Chapter Seven
Meditation Posture
THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE that you have had the experience of trying to meditate whilst being distracted by aches and pains in the back or in the legs. To a certain extent you can try to ignore these complaints, treating them as just another hindrance to concentration. This approach can work if you are able to get into the dhyanas, because then minor physical discomforts will recede into the background and cease to matter! But usually these physical discomforts will demand your attention long before you are able to get properly concentrated. Unless you can do something about them, they will nag at you until you are unable to carry on with your practice.
In an introductory meditation class there is rarely enough time to talk about posture in anything but a rudimentary, generalized fashion. If you are not taught how best to sit when you start, you are likely to develop bad postural habits. It is very easy, for example, to adopt a sitting position which gives temporary support, but which may be harmful in the longer term. The problems that arise out of such habits can sometimes be quite difficult to correct. This chapter offers advice to those new to meditation to help them avoid serious problems, and also serves as a `trouble-shooting guide' for more experienced meditators.
good meditation posture
The body's role in meditation is to support the mind and allow it to concentrate. So the ideal posture is one in which you are completely still and relaxed, yet alert, for as long as you wish.
Since the mind needs to be alert, it is best if the body is upright if you are lying down, you might become drowsy. So, we are looking for a position in which the body can function with a minimum expenditure of energy, in which the heart can be at its quietest, and the lungs unrestricted, so that the intake and outflow of air is correspondingly quiet and natural.
Generally, if you sit in any posture which minimizes strain, and in which you can also be alert, this will create a sense of vitality which makes it much easier to concentrate. This progression relaxation and alertness leading to vitality and concentration is the basic principle of working with meditation posture.
If need be, meditation can be practised in almost any position. An invalid may have no choice but to lie in bed, for example, and, of course, there is walking meditation. There is no reason why you should not meditate standing up. But usually some form of sitting position works best for deep concentration.
If you can sit with the weight of your trunk balanced vertically above your seat, then a minimum of muscular effort will be required to support it. If each arm and leg is symmetrically balanced with its partner, there will be a minimum of distracting physical tension in the body.
principles of meditation posture
Let's look briefly at some principles of good posture.
skeletal support and postural awareness
Good posture employs the balance and alignment of the skeleton not the muscles of the body. Think about it in terms of managing the force of gravity in your body, rather than sitting in a certain position.
Good sitting posture is not a matter of taking up a rigid position and then holding it indefinitely. You need to maintain mindfulness of the body, and understand the principles of meditation posture. You will need to make adjustments, at least occasionally.
pelvic balance and weight distribution
When you sit, the pelvis is the main support for the whole body structure. To enable the pelvis to take the full weight of the upper part of the body without imbalance, it is important that the lower back neither slumps nor over-arches. More details of these postural faults will be given shortly.
The whole weight of the upper body bears down on your pelvic sitting bones the two bony projections that you can feel pressing against your cushion or seat. The weight must be equally distributed over both these sitting bones so that the muscles on either side of your back and neck are not overworked.
how problems arise
The problem that arises most often when you sit in one position for long periods of time is physical discomfort. Sooner or later your knees may start aching, or your back or neck may develop a twinge.
At first, these may have something to do with lack of practice you may simply not be used to sitting still on the floor. But most aches and pains are caused by muscular tension due to poor posture.
Sometimes strain develops when we form an unconscious habit of using more muscular effort than is necessary, or when muscles remain contracted even when not in use. Sometimes the cause is emotional. But whatever the reason, tension habits frequently become chronic and cause muscular pain, restricted movement, and sometimes fatigue.
Poor sitting posture outside meditation is often responsible for the development of chronic levels of muscular tension, and neck, shoulder, and back discomfort. People often have to sit in poorly designed chairs, which is stressful for the body. If your occupation requires you to spend much of the day sitting down, your posture should be one of your principal health concerns.
