Namaste: Blessed Journey To You On Your Path Of Life

Copyright Lance Kinseth, Bright Moon/Chogetsu, ceramic bowl, 6.75”w x 2.75h, 1985

NAMASTE

I honor the place in you

wherein the entire universe dwells.

I honor the place in you

of love, truth, light, and peace.

When you are in that place in you,

and I am in that place in me,

we are one.

--Multiple sources, with no specific author noted.

WE MIGHT BEGIN practice bringing hands together and saying “Namaste,” as well as end practice with it.  And in the beginning of our practice, perhaps we might bring our hands to the forehead rather than to the heart, making it extraordinarily clear that we will show deep reverence to the sacredness of each other with the same reverence that the Hindu tradition of bringing hands to the forehead when greeting elders aspires to demonstrate profound reverence toward them.

In the beginning of practice, Namaste might convey:

“I acknowledge my deep gratitude for your efforts to be here in this moment.”  

“I honor your presence as invaluable, and cherish you just as you are in this moment.” 

“I will support you to do only what is right for you in this practice to optimize your healing and contentment.” 

“Namaste” [“nah-mah-stay”] can be reduced to being a form of greeting like a handshake, but it aspires to be more than this.  Simply, “namaste” translates as “to bow,”  “I,” “you.”

Fundamentally, with Namaste, we aspire to acknowledge each person’s “being-ness” as inseparable from ourselves.

Symbolically, a variety of meanings are conveyed by the gesture of bringing the hands together, bowing, and saying or sometimes simply implying, “Namaste:”

Touching hands together at the heart level may symbolize many things all-at-once, such as:

• Hands touching together, “Body and Mind come together”[i.e., become consciously integrated and focused],

• Activation of agape, “Opening the heart knot,” and “I open the flow of love and compassion,”

• Acknowledge deep union between participants as children of the Divine: “The light in me honors the light in you.”

• Personal acknowledgement of oneself expressing transpersonal moreness: “My self and Higher Self are one,” and

• Both in initial greeting and leave-taking, implying, “Blessed journey to you on your path of life.”

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Walt Whitman, Song To Myself

And so, 

Hands come together: "Body and mind come together."  

"Hands come to the heart."

The light in me bows to the light in you,

And when we are together in that light,

We are one.