There are also three types of negative karma
- Body
- killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct
- Speech
- gossiping, lies, harsh speech
- Mind
- anger or hatred, greed or desire, delusion or ignorance
So, each door creates its own negative karma. The effect of negative karma, whether by body, speech, or mind, from this life or any past lives, comes back to us in the form of suffering. The act of prostration, when done with compassionate intention, uses all three doors of body, speech and mind.
We are not just using the body in a physical exercise to purify, we use our minds to mentally visualize and we use our speech to say mantras. We are using our body, our speech and our mind to clean or sweep away all the negative karma they have created either now or in a past life. Prostration focuses on all three doors. And, most importantly, when we practice prostrations with a positive motivation or intention, we should have the intention to free all sentient beings from their sufferings, not only for ourselves.
This then is the reason for prostrations: to free others and ourselves from the sufferings of negative karma created by the ego through the three doors of body, speech and mind.
Now, where do we practice and who are we prostrating to? In the Tibetan language, it is called “konchog sum”, the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddha is represented by the statues. The scriptures or any kind of dharma book represent the Dharma. Sangha is represented by any nuns, monks, teachers, masters and any spiritual community. And, as I said, when you prostrate in front of a teacher or master, you are also paying respect to their Buddha nature and to the knowledge of their lineage of teachers and masters. Their lineage means to all the teachers and masters who have taught your teacher. In the Bon tradition, monks and teachers can usually chant the names of all their teachers and their teachers – teachers, right back to the time of Buddha Shenrab.
Sometimes we prostrate in front of a Stupa, statues, in a temple or other holy paces, sacred mountains, caves, lakes; or anywhere in nature that we have a connection to. You may prostrate to all the directions. You do not necessarily have to only prostrate in the temple. Mainly, the prostrations are to the Three Jewels – Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Many Tibetans circumambulate sacred places performing full body prostrations. They circumambulate temples, the Potala, and sacred mountains. Think of the effort involved when they circumambulate a mountain in the Himalayas! It takes weeks or months even years, outside in all types of weather and conditions. A full prostration is laying flat with your body stretched out on the ground.