Another cause of physical strain may be unacknowledged emotional instability. For example, consider someone who is round-shouldered and closed-chested. This physical stance may have an emotional cause: perhaps the person has a poor self-image and lacks confidence. Moreover, the habit of holding the body in this constricting position may have confirmed the emotion even more, dulling energy, and making the person `in-turned', over-subjective. So poor posture can be both result and cause of negative emotions.
Generally, if you can develop more awareness of the way you carry yourself, you will naturally find yourself standing more upright, tending to hunch less in the shoulders and being more relaxed in the head and neck. The overall result will almost certainly be an improved mental state.
But there can also be straightforward physical reasons for bad posture. If there is a weakness in one part of your body, it will cause extra strain elsewhere. Either that strain will weaken the affected part, or you will develop extra muscles to cope with it. If extra muscle does develop in compensation, the original weakness may be confirmed, and further degeneration may take place. In this way a pattern of tension and compensatory reaction is repeated throughout the body, and thus begins a gradual process of uneven development. For example, a person with one leg slightly shorter than the other (which is more common than you might think) will have to work the back muscles on one side more than the other. In compensation, one shoulder may be held higher than the other to adjust for which the neck and head will have to be held over to one side. A slight deformity such as this could go unnoticed for many years until it comes to sitting still for thirty or forty minutes! Very often it is not until people start practising meditation that their ingrained physical imbalances and difficulties begin to reveal themselves.
The relationship between body and mind between emotion and posture has many positive applications. A joyful emotional state naturally reflects itself in the way you sit, stand, and move. In meditation, a bright meditative state naturally gives rise to an improved sitting posture. As you meditate, your relatively chaotic mental states gradually clarify. As they do so, the body begins to feel lighter and more relaxed, and the distracting, niggling discomforts gradually lessen. Then you find that your back begins to straighten, your chest to open, and your shoulders and arms to relax. At the very least, you become aware of the extent to which your present position is restrictive: a straighter back and an open chest will begin to feel more natural, and you may start to acquire an intuitive understanding of what good meditation posture can be.
posture as a meditation method
As well as serving as an important basis for physical health and meditation practice, posture can be approached as a meditation method in its own right. Postural awareness, on its own, can help counteract hindrances to meditation. Sometimes just a subtle movement of the angle of the pelvis, or the alignment of the head on the neck, can suddenly make energy available and concentration easier.
It is worth experimenting. Sometimes either your mind or your body, or both, are dull and sleepy, uninterested in meditation. At such times you are unlikely to engage with a proper meditation practice; in fact you are probably set to drift away into day-dreams. As an antidote, you could decide to spend the meditation session trying to maintain a good posture. Even if your mind is unable to grasp a more subtle meditation object, you can at least make an effort to remain awake and sit correctly. If you persist in bringing your attention back to your body, checking for arching in your back or slumping and other points which will be explained later the hindrance is likely to disperse before the end of the session, and you should be able to move on to a definite meditation technique. But even if sloth and torpor is extremely strong (as it sometimes can be), and you are not able to meditate properly even after half an hour or forty minutes, nevertheless, you will have weakened its power over you just by holding it at bay. And you will probably notice an improvement in subsequent meditation sessions.
You can also do something about the opposite mental extreme, the hindrance of restlessness and anxiety, through concentration on posture. A method of counteracting both the mental and physical agitation is quite simply to determine to sit absolutely still. Your mind cannot be made to be still, but your body can if you definitely decide that it is going to be! By taking the stillness of your body as the main object of your meditation practice, your restless mind will eventually calm down and be at peace. If the agitation is very strong, this process will probably take some time. But if, without forcing your mind, you persist in patiently stilling the body, you will be successful in the end.
the ideal meditation posture
Now that we have outlined the principles and seen the causes of some of our problems, let's explore ways of sitting in more detail.
Cross-legged postures are not the only options available when sitting for meditation. You can use an upright chair, or kneel on a meditation stool. But if your hips are supple enough to allow you to sit cross-legged, you should try that posture first of all.
