![\"IMG_5087\"](\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/IMG_5087.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt is believed in folklore that \u00a0rubbing Buddha’s belly brings wealth and prosperity.<\/p>\n
While Yoga and its sister science, Ayurveda, took root in India about 5000 years ago, Buddhism, a major world religion, began about 2,500 years ago in India. This faith spread to Japan and took root there mingling with the already indigenous native spirituality to create their customized version of Buddhism. \u00a0Unique and at the same time universal and rooted in the original texts that traveled from India through China, Japan’s form of Buddhism underwent a factionalism during the\u00a0Kamakura Period (1185-1333):<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Kamakura period<\/a>\u00a0was a period of crises in which the control of the country moved from the imperial aristocracy to the samurai. In 1185 the\u00a0Shogunate<\/a>\u00a0was established at Kamakura.<\/p>\n This period saw the introduction of the two schools that had perhaps the greatest impact on the country: (1) the Amidist\u00a0Pure Land<\/a>\u00a0schools, promulgated by evangelists such as\u00a0Genshin<\/a>\u00a0and articulated by monks such as\u00a0H\u014dnen<\/a>, which emphasize salvation through faith in\u00a0Amitabha<\/a>\u00a0and remain the largest Buddhist sect in Japan (and throughout Asia); and (2) the more philosophical\u00a0Zen<\/a>\u00a0schools, promulgated by monks such as\u00a0Eisai<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Dogen<\/a>, which emphasize liberation through the insight of meditation<\/strong>, which were equally rapidly adopted by the upper classes and had a profound impact on\u00a0Japanese culture<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Additionally, it was during the Kamakura period that the influential monk\u00a0Nichiren<\/a>\u00a0began teaching devotion to the\u00a0Lotus Sutra<\/a>. Eventually, his disciples formed their own school of Nichiren Buddhism, which includes various sects that have their own interpretations of Nichiren’s teachings.<\/p>\n (excerpt from wiki)<\/p>\n In Christianity too, prayers by the faithful is another form of meditation and hymns, another form of chanting… I embrace all forms of spirituality and not one is better than another as they all value non-violence, love and compassion. \u00a0Above all, Peace.<\/p>\n ***********************************************************************<\/p>\n In Japan, round bellies of babies and toddlers are looked upon adoringly with afffection…at temples, people will suround the smaller buddha statute to touch and rub all over especially the belly for good luck.<\/p>\n In Yoga terms, were you aware that Enteric Nervous System – at the solar plexus (yep, that’s the belly region) – so called the “Belly Brain” has 100 million neurons – more than the spinal cord ?!<\/strong><\/p>\n What’s interesting is that nerves involved in the solar plexus include those that govern the autonomic nervous system, that part of the nervous system that we cannot voluntarily control.<\/strong> The autonomic nervous system regulates organ function, constriction and dilation of blood vessels (for e.g. \u00a0pupil size).<\/p>\n