The Posture of Meditation Read online

  When we do not experience the force of gravity as a source of support, we must brace and hold ourselves against it. Holding in the body, however, very directly creates holding in the mind. Such holding limits the function of the mind to its most superficial dimensions and will often manifest as an ongoing internal monologue that comments on everything that passes before it and indulges in fantasies about the past and future. The sense of self that accompanies this dimension of the mind will view itself as an entity named “I” separate and distinct from the rest of the world, which it fearfully views as being other than itself and a threat to its existence. Much like a cloud that hides the warming brilliance of the sun, this superficial dimension of the mind effectively conceals the mind’s deeper possibilities. It is the superficiality of this most conventional dimension of mind as well as the deeper possibilities that exist beneath this dimension that the process of meditation works to expose and reveal.

  All of these difficulties with the posture of collapse began by placing the knees at an elevation higher than the pelvis. Let’s see what begins to happen when this relative positioning is reversed. You may choose once again to sit cross-legged on the floor or in a chair. This time, however, place enough firm, supporting cushions underneath your pelvis to ensure that your pelvis is higher than your knees. In this position the top of your pelvis naturally comes a bit forward. Your cushions will now contact the very bottom of your sitting bones, or you may find that your point of contact is even a bit in front of the bottom of your sitting bones.

  If the knees are higher than the sitting bones, the pelvis and lumbar spine must shift backward, and the upper torso assumes a posture of collapse. Like a knotted garden hose that obstructs the passage of water flowing through it, a collapsed body is unable to allow the life force to move freely through its length. Obstruction to the free and unimpeded passage of the life force causes the energy of the body and mind to alternate between periods of sluggishness and agitation.

  As your pelvis tips forward, it brings your lumbar spine forward with it. This is the natural position for the lumbar spine to assume. The thoracic portion of your spine is then able to assume its natural slight curvature backward. The cervical portion of your spine comes slightly forward, and the head is able to balance quite effortlessly on top of it all. When teachers of meditation speak of sitting with the spine straight, they don’t mean that these natural curves should be flattened. These slight curves occur at the approximate points where several of the major energy centers or chakras have been traditionally cited as being positioned. When these curves are comfortably situated, the body can begin to relax, and through this relaxation these centers can naturally begin to open and blossom.

  When the sacral, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical regions of the spine are able to assume the slight curvature natural to them, the upper body becomes vertical and upright. The right and left sides of the body appear to hang symmetrically off of the vertical axis that has been established in the very center of the torso. The length of the front of the body appropriately matches the length of the back of the body. Maximum space is created in the abdomen for the internal abdominal organs to settle comfortably. Restrictions to the immediate structures involved in the action of breathing are minimized as well.

  Just as the tallest trees and skyscrapers appear to stand effortlessly, so too can the sitting meditator experience a place of calm and stability through bringing the body into vertical alignment in this way. Because the verticality of structures is supported by the force of gravity, over time the meditator will come to realize how extraordinarily comfortable this posture feels. It is important to stress that the posture of meditation is not a contrived or contorted positioning of the body whose purpose is to generate unusual insights or states of consciousness. On the contrary, once we are comfortably able to find and assume this posture and begin to experience the buoyant support of gravity, a distinct feeling tone of naturalness and authenticity begins to appear. We begin to realize that the posture of meditation reveals not some extraordinary condition of the body and mind, but rather the natural state that is available to us as our birthright. Through aligning our body with the vertical flow of the force of gravity, we begin quite literally to experience the support of the larger universe of which we are but a small part.

  By establishing a stable base of support, the body naturally comes into alignment with the directional flow of gravity. Once alignment has been established, the body can begin to become relaxed and resilient. The deeply purifying process of meditation has no choice but to begin.

  Alignment that conforms to the directional flow of gravity has a distinct feeling tone of rightness to it. This feeling tone, or lack of it, becomes our primary guide as we attempt to find this place of alignment and bring it into our sitting posture. If we sit in front of a mirror and consciously manipulate the various parts of our body to conform to the vertical, we may unwittingly bring more tension into our sitting posture. This is like attempting to superimpose alignment onto the structure of the body from the outside in. If, however, we simply generate the three primary gestures of alignment (the pelvis higher than the knees; the very bottom, or even a place just in front of the very bottom, of the sitting bones contacting the cushion; the upper torso balancing itself as effortlessly as possible over the stable base of support created by the first two gestures) and then allow the body to make whatever adjustments in posture spontaneously occur, the feeling tone of alignment gradually and inevitably begins to emerge. Paying more attention to the feeling tone of alignment rather than to its spatial coordinates allows us to align ourselves with gravity from the inside out.

