In Buddhism, great emphasis is placed on courtesy, respect and repentance, especially for people who have difficulty meditating. Repentance prostration is often useful. In the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition, new devotees begin spiritual life with the four preliminary practices. The first of these is 100, 000 full prostrations. When finished, a person's physiological and psychological conditions will have changed and it will be much easier to practice meditation.

In China, from the time of the Sui dynasty (581-618 A.D.), especially in the T'ien-tai (Jap: Tendai) sect, prostration practice has been encouraged. Various procedures have been compiled for people to practice repentance. One is called the repentance of the Dharma Lotus Sutra. Others are based on writings in other sutras. For most people, samadhi is not easy to attain, so it is important and useful to do repentance prostrations.

I have explained the different kinds of movement in prostrating. In addition, prostrations can be done slowly or quickly. It can be done in front of a statue of a Buddha or with an image of the Three Jewels in your mind; or it can be done without such artifacts. One can just be aware of one's movements. The goal of being aware of movement while prostrating is to eventually forget the body and mind ─ in essence they disappear ─ and to allow the prostrations to flow by themselves.