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Bodily pains , spine , shoulders , both legs go numb
Surendar
New
in Meditation
Namaste everyone am new here , practising vipassana for 13month on and off, attended one retreat...i have been practising continously for now..i just wannna know whether am doing things right as buddha wanted as to do
1.while scanning the body i only have gross sensations , throughout the body , its sickening , the pain goes high , it doesnt go away, but after a moment i forgot my body for a while , and if i bring my consciousness only i can feel my body..but still its gross and tightened fully all joints..after 1hrs i lose mental balance and open eyes release from meditational posture ...what shall i do ..
- while observing breath , i could only contemplate the arising and passing away of many thoughts but mind didnt get atached with my meditation object "the breath"...
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Comments
Hi welcome
Interesting question.
Yoga and yoga nidra can help with this. Be interested in others advice. Here is some hopefully good advice ...
Personally I feel you have the wrong sort of deckchair.
Not too loose, certainly not too tight ...
If you just get these pains while meditating then it's almost certainly your posture. There is no need to force your body into yogic contortions or place it in a stressful position, and sitting on a stool or chair is fine. It's good to keep your back straight, which helps you to stay alert and breath easily, apart from that just find a position that's comfortable. You can also meditate lying down, though you might get sleepy.
One of my teachers used to describe the attitude to meditation as "alert yet relaxed", both physically and mentally. I think that captures it quite well.
If you're doing mindfulness of breathing then give the mind time to calm down, which it will eventually. Just keep gently returning attention to the breath and don't give yourself a hard time!
Definitely look into correcting your posture. I don't buy into the "no cushions!" and "Lotus/half lotus are the only proper ways to sit" mindsets that seems to crop up now and then. Yeah yeah yeah the Buddha didn't have a zafu and zabuton set, but most of us in the modern day in the West aren't used to sitting on the ground anymore anyway, and have poor posture. Correct the posture so you can focus on meditating and not on how much pain you have.
If you sit on the ground (vs chair or seiza bench), try using more cushions so that your hips are higher than your knees, and that you form a tripod type of position on the ground - sit bones/cushions + right leg/knee + left leg/knee. Make sure you are not slouching too much. Engage your back, neck, and core muscles to keep you upright, but not rigidly so.
One big hidden benefit of Zen practice is the emphasis on form - the Zen tradition actually has a pretty good handle on how to sit with minimal discomfort.
Just endure it. It gets easier with constant practice. Everything.
That is true BUT I feel and know from experience that pain, just like bliss is a distraction. Most of us are distracted by non essentials. I feel @namarupa you are aware of this too.
For example: 'This is pain, this is very nice, this is energy, this is all over the place' etc.
Even 'this is the breath' or focus, settling, counting etc are just a phase.
The question is where are we going and why. We are in part moving away from dukkha. Well I am. There IS value in contemplating and confronting dukkha. This is what can be gained from 'sitting in/with pain'. However I feel that in the case of the original poster (OP) it is counter productive and not leading to other internal dukkha and jhana.
We are on the Middle Way. A way between samsara and Nirvana. Sit right, not tight, not lite.
I agree with that. Whether one prefers the strings tight or loose, one still has to "endure" one's music playing ( walking the path).