  Because every body is unique, there can be no specific rules as to how much higher the pelvis should be than the knees. You will need to experiment with different thicknesses of supporting cushions (or heights of kneeling benches) until you find the combination that is appropriate for your body. Over time, as the posture of your meditation continues to refine itself, this combination may have to be adjusted. Stay sensitive to the feeling tones of balance. They will provide you with continuous information that will allow you to determine whether or not your body is continuing to move in the direction of alignment.

  The three primary gestures of alignment apply equally whether you are sitting on a kneeling bench, in a chair, or cross-legged on the floor. If the tradition of practice to which you are drawn so allows, experiment with different ways of sitting. To sit in the traditional cross-legged posture you will want a broad supporting foam pad to ease the strain you might otherwise feel in your knees and ankles in addition to the individual cushions to raise the height of your pelvis. How you cross your legs depends largely on the degree of flexibility at your ankle, knee, and hip joints as well as on the length of your upper and lower legs. If you have a great deal of natural flexibility, the traditional full lotus posture, in which not only do your legs cross each other but your feet come to rest on the top of the opposite thigh, may be very comfortable and stable. If this is not comfortable (and for a majority of people it will not be), there is no need to force your legs into this position. You may choose instead to cross one leg loosely over the other or sit with one leg in front of the other. The ability to sit in full lotus does not in itself confer any status of greater attainment. It is more a function of body mechanics than anything else. Again, pay most attention to the feeling tones in your body. Find the cross-legged position that is the most comfortable for you to assume. The position that you find will be different from the position your neighbor finds.

  Almost inevitably you will discover that it is much easier to cross one leg over the other, rather than the other way around. For example, you may be quite comfortable with your right leg crossed loosely over your left, but find that reversing the position and crossing your left over your right is significantly less comfortable and may even distort the alignment of your upper body. If this is the case, it is quite important that you change the placement of your legs (right over left,
left over right) from one sitting to the next. In the beginning spend much less time in the less comfortable position, but over time keep working with both until your body has adjusted itself and released some of its holding and you can sit equally comfortably with your legs crossed either way. A time may even come when the formerly uncomfortable positioning of the legs can actually become more stable than the initial comfortable placement. In this way the sitting posture helps us to release the structural imbalances that exist in the body. As the body becomes more naturally balanced, it becomes much easier to maintain the posture of meditation not only in the formal sitting posture, but as we move through life as well.

  The placement of the hands in the formal posture of meditation is best determined not by any specific rule, but by the relationship between the lengths of the arms and the torso. Again this will be different for everyone. Cupping one hand loosely in the other and resting them both on the lap may be quite comfortable for someone whose arms are quite long relative to the length of his or her torso, but not nearly so comfortable for someone with a long torso and relatively short arms. Some people will find placing the hands lightly on the knees much more comfortable than will other people. Again, the key is comfort. Experiment with different placements until you find the positioning that is the most comfortable for your body. In the upright human form arms are designed to hang, completely surrendered to the pull of gravity. Any placement of the arms within the formal posture of meditation that inhibits this surrender will cause holding or tightening through the shoulder girdle and consequent interference with the free flow of breath and energy through the body.

  Establishing alignment through synchronizing the structure of the upright torso with the directional flow of the force of gravity is the first key in establishing the posture of meditation. It is the foundation on which the next two keys—relaxation and resilience—ultimately rest and depend. If we do not first bring our awareness to establishing alignment in our sitting posture, our ability to relax and be resilient in that posture will be significantly compromised.

  Shortly before the Buddha experienced his enlightenment, he met a grass-cutter who gave him a bushel of straw with which to make his meditation seat more comfortable. It is reported that the Buddha graciously accepted this gift, arranged his seat, and renewed his efforts. A bushel of straw on which to sit may not seem like much to us, accustomed as we are to the ready availability of high density foams or natural fiber cushionings. Twenty-five hundred years ago, however, a bushel of straw quite probably represented a significant gift. It is tempting to imagine that the Buddha was able to craft the straw into a supporting cushion that not only provided greater comfort but, even more important, also raised his pelvis to a higher elevation than his knees, allowing his upper body to align itself much more comfortably with the directional flow of gravity. It was not long after receiving this gift that the Buddha’s long search and inquiry experienced a final acceleration that would culminate in his full enlightenment.

  To bring alignment into our sitting posture we need to organize the mass of the upper body as economically as possible around an imaginary vertical axis that runs through the center of our torso. This vertical axis is imaginary in that it does not correspond to any specific anatomical structure; it does, however, correspond precisely to the directional flow of the force of gravity. By efficiently organizing our body around this axis we create a situation in which gravity is able to reinforce the uprightness of our posture. Any major structural deviations, either to the right or the left of this axis, or in front of or behind it, will present gravity with a mass on which it must exert its pull and influence. We will then have to brace ourselves against this pull and compromise the degree of relaxation and resilience that alignment otherwise makes possible. The purpose of creating alignment is to create a situation in which gravity can work for us rather than against us. As we begin to experience gravity as a source of support, we will come to realize that this support is not just experienced as a mechanical function. A profound process of healing, at the levels of both the body and the mind, spontaneously begins to occur for the person who is able to synchronize the alignment of the body with the directional flow of gravity.