The meditation posture that affords the best quality of relaxation and alertness is the well known `full lotus' position (see illustration). Unfortunately most of us are too restricted in the hips and thighs to sit like this comfortably, or even cross our legs in this way at all. Even those who can do so should avoid long periods of sitting in full lotus until (through exercises like fig.25) their hips have loosened and the posture has become fairly easy. This is important, because otherwise the knee joints will be under too much tension damage could result. Meditators need to take care of their knees.
Figure 1 – full lotus
(My apologies for the quality of the photos in this chapter – I hope at least you can see what is going on - they’ll be replaced eventually - KS)
The full lotus posture consists of seven aspects:
(1) The legs are crossed with each foot placed, sole uppermost, upon the thigh of the other leg. (2) The spine is upright, neither arching backwards nor slumping forwards. (3) The hands are held in the lap, two or three inches below the navel. The palms both face upwards, one over the other so that the thumb-tips lightly touch (fig.6).
(4) The shoulders are relaxed and rolled somewhat back, to keep the chest open. (5) The head is balanced evenly on the spine. (6) The eyes are directed downwards, either lightly closed or half open. (7) The mouth is relaxed, teeth unclenched, lips held lightly together. The tongue just touches the palate behind the teeth.
It must be stressed that this is an ideal posture. Points 2 to 7 may present little difficulty for many people, but few will find the full lotus leg position easy, at least to begin with. Luckily, it is not essential to have your legs folded like this, since there are a number of variations which are almost as good. Many people can manage a half lotus, which is very similar. If you look at the diagrams that follow, you should be able to find a position which suits you for the time being.
Figure 2 - full lotus, side view
Figure 3 – half lotus
Figure 4 – one foot on calf (NOTE wrong illustration)
Figure 5 – one leg in front
Figure 6 – hand position (dhyana mudra)
posture setting up routine
It is useful to learn this routine for setting up your posture. If you do it every time you sit to meditate, you will have a systematic way of assessing your posture. After some practice the routine will become second nature. It might take no longer than a second or two; at other times you may need to spend more time on it.
Stage 1 Choose a cushion (or stool, or whatever you use) which seems the right height, and sit, arranging your legs in one of the ways shown (figs.7, 8, 9, 10).
Figure 7 – kneeling with cushions
Figure 8 – kneeling on stool
Figure 9 – sitting on a chair
Figure 10 – sitting with back against a wall
There is no need to be concerned for the moment if both of your knees don't reach the ground. Once your posture is set up your legs will need to be lower than your hips otherwise the back will slump but the main thing at this stage is getting whatever you are sitting on to be at the right height. Even a variation of an inch can make a vital difference. At a certain height you will feel the correct balance of your body, and this awareness will then make it easier to adjust your legs and back.
Two common sitting faults, caused by incorrect cushion height, affect the way you hold yourself. These are arching backwards and slumping forwards in the back.
Arching - or perhaps we should say over-arching, since the spine naturally arches inwards to some extent - often occurs when the seat is too high. The extra height causes the upper pelvis to move forwards and the tail-bone backwards, so that the buttocks protrude behind. This creates a general tendency for the body weight to fall forwards, so the upper back arches up and backwards to compensate. This strains the lower back so that you begin to feel pain there.
The remedy for over-arching, if slight, is to relax in the lower back, letting the spine return to a natural position. Otherwise, you can experiment with a lower seat.
Slumping may occur when your seat is too low. In this case the opposite happens: the upper pelvis tends backwards and the tail-bone tucks under. You then collapse in the lower back and the weight of your body falls backwards. To stop yourself from falling backwards you tend to slump forwards, closing in your chest at the same time. Painful tension is caused in your neck and shoulders by this awkward positioning.
The remedy for slumping, if slight, is simply to remind yourself to sit up straight (not rigidly straight like a broom handle, but with a natural curve). Otherwise, you can experiment with a higher seat.
Figure 11 – over-arching backwards
Figure 12 – slumping forwards
Figure 13 – ‘direction’ of spine, chest, shoulders, and arms
Stage 2 Become aware of the weight of your body as it presses the two `sitting bones' in the buttocks down on to your seat. Maintaining this awareness as your base, and keeping your weight evenly distributed between left and right, allow your spinal column to lift lightly and straighten, avoiding rigidity.
Stage 3 Take a deep breath or two, and allow the chest and rib-cage to open. Experience your shoulders and arms lifting slightly on the inward breath, and on the outward breath allow them to roll back slightly, and then relax down so that the chest stays open.
Stage 4 You can then adjust your hands in your lap so that they are not working against the relaxed-back position of your shoulders and arms. It can be helpful to place a small `hand-pad' in your lap this will provide a flat surface for your hands, which can then relax more easily. This too will help your shoulders to relax. One hand can be placed over the other.
Stage 5 You can now adjust the position of your head. It is important that you allow your head to be supported by your spine, and not by the muscles of your neck. There should be no sense of rigidity it's worth checking this from time to time during meditation. The neck muscles should be completely relaxed, so that your head can move freely.
So adjust by becoming aware of your neck as an extension of your spine it may help to roll your head gently backwards and forwards until it feels balanced. Experience the point where your skull balances on your spinal column, and let it tilt forwards very slightly, so that your gaze is upon the floor a few feet in front of you. Lastly, relax your face, jaw, tongue, and throat.
Figure 14 – position of head
Stage 6 Now check your posture as a whole, especially noting the alignment of your trunk from side to side and back to front. You can rock gently each way from your pelvis, if it helps, until you feel yourself to be in equilibrium. Now you are in a position to check more thoroughly for the basic sitting faults of slumping forward or arching backwards, and make any adjustments necessary.
`feeling right' may not mean that it is right...
The entire sitting position needs to be as balanced and symmetrical as possible. Ideally each part of the body is balanced by another, so that there is a minimum amount of strain on the system. Setting up your posture in the systematic way outlined earlier helps achieve this symmetry and balance.
But there is one important problem: you cannot simply rely on whether or not your posture feels right. Very often, what feels `right' is merely what you are accustomed to. So when you are placed by a friend or teacher in a better posture, it will probably be unfamiliar and may even feel awkward and crooked at first. Your tendency will probably be to move gradually back to the familiar (but incorrect and harmful) posture.
So even if you have practised meditation for a long time you should not simply accept a feeling of `rightness' or `wrongness' in your posture as the only guide-line, but try to get an objective assessment sometimes. As with many things in life, it is not so easy to see, let alone change, your bad habits! You need personal attention and feedback, so from time to time you should ask your friends to take a critical look at your meditation posture, as well as attending an occasional meditation class or retreat where posture instruction is available.
pain
One obvious indication of incorrect posture is pain. Certainly there are some aches and pains which are best ignored minor discomforts which soon pass, feelings of awkwardness, itches, and other irritations. There can be no end to these, and you will never be able to settle down unless you consciously decide to put up with a few of them.
As we have already seen, these discomforts are often linked with inner restlessness, an unsettled mind fastening on to, and becoming obsessed by, a relatively minor irritation. By indulging such restlessness, you will not connect with your meditation, and other people meditating with you will also be disturbed. If this is all that is happening, try to recognize the fact, and try to put your attention elsewhere.
But it's important to be sensitive in assessing your pain, for some pains may well be danger signals. Pins and needles, or numbness, for example, should not be ignored; it is certainly not good for limbs to become completely numb. Neither should sharp pains, for they invariably suggest that something is wrong. If you are in any doubt about the significance of what you are feeling, talk to someone with more experience. Some people seem to think that meditation practice necessarily involves a little discomfort, but if this means ignoring danger signals, you run the risk of damaging yourself.
Buddhist tradition reminds us that the human body is exceedingly precious and hard to obtain; since it serves as the basis from which you can meditate, gain insight, and even attain Enlightenment, it should be treated with kindness and