More questions on meditation posture!

Invincible_summer

1) What is the difference between siddhasana posture (as shown in figure 14 here) and "quarter lotus" position? They look & sound almost identical to me, but I get the feeling that they're not quite the same. Could someone help me out here?

2) Is it physically impossible for some people to sit even in these two aforementioned postures? I feel like the foot that is placed on the calf is going to slip off. Should the foot be "wedged" between the calf and the thigh? Maybe my calf is just too large? This sounds absurd, but whenever I try to sit in these positions, my foot always slips off - either immediately, or partway through meditation. The latter is particularly bad during group sittings, where my foot meets the floor in a loud THUD!

3) Is it possible to sit in Burmese position comfortably without a cushion for support (i.e. with knees touching the ground for support)? I sit in Burmese most of the time with a cushion, but would like the ability to sit just on the ground. However, I find if I try to sit on the floor by itself, my back rounds severely because of the instability.

Thanks!

Jeffrey

Half lotus works for me on the bare ground, but my legs fall asleep after about 20 minutes. So I just do 10 minutes walking and then sit again if I want a longer meditation. With a cushion I do burmese and sometimes my legs fall asleep there also.

person

I'm pretty flexible and can sit in Burmese without a cushion comfortably though the back naturally wants to slump. As long as I'm maintaining awareness I can keep my back straight, I notice if my mind has wandered though my back has also slumped a little.

karasti

When I was at retreat last weekend the Lama mentioned that it is ideal to sit with your knees below your pelvis (thus the cushion under your butt which allows your legs to lay lower). It helps to keep the back straight, apparently. But there are certainly people who do not have the flexibility or have injuries or just cannot sit that way for whatever reason. I used to sit in half or full lotus rather often but no longer can due to a knee injury. I can do it, but then I can't get off the floor for 10 minutes until my stiff knee stretches out, lol. So instead of going through that torture, I sit with my legs just crossed if I know I'll be sitting for a half hour about. If I know it'll be longer, I use a chair.
If I don't use cushions, the bones of my foot that sit on the floor get very sore and bruised.

If you are working on the stretches in the rest of the website to try to work towards a certain posture, know that it'll take time, probably several months, to gain flexibility in your ligaments enough. Also, there are people whose genetics just do not allow them to do so. My husband cannot sit cross legged at all because he cannot even come close to putting his legs/knees on the floor. He just does not have the flexibility. Perhaps if he worked really hard at it, he could get there but it's possible no amount of work would help. I'm rather flexible which has it's benefits for yoga and meditation, but it also has it's cons in terms of earlier joint problems.

BonsaiDoug

Invincible_summer said:

1) What is the difference between siddhasana posture (as shown in figure 14 here) and "quarter lotus" position?

If I'm not mistaken, with quarter lotus the foot is up high on the thigh, and the other foot is completely tucked under (not lying beneath the other calf).

2) Is it physically impossible for some people to sit even in these two aforementioned postures? I feel like the foot that is placed on the calf is going to slip off. Should the foot be "wedged" between the calf and the thigh?

Don't know if it's "correct," but wedged is how I've been doing it for a couple of years now.

karasti

I meant to address this and forgot:
1) What is the difference between siddhasana posture (as shown in figure 14 here) and "quarter lotus" position? They look & sound almost identical to me, but I get the feeling that they're not quite the same. Could someone help me out here?

From what I can gather siddhasana has the feet pulled in more and the knees pulled back and to the side more than quarter lotus. Also, in what I could find for pictures it seems that in quarter lotus, the foot is tucked into the bend of the knee and not sitting on top of the knee, which requires more flexibility in the knee.

I tried both and they feel very similar, but the quarter lotus feels easier to me. Tucking the foot into the bend of the knee puts a bit less pressure on the knee than raising it up just a bit higher to have it resting more on top of the bend of the knee rather than tucked inside it.