  Begin by sitting in your customary meditation posture. You may be sitting cross-legged on the floor, on a kneeling bench, or in a chair. If you choose to sit on a chair, sit well to the front and do not lean against the back of the chair. Examine the sensations in your body generated by your posture. How comfortable and supported do you feel in your posture? Are there parts of the body that feel as though they have to tense and brace themselves, to hold on to maintain the uprightness of your posture and to prevent your falling over? See if you can locate and identify these places if they do, in fact, exist. Over time we become accustomed to the holding and tension in our body. We experience them as normal. Examine some of these places calmly and slowly. See if you can detect the holding that can be felt to exist there. Can you simply let go of the holding that you discover by relaxing the tension in the muscle group that is creating it? What happens to your posture if you are able to do this?

  Now turn your attention to the relationship between the height of your pelvis and the height of your knees. Begin to add as many supporting cushions as necessary to bring your pelvis to a higher elevation than your knees. Closely watch how the addition of supporting cushions affects the angle of your pelvis, the point of contact between your sitting bones and your seat, and the position of your lumbar spine. Invariably you will find that your pelvis tilts forward, the lumbar spine also moves forward, and the point of contact between your sitting bones and your seat shifts forward as well.

  Keep experimenting with different thicknesses or numbers of supporting cushions. Too thin or two low a supporting cushion will not allow the pelvis, lumbar spine, and point of contact of the sitting bones to shift forward sufficiently to function as a stable base of support for the upper body. Too high a supporting cushion will cause the pelvis to shift too far forward and create a condition of swayback in the lumbar spine. Too high a pelvis is just as capable of compromising the base of support on which your alignment depends as is too low a pelvis. Feel what happens in your body when you sit on no supporting cushions. Feel what happens in your body when you sit on too many supporting cushions. Slowly keep experimenting, adding or removing cushions as necessary, until you find a place between these two extremes that begins to feel comfortable and over which your torso begins to experience a greater ease of balance.

  Once you have created a stable base of support, you can turn your attention to your torso. Visualize the major bodily segments of your torso—the abdomen and lower back, the chest and upper back, the shoulders and arms, the neck, and the head—as a grouping of interdependent building blocks. Any adjustment to the positioning of any one of these units will inevitably affect the stability and placement of all the others. Visualize the segments of your upper body stacked comfortably and efficiently one on top of the other, and then slowly allow your body to reposition itself so as to approximate your visualization. Let the feelings and sensations of your body initiate and guide this subtle readjustment. Alignment has a distinct feeling tone of rightness and buoyancy to it. Release any tensions that may enter into the readjustment of your posture. The alignment that you seek is a completely natural and comfortable condition. It is not an artificial and rigid condition like the standing military posture.

  Now begin to sway slightly. Move the upper body forward and back and from one side to the other. Let this swaying movement be natural, relaxed, and easy. The whole upper body can move together as an integrated unit composed of interdependent parts. Let the legs remain relatively immobile during this exercise, and initiate the movement in the pelvis. The major joint, then, out of which the movement will be initiated will be the place where the upper legs (specifically, the greater trochanters of the femurs) come into contact with the socket joints of the pelvis. Move randomly, perhaps bringing circular or figure-eig
ht motions into your movement. In the beginning let the movements be quite noticeable and imagine that the upper body is swaying around an imaginary vertical axis like streamers around a maypole. Gradually decrease the range of motion, making the movements around the vertical axis smaller and subtler. Keep making the movements smaller and smaller until it feels as though they have completely stopped.

  Now slowly begin to move your upper body quite far to the left. Let the fulcrum of this movement be your anatomical waistline. As your upper body moves to the left, you may feel your pelvis shift slightly to the right as a counterbalance. If your hands are resting with the palms facing down on your knees, you will feel your right hand slide toward your body and your left hand slide away from your body as you do this. Move as far as possible without straining. Let your shoulders, arms, neck, and head hang comfortably in this position.

  When you have moved your upper body as far to the left as possible, slowly begin to reverse the direction of your movement. The upper body will come back to center and, without stopping, continue moving to the right. The pelvis will shift back to center and move slightly to the left. Your right hand will slide slightly forward on your knee as your left hand slides back. Let your movements be as fluid as possible. Breathe easily and comfortably throughout the movement.

  Keep moving slowly back and forth, exploring the limits of your body’s range of motion to the right and to the left. Pay special attention to the feelings and sensations that this movement generates in the body. You may be able to detect an intensification of sensations as the upper torso moves as far as possible to the right or to the left. As you move back to center, this intensification will be experienced to lessen. Just before you begin to move past center to the other side you may be able to detect a significant lightening quality to the sensations.