Mudras, hand seals …

Michael uses a Taoist hand mudra in some of his alchemy meditations.

To do it: basically you clasp the hands together as if you are interlacing them, with the exception that you keep the index & middle fingers on each hand glued together as though you only have 3 fingers and a thumb.

I’m not sure of its source, maybe he can fill in some background.

S

FIRST YEAR 100 days, 30 (40) km each day, one day Kirimawari 54 km, Shingyooja (freshman), no Tabi, hat carried
SECOND YEAR 100 days, 30 (40) km each day, one day 54 km, Shingyoja (freshman), no Tabi, hat carried
THIRD YEAR 100 days 30 (40) km each day, one day 54 km, Shingyoja (freshman), no Tabi, hat carried
FOURTH YEAR 100 days + 100 days 30 (40) km each day, one day 54 km (Kirimawari), Tabi permitted; hat worn from 301st day. Upon completion Byakutai Gyooja.
FITH YEAR 100 days + 100 days 30 (40) km each day, one day 54 km (Kirimawari), Wooden staffpermitted from 501st day; onn 700th day Dooiri, 9 days without food, water, sleep, or rest. Upon completion, Toogyooman Ajari.
SIXTH YEAR 100 days 60 km each day, Sekizan Kugyoo (Sekisan Marathon).
SEVENTH YEAR 100 days 84 km each day Kyooto Oomawari (Great Marathon)+ 100 days 30 (40) each day, Kirimawari, upon completion (Mangyoo), Daigyooman Ajari.
-JOHN STEVENS, The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei (the 1,000-day mountain marathon of Hiei)

I think that for example these hand seals really are not, but they are also not meant to be only some kind of more elaborate form of praying.

These are also very good practices for those who are interested about more brutal form of unarmed combat.

Also good for developing climbing power etc.

In India this very ancient warrior tradition still exists in various forms (for example mallakhamba), but it’s totally unknown in the West.

HOWDY

Ps. Sorry for my broken English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnwIKZhrdt4 (tarahumararunners)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4_kLni_5QI (extremeways)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKWgrOTFrPk (gangland)

http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=En_no_Gyoja

En no Gyôja is perhaps the most famous of the shugenja, practitioners of shugendô, a path of mountain asceticism by which one is believed to acquire magical powers. He is similarly considered to be the first of the yamabushi (“mountain priests”). Much of what is known of him derives from legends.

En no Gyôja is said to have been born as Kamo no Kozumi, in a village called Uhara, at the foot of Mt. Katsuragi in Yamato province. Retreating to the mountains to pursue a path of asceticism, he practiced for thirty years, until he had mastered the same degree of magical abilities as the mythical Buddhist figure Kujaku-myôô, the Peacock King. He is said to have then flown to the palace of the immortals, riding atop five-colored clouds and accompanied by two demonic spirits.

Some time later, he visited Mt. Kinpusen, in Yoshino, where, after seven days of meditation, he experienced a vision of the bodhisattva Jizô holding a jewel of enlightenment. Gyôja flew atop his clouds to Mt. Daisen, in the west, and prayed for seven days that the deity Zaô Gongen, he who is credited with granting all shugenja their powers, might attend to him. Eventually, the blue-faced angry deity, wielding a six-ringed pilgrim’s staff, appeared.

In another episode of his legends, En no Gyôja journeyed to the Mino’o Waterfall in Osaka, where he met the bodhisattva Ryûju. He erected a temple to Ryûju called Mino’o Temple, and tried to convince a local Shinto deity, Hitokotonushi, to help him build a bridge extending from Mt. Katsuragi to Mt. Yoshino. However, he became angry at the slow pace of the god’s work, and threw him into a valley. The angry god then petitioned the emperor to send armies after En no Gyôja, to arrest him, claiming that the monk sought to rebel against the throne. Gyôja escaped the armies easily, flying away on his clouds, but, after they captured his mother instead, he was forced to surrender himself. He was exiled to Izu Ôshima, but escaped his exile, flying to Mt. Fuji. Hitokotonushi noticed him escaping, however, and reported to the emperor, who sent his armies out once again, this time with the aim to kill the monk. They were unable to do so, however, due to his great magical powers; great storms plagued the capital, and, according to the legend, a booming voice announced that En no Gyôja had done nothing wrong, and was not to be persecuted. En no Gyôja was thus offered a pardon, and returned to living in Yamato for a time, eventually retiring to China, flying there atop a grass mat along with his mother; many shugenja or yamabushi who later traveled to China to learn to practice magic are said to have studied under him.