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Specific way to "sit"?

vlroxvlrox Explorer
edited August 2012 in Meditation
Okay so my husband sits on the floor on a pillow with his hands on his knees sitting indian style. I however sit with my legs crossed on the couch.. does it matter where or how you sit?

Comments

  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited August 2012
    Sitting isn't itself meditation, it's just a posture. Depending on tradition you might be told to use the lotus position, or half-lotus position, or whatever... and these might be good, balanced positions to sit in. And yet it's not a requirement of any kind. You can meditate sitting on a chair with your feet on the floor if you want, if that's comfortable for you (and doesn't lead you to falling asleep).

    So you and your hubby's methods are okay if they work for you. :)
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    I like this webpage for all questions posture.

    http://www.wildmind.org/posture
    Cloud
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    Anywhere you can sit with stillness and attentiveness is probably OK. But a couch is a likely place for slouching and when the spine is not straight, the breathing is impeded and it is not conducive to a clear attention.

    Probably the happiest times in anyone's life are times when body, mind and thought are in accord. Meditation is, in one sense, a training for that happiness. A comfortable body does not always mean a comfortable mind. so a little research and experimentation are probably warranted.
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    person said:

    I like this webpage for all questions posture.

    http://www.wildmind.org/posture

    That's probably something good to look into.

  • MaryAnneMaryAnne Veteran
    There are real physical and mental reasons why the 'traditional' postures work well for formal meditation. So, IMO, lotus / half-lotus postures should be utilized when possible. However, when physical disabilities of any kind make those postures impossible without pain (or further damage to the physical self), there is nothing wrong with adopting whatever posture or 'sit' works best for you. When I was younger I would sit half lotus and could do so for quite a while with no problem.

    Now, thanks to two significant accidents and arthritis, I have the joints & knees of an 80 yr old (and I'm only 56)! Sitting on the floor in ANY position is out of the question... :o
    But let me tell you... when I meditate, I can become One With The Recliner like nobody's business! LOL I have no choice.



    federicaVastmindvlrox
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Quite so.... ! :)
  • chariramacharirama Veteran
    It was suggested by one of my Yoga teachers that sitting on enough height that the knees are lower than the hips, will help in meditation. It has worked for me.
  • VictoriousVictorious Grim Veteran
    vlrox said:

    Okay so my husband sits on the floor on a pillow with his hands on his knees sitting indian style. I however sit with my legs crossed on the couch.. does it matter where or how you sit?

    Not much but there are things that are important in posture.

    Never adopt a posture that makes you sleepy or is too painful or itchy or anything else that draws your attention from cultivation.

    It is ok to shift the posture if the posture makes it impossible to concentrate. But do the shift with full attention to the movement.


    If you practice chi exercises you will learn which postures naturally enhance the vigil of the mind and thus helps in the cultivation.

    But do not put to much store in posture. It is the dhamma that you need to cultivate not the posture.

    /Victor


  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    My teacher, Kyudo Nakagawa Roshi, one-time abbot of Ryutaku Monastery in Japan, once told me that for the first 18 years, he had a lot of pain in his legs when meditating. There is something to be said to ameliorating pain. But, since pain is part of life, there is also something to be said for finding a revised outlook on it ... not by trying to escape it, but by investigating it.

    A friend of a friend once observed, "Maybe suffering is just the resistance to pain." And that sounds pretty accurate to me.

    And let's not forget the old, slick saying, "No pain, no gain." If that is true, then turning it around is also true ... no gain, no pain.

  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    And let's not forget the old, slick saying, "No pain, no gain."
    Attempting to apply that old cliche to meditation is IMO entirely missing the point.
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    PedanticPorpoise said:

    And let's not forget the old, slick saying, "No pain, no gain."
    Attempting to apply that old cliche to meditation is IMO entirely missing the point.


    I agree AND I think that it's the kind of missing-the-point we've all exercised or continue to exercise.
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