I practice the Aum (OM) mudra. When I use it, I begin to feel more connected to the unseen world around me. It seems to help me go deeper into my meditation. I stop feeling my arms and my hands resting on my legs fairly quickly. I can only describe it as a floating sensation.
You sit with the back of your hands resting on your legs, palms up, hands out stretched with your index finger and thumb touching lightly. It is the mudra that I am most comfortable with, mostly because I have practiced it for a long time. To me, it is the most naturally relaxing mudra to hold for a long period of time.
The other mudra I practiced for a time is the cup mudra. You sit with your hands resting one placed over the other palm up, as if you are holding something. Thus it is the cup posture. However, when I use this mudra, I am slightly aware of the position of my hands. I am aware of them being held in the cup in a very subtle sense during the beginning of meditation. In a way I can’t describe in words, it helped me to feel more spiritual. There was definitely is a spiritual feeling, especially as I went deeper in meditation. In the beginning using this mudra, I even visualized fleeting images of angels. But that disappeared with the regular practice of meditation and being able to meditate for longer periods of time. I also can go into meditation sooner, and don’t have to sit for as long to get into deep meditation.
There is other madras, like sitting in prayer pose, arms up at your chest, palms held gently pressed together. But this pose is not comfortable to hold for a long time for most people.
Another simple mudra, is to sit and simply rest your hands palms down on your knees. This is easiest for most people and beginners may want to use this at first. Some of my group members still use it.
By comparison for me the Aum and cup mudras are good to use for meditating and feeling more relaxing to go into another place in my mind. Holding your hands to rest in your lap or on your legs, keeps them from feeling heavy, falling asleep or tingling and interrupting your meditation. They both help me to go deeper into mediation, as does the resting hands on the knees palms down.
In contrast, for me the cup mudra is not as comfortable as a position as the Aum mudra and it is not as natural a feelinging. I can feel my hands more through out the meditation than I do with the Aum mudra. I get different feelings from both mudras, which I was initially surprised at. These are not thoughts, they are feelings. Remember that while you meditate, you want to clear your mind of all thought.
Aum gives me a more “out there in the universe” feeling in mediation, where the cup mudra makes me feel more spiritual and more aware of God’s presence. I have experienced bliss a few times while meditating. It is the most amazing and wonderful feeling, even if for a fleeting moment.
