chin mudra
चिन्मुद्रा cin-mudrāThe seal of consciousness, the same gesture as the jnana mudra: the tip of the index finger curved to touch the tip of the thumb, the other three fingers held free. The thumb is read as Brahman, the index as the individual self (jiva) that bends back to rejoin it, and the three free fingers as the impurities, or the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, left behind. It is the gesture held by Dakshinamurti.
Where this term appears
- What are Mudras? Lineages
And jnana mudra , also called chin mudra , is the seal of knowledge: the tip of the thumb and the tip of the forefinger joined in a circle, the other three fingers open.
- Dakshinamurti: Shiva as the silent guru Deities
This is the chin-mudra , sometimes called the jnana-mudra , the seal of knowledge, and the tradition reads it as a compressed statement of its entire philosophy.