Mudra practice covers two related but distinct kinds of gesture. Iconographic mudras are the fixed hand positions given to images of Buddhas and deities, each carrying an established meaning that a viewer familiar with the tradition can read at a glance: the earth-touching gesture calling the earth to witness the Buddha's enlightenment, the gesture of fearlessness offering protection, the gesture of teaching marking the first turning of the wheel of doctrine. Practitioner mudras, by contrast, are gestures a living person performs, most often specific positions of the fingers and hands held during meditation or pranayama, which yoga and hatha yoga sources describe as focusing the practitioner's attention, sealing or containing energy within the body, or, in Ayurvedic and yogic subtle-body theory, balancing the elemental qualities associated with each finger.
In Vajrayana Buddhist ritual mudras accompany mantra recitation and visualization as one of three coordinated channels of practice, body, speech and mind, and some of the more elaborate ritual mudras used in tantric empowerment ceremonies are traditionally restricted to initiated practitioners and taught individually rather than published as general instruction. Because some mudra practice sits within this initiatory framework, this entry describes mudra's range and purpose without setting out restricted ritual sequences.