the Mudra

Several years ago I took 'Religions of Asia' from Professor Jarow. His full name is E.H. Rick Jarow. I always wondered what the E.H. stood for, but I never asked him. I mention him firstly because he taught me about mudras and secondly because Dr. Sexson reminds me very much of him. Both possess a certain sincerity in the offering up of knowledge.

Regarding the course, I remember the first day when Professor Jarow entered (he is inordinately tall and possesses a booming voice.) For some reason the administration had assigned our small class to a large peachy-pink hall that seated likely 500 people in tiered theatre chairs. Basically we were in a very tall and large echo-room, and we only filled a few of the seats in the front two rows. Prof. Jarow seemed briefly humored and slightly miffed about the room, but then off he went taking us on a semester-long journey.

I remember he asked us over the course of the semester to make an effort to be completely present while walking to class — not in the blurs of the past or the future, but in what we were doing currently. I tried to to do this multiple times and found myself incapable, inept. I, apparently, had no control over my own mind. It's actually very humorous to reflect on now. I remember trying to pay attention to my feet as they touched the ground, trying desperately to concentrate on what I was doing and how I was feeling, and then suddenly without warning, I would realize that I was staring blankly at my feet as I walked into the classroom, having completely missed out on my walk to class. Somehow, every time I tried this, I would unconsciously (despite the fact I consciously attempted not to) disappear into my thoughts about possibly the superfluous squirrels or soccer practice that evening. Very frustrating.
My point is, it's very hard to be in the present. Of course, we are always in the present physically, but it seems that the mind hardly ever is. The mind loves to hearken backwards or ahead.

"Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,
Not that only, but the co-existence,
Or say that the end precedes the beginning,
And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now." (Burnt Norton 144-9)

Eliot discusses how to find the present, how to recognize that everything points to now. He writes, "Ridiculous the waste sad time / Stretching before and after" (174-5).

So why then does the mind possess memory? Why do we hearken forwards and backwards in an unconscious avoidance of the present. Well, according to Eliot, the bird said, "human kind / Cannot bear very much reality" (Burnt Norton 42-3).


So... about the mudra. I learned it as a sort of spiritual gesture or physical fulfillment or realization of a mantra. A simple mudra, and I would imagine the most commonly recognized is OM.



Of course there are all sorts of mudras. Different symbols that are representative rather than vocal.

Just like the mudra, Mudra in Haroun's story also speaks in the language of symbols rather than that of speech.

And I've already quoted this, but I absolutely love the moment when Haroun discovers via Mudra "that silence ha[s] its own grace and beauty (just as speech [can] be graceless and ugly)" (125).

Tibetan thangkas portray various deities who (to my knowledge) always have their hands in mudras. Below is the White Tara which I actually have in my room. (My dad studies Buddhism and he brought it back for me from Tibet in 1999.)

Here's a photograph my dad took of the Potala Palace in Lhasa.


Here's what the White Tara thangkha looks like.

Notice her hands (the lotus emerging from her left hand.) Click on the image to look at the full size, and look carefully; you'll see all sorts of wild details that one might not readily notice.

Also I googled to see what her mudras are, and found the following explanation on religionfacts.com:

"White Tara (Sanskrit: Sitatara; Tibetan: Sgrol-dkar) is sometimes called the Mother of all Buddhas and she represents the motherly aspect of compassion. Her white color signifies purity, wisdom and truth.

In iconography, White Tara often has seven eyes – in addition to the usual two, she has a third eye on her forehead and one on each of her hands and feet. This symbolizes her vigilance and ability to see all the suffering in the world. The "Tara of Seven Eyes" is the form of the goddess especially popular in Mongolia.

White Tara wears silk robes and scarves that leave her slender torso and rounded breasts uncovered in the manner of ancient India. Like Green Tara, she is richly adorned with jewels.

White Tara is seated in the diamond lotus position, with the soles of her feet pointed upward. Her posture is one of grace and calm. Her right hand makes the boon-granting gesture and her left hand is in the protective mudra. In her left hand, White Tara holds an elaborate lotus flower that contains three blooms. The first is in seed and represents the past Buddha Kashyapa; the second is in full bloom and symbolizes the present Buddha Shakyamuni; the third is ready to bloom and signifies the future Buddha Maitreya. These three blooms symbolize that Tara is the essence of the three Buddhas.

In religious practice, White Tara is believed to help her followers overcome obstacles, espeically those that inhibit the practice of religion. She is also associated with longevity."