is no specific place for it,  if we maintain positive thoughts we can prostrate anywhere we feel comfortable. 

This much for today, my knowledge about prostration is limited. For more detailed information you can ask Monks or read a book about it, thanks for spending your precious time going through my broken English hehehe...

Take care.

Tenzin.