A mudra is a symbolic gesture, most often a specific position of the hands. In Buddhism, a gesture can indicate what the Buddha is doing, what quality he represents, or which teaching is being expressed.
What Does This Mean in Practice?
For example, when the Buddha is depicted with one hand raised and the palm facing outward, this is the abhaya mudra — a gesture associated with fearlessness, protection, and reassurance.
When the hands are positioned in front of the chest in a way that symbolizes a wheel, this may represent the dharmachakra mudra — the gesture associated with teaching the Dharma, the Buddhist teachings.
In this sense, mudra functions almost like a visual language.
By looking at the position of the hands on a statue, someone familiar with Buddhist symbolism may understand: here the Buddha is teaching, here he is meditating, here he is expressing protection, or here the gesture refers to a particular event in his life.
Why Would Practitioners Use Mudras Themselves?
In Esoteric Buddhism, mudras are used not only in religious art, but also during meditation and ritual.
A practitioner may form a particular gesture while simultaneously reciting a mantra and performing visualization. In this way, three dimensions of practice are engaged at once:
body — through mudra, speech — through mantra, mind — through visualization. In some esoteric traditions, such a gesture was understood as the bodily expression of the state or principle represented by a Buddha or deity. For this reason, a mudra is much more than an unusual position of the fingers. It is a way of expressing a religious idea through the body without using words.