Namaste. The handshake as deal-beginner, not deal closer.

From the Himalayan Academy (1993) via here

It is always interesting, often revealing and occasionally enlightening to muse about the everyday cultural traits and habits each nation and community evolves, for in the little things our Big ideas About Life find direct and personal expression. Take, for instance, the different ways that American and Japanese tool-makers approach the same task. A saw for cutting lumber, if designed in the U.S., is made in such a way that the carpenter's stroke away from his body does the cutting. But in Japan saws are engineered so that cutting takes place as the carpenter draws the saw toward himself. A small detail, but it yields a big difference.

The American saw can, if leaned into, generate more power, while the Japanese saw provides more control and refinement in the cut, requiring surprisingly less effort. Each has its place in the global toolbox. each speaks -- like the handshake and namaste greetings -- of an underlying perception of man's relationship with things.

In the West we are outgoing, forceful, externalized. We are told by Ma bell to "reach out and touch somebody." We are unabashedly acquisitive, defining our progress in life by how much we have -- how much wealth, influence, stored up knowledge, status or whatever. Every culture exhibits these traits to some extent, but in the east Mother is there to remind us, "Reach in and touch the Self." Here we are taught to be more introspective, more concerned with the quality of things than their quantity, more attuned with the interior dimension of life.

So, there you have it, the whole of Eastern and Western culture summed up in the handshake which reaches out horizontally to greet another, and Namaste which reaches in vertically to acknowledge that, in truth, that there is no other.

Hello/Namaste.