Question
Dear Michael,
I am interested in the meaning of the hand statues
which I believe are symbols in Buddism (not even sure about that) such as open hand, open hand up, down, fingers spread with "ok" loosely formed by thumb and forefinger. And also, what the lotus flower in these hands mean. I am slowly studying the symbols we see everyday, but take for granted.
Thank you so much,
Karen McCormick
Answer
Hi Karen? yes, they're called mudras. They occur in both Buddhism and Hinduism. To be honest I've never been too interested myself, so don't really know too much about them. But a quick search at www.google.com brought up these pages.
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/mudra-japan.shtml
http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/mudras
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/10/21/stories/2002102100420100.htm
I think that if you required more info, a search using keywords
>> mudra Buddhism
and
>> mudra Hinduism
would bring up more relevant pages. There's also a detailed article in the ?Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion? (Shambhala, 1989). This book is in most reputable libraries.
http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/0-87773-980-3.cfm
Best of luck!
