Symbolic Gestures and Postures

Submitted for your thought and consideration:

Mudras of the Great Buddha: Symbolic Gestures and Postures

Latter-day Saints are not the only people who use symbolic hand gestures as part of our religion. Buddhism has many gestures with particular meanings, and the idea of meaning ascribed to a gesture, and the way in which such a symbol can represent something else should perhaps be considered in our search to better understand the Temple Endowment.

Judaism also sports its hand gestures, the most apparent being the Kohanim blessing gesture used by priests, not to mention the explanations of the Priests work in the Old Testament Tabernacle which presents many hand positions of natural occurence if followed through in action. I encourage every Latter-day Saint to make a thorough study of the ceremonies of the Tabernacle, as it is a direct precursor to our Temple ceremony as well as to Freemasonry, which is so often claimed by opponents of Mormonism as the absolute source of our Endowment.

The Catholic Church has perhaps the most famous gesture in the sign of the cross.

By studying these cultures which openly display their symbols, allowing for critical research, we can perhaps come to better understand our own gestures that are protected by covenant and not available for serious group study.