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A few questions on meditation ^.^
Jakbob
Explorer
Hello everyone 
Its nice to be on these forums and be able to ask questions.
I have a few questions on meditation as I begin to study Buddhism. What is the signifigance of leg crossing? Can meditation be done sitting up right with the feet flat on the floor? Also, whether its insight meditation or tranquility meditation, its often mentioned when your mind goes off to something, make note of it and return to your concentration but don't be angry at yourself for going off track. ( quick side note, this has kind of happened to me a lot when I try to go to sleep. I want to sleep but my mind is just so awake! And I would get mad at myself for not just going to sleep! Sounds simpler than it is. I do not get mad at myself anymore and just use the meditation technique and return my focus to sleep ) Con't: The key thing I've noticed through multiple sources is that besides what your concentrating on, there's an element to make note of all these distractions. How significant are all of these. It seems like, with practice, through these "distractions" one might manifest answers to their problems . Thoughts? Thank-you!
-Jake
Its nice to be on these forums and be able to ask questions.I have a few questions on meditation as I begin to study Buddhism. What is the signifigance of leg crossing? Can meditation be done sitting up right with the feet flat on the floor? Also, whether its insight meditation or tranquility meditation, its often mentioned when your mind goes off to something, make note of it and return to your concentration but don't be angry at yourself for going off track. ( quick side note, this has kind of happened to me a lot when I try to go to sleep. I want to sleep but my mind is just so awake! And I would get mad at myself for not just going to sleep! Sounds simpler than it is. I do not get mad at myself anymore
and just use the meditation technique and return my focus to sleep ) Con't: The key thing I've noticed through multiple sources is that besides what your concentrating on, there's an element to make note of all these distractions. How significant are all of these. It seems like, with practice, through these "distractions" one might manifest answers to their problems . Thoughts? Thank-you!-Jake
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Comments
To provide a stable, solid base to keep correct posture when sitting on the ground, meditation cushion, etc. with minimal muscular effort.
As in a chair? Lots of people use a chair if they have trouble sitting cross legged.
I think it depends on what kind of meditation you are doing. I have never learned or was taught to "make a note of it" so to speak as far as concentration meditation goes. But rather when your mind goes off track, just return to the object of concentration once you have realized that your mind has gone off track, with no additional commentary. From my experience, the significance of them is about as significant as the nonsensical babbling of a 1 year old baby.
From my experience and understanding, making note of the distractions is just a way to accept them rather than just push them away. I think it's about avoiding the tendency to realize you're off-track, get frustrated at being off track and so just return to the object of concentration without acknowledging the distraction. It helps me to mindfully accept and welcome the distraction in order to let it really go. Otherwise it usually just keeps creeping up. It still does sometimes with acceptance but not as much.
As seeker242 pointed out, you can sit any way you like as long as your muscles don't get tired/cramped up causing you to change posture, thus breaking concentration. This usually means trying to keep your spine straight. If you sit with your butt on the floor with legs in front of you and feet flat on the floor, that position won't be very stable (you'll have to either hug your feet for stability or put your hands down on the floor to support yourself - not very sustainable for long periods of sitting).
In general, you can meditate while walking or lying or sitting, as long as you are comfortable and can keep concentration on whatever object of meditation you choose.
There are different schools of thought when it comes to meditation. Personally, I'm practicing vipassana, which means "mindfulness" or "insight", and some elements of it are very similar to what you are describing, e.g. making note of distractions. But there are other aspects to it, such as concentration (samatha), which needs to be learned and practiced alongside mindfulness.
Here is one way to look at it: the idea is to understand your mind, and change it for the better (i.e. become enlightened). You can only do that with direct observation of how your mind really works, which is very hard to do without practicing deep meditation. These "distractions" don't usually carry "answers to your questions" per se, but can give you insight into the machinery of your mind.
If you are interested in vipassana/samatha, I recommend reading "mindfulness in plain english" by Bhante G. It talks about everything from posture to what to do with your mind etc etc. (there is a free PDF of the book on the net, google it)
Good luck and welcome to the forum.