Bowing: A Moving Meditation for Personal Transformation

By Dahn Yoga Education

Bowing is the most beautiful of human activities, representing all of life in its most poetic form. It is also one of the best exercises. The simple, repetitive motion uses every major joint and muscle in your body, pumps your heart, and makes you sweat. Used by Asian cultures for centuries, this moving meditation strengthens your body, mind, and spirit.

Bowing: A Moving Meditation for Personal Transformation brings this ancient meditative practice into modern times with step-by-step instructions and illustrations. Let this inspiring book show you how to build strength, cultivate humility, and embrace oneness through the simple act of bowing. After only a few weeks of practice, you will enjoy greater vitality, profound centeredness, and an uplifted spirit.

Like other forms of meditation, bowing helps you develop discipline and a focused, centered mind. It is more grounding than traditional forms of sitting meditation, because it also requires flowing movement and physical strength. This movement gets the body's energy flowing and naturally brings up joy and gratitude for your physical being. Bowing is also a great way to start and end your day, because it helps you more easily process your goals and tasks, as well as the daily events you encounter.

This guide takes you through the entire process of bowing, step-by-step, with many illustrations. It will help you understand this ancient discipline and how practicing it can have profound impacts on your life. Whether you are looking for an integrated body mind spirit workout or a deep spiritual discipline, this book is all that you need to start bowing today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Best Life Media
• Release date: Jun 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9781935127475

Book preview

BOWING

A Moving Meditation for Personal Transformation

BOWING

A Moving Meditation for Personal Transformation

Dahn Yoga Education

BEST Life Media

6560 Highway 179 Ste. 114

Sedona, AZ 86351

www.bestlifemedia.com

1-877-504-1106

Copyright © 2010 by BEST Life Media

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book should be regarded as a reference source and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Seek the advice of your physician before beginning this or any fitness program. The author and the publisher of this book disclaim any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use of this book.

First paperback edition: June 2010

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010927128

ISBN: 978-1-935127-44-4

If you are unable to order this book from your local Dahn Yoga or Body + Brain center, you may order through www.bestlifemedia.com.

Mastering others is strength.

Mastering yourself is true power.

—Lao-tzu

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

CHAPTER 1    Bowing as a Mind-Body Practice

CHAPTER 2    Bowing for All Levels of Self

CHAPTER 3    Bowing and Your Brain

CHAPTER 4    Bowing for Spiritual Growth

CHAPTER 5    The Bowing Process

Appendixes

APPENDIX 1    Quick Guide to Bowing

APPENDIX 2    Bowing Q&A

APPENDIX 3    Cultivating Sincerity

APPENDIX 4    Practice Record Chart

Foreword

Bowing is the most beautiful of human activities.

This statement may seem extreme, but for me it is true. Bowing is an act that represents all of life in its most poetic form. I happen to believe that life is more than just an evolutionary accident. All the struggle, pain, and conflict that we experience happen for a purpose. Bowing is a practice that will impart to you the humility, discipline, and acceptance needed to really see the beauty of this life you lead, and, through its symbolic representation of the greater meaning of life’s cyclical process, it will give you the faith and hope you need to keep going forward.

For those who are not familiar with bowing, it may seem strange at first. Often, people associate bowing with worship or some sort of superstition, and so they reject it. They are making a big mistake, I think. Bowing is a natural act, arising in some form in almost every culture around the world, because it is also natural for human beings to seek something bigger than their individual selves.

If you are someone new to bowing, you are very lucky. Yes, there will be sore muscles and perhaps other physical frustrations that accompany any new exercise. But being a beginner is a great gift, for it allows you to approach each bow with a pure, beginner’s mind. Use this precious time to establish the proper mind-set and habits to make the most of your bowing practice. It is my sincere wish that this book will be of service to you in that regard.

Bowing is, in essence, about re-creating yourself as you want to be. It is about learning to let go of old things so new things can come to you. During a bowing session, you will raise yourself up, lower yourself down, and then raise yourself up again—over and over until the session is complete. This is like the process of life, a continuous cycle of in and out, up and down. If you want new and better things for your life, you must not resist this cycle. You must be willing to let go of the habits that keep you mired in your current state, as surely as you must exhale before you can inhale.

For most of us in today’s culture, it is far easier to take in than to let go. Through years of habit, we have come to value the gathering of things—wealth, possessions, fame, accomplishment. In our frenzy to get more and do more, we have lost sight of the value of emptying ourselves. So much of our lives is centered on earning money, learning new facts, achieving material goals, buying this or that. Living this way is like breathing in and never breathing out. Eventually, our minds become stuffed with information and our environments overflow with material objects. Bowing is a way to get