Prostration (Buddhism)

A prostration (Pali: panipāta, Skt.: namas-kara, Ch.: 禮拜, lǐbài, Jp.: raihai) is a gesture used in Buddhist practice to show reverence to the Triple Gem (comprising the Buddha, his teachings, and the spiritual community) and other objects of veneration.

Among Buddhists prostration is believed to be beneficial for practitioners for several reasons, including:

• an experience of giving or veneration
• an act to purify defilements, especially conceit
• a preparatory act for meditation
• an act that accumulates merit (see karma)

In contemporary Western Buddhism, some teachers use prostrations as a practice unto itself, while other teachers relegate prostrations to customary liturgical ritual, ancillary to meditation.