dale, what sitting posture do you use? I have been sitting in a loose lotus position (not full because I have a pulled groin muscle or ligament problem which I do not wish to exacerbate) but with your (and other's) complaints about sitting I wondered what position you are using___ on your knees ?
Last night I did another last-ditch five-minute sit, this time at the computer table. (Weekend nights are a challenge for me, it seems.) So that was in a regular chair.
But usually I sit a half-lotus. I always sit with the same leg crossed over, which you're not supposed to do, so I've been trying to gradually train my knees to sitting with the other leg crossed over for a minute or two at the start. If I'm making progress with that, it's very gradual.
If I sat twenty minutes in a full lotus, I'm pretty sure I'd never walk again :-)
I sat this morning - 15 minutes or so. I use a chair at the moment - a torn right knee ligament injury makes it problematic to stay in a bent knee position for too long. Eventually I hope to get back to crossed leg position, but am not sure about the lotus position - I have very stiff hip joints.
I sat this morning for 30 minutes. Sunday morning quiet. Nice
I kneel astride the cushion. Alas my hip joints are so stiff I can't even sit cross-legged with my knees below my hips, never mind half-lotus.
I've been thinking a lot about what Mary said about addictive behaviour. It certainly resonates with me, and I imagine it's what leads a lot of people to look into meditation. I relate addictive behaviour - not being able to stop something long after I've stopped enjoying or wanting it - to an inability to negotiate the boundary between myself and everything else, between action and inaction. The wall I feel between myself and the world is so immense that I either feel locked within it or, having made the huge leap over, I can't get back. Meditation feels absolutely about this. Being still, being with more ease, is precisely dissolving the difference between me and everything else. Of course, I haven't ever dissolved it . But it chips away at that great wall. I agree that breathing exercises help too. Something of the wall is about not breathing, not breathing life in and out.
By the way, I eat, read, watch TV (until I got rid of it), web-surf compulsively. But I don't blog compulsively. Even the most perfuntory blog post involves creativity, communication, some thought for other as well as self, so I don't find that it locks into those patterns at all, though reading other people's can.
I'm so glad I asked! Dale, I sorta had you pictured in the kneeling posture since you mentioned using a cushion.
until my groin heals I'll stay with half lotus (and probably even after too as I'm not sure I could stay in full lotus for 30 minutes without that becoming my sole focus)
(I used to amuse my sons by getting into a full lotus and then right myself up on my kneecaps: it looks really really strange!)
but you know on a rainy day anything to amuse the kiddos___
6 Comments:
yup for today
30 inutes
dale, what sitting posture do you use?
I have been sitting in a loose lotus position
(not full because I have
a pulled groin muscle
or ligament problem
which I do not wish to exacerbate)
but with your (and other's) complaints about sitting I wondered what position you are using___
on your knees ?
Last night I did another last-ditch five-minute sit, this time at the computer table. (Weekend nights are a challenge for me, it seems.) So that was in a regular chair.
But usually I sit a half-lotus. I always sit with the same leg crossed over, which you're not supposed to do, so I've been trying to gradually train my knees to sitting with the other leg crossed over for a minute or two at the start. If I'm making progress with that, it's very gradual.
If I sat twenty minutes in a full lotus, I'm pretty sure I'd never walk again :-)
I sat this morning - 15 minutes or so. I use a chair at the moment - a torn right knee ligament injury makes it problematic to stay in a bent knee position for too long. Eventually I hope to get back to crossed leg position, but am not sure about the lotus position - I have very stiff hip joints.
I sat this morning for 30 minutes. Sunday morning quiet. Nice
I kneel astride the cushion. Alas my hip joints are so stiff I can't even sit cross-legged with my knees below my hips, never mind half-lotus.
I've been thinking a lot about what Mary said about addictive behaviour. It certainly resonates with me, and I imagine it's what leads a lot of people to look into meditation. I relate addictive behaviour - not being able to stop something long after I've stopped enjoying or wanting it - to an inability to negotiate the boundary between myself and everything else, between action and inaction. The wall I feel between myself and the world is so immense that I either feel locked within it or, having made the huge leap over, I can't get back. Meditation feels absolutely about this. Being still, being with more ease, is precisely dissolving the difference between me and everything else. Of course, I haven't ever dissolved it . But it chips away at that great wall. I agree that breathing exercises help too. Something of the wall is about not breathing, not breathing life in and out.
By the way, I eat, read, watch TV (until I got rid of it), web-surf compulsively. But I don't blog compulsively. Even the most perfuntory blog post involves creativity, communication, some thought for other as well as self, so I don't find that it locks into those patterns at all, though reading other people's can.
I'm so glad I asked!
Dale, I sorta had you pictured
in the kneeling posture
since you mentioned
using a cushion.
until my groin heals
I'll stay with half lotus
(and probably even after too
as I'm not sure I could stay in full lotus for 30 minutes
without that becoming my sole focus)
(I used to amuse my sons
by getting into a full lotus and then right myself up
on my kneecaps:
it looks really really strange!)
but you know
on a rainy day
anything to amuse the kiddos___
Today is day #3.
Sat 4 periods of zazen today for the last day of weekend sesshin.
Left leg pain came and went several times. What a teacher it was.
Post a Comment
<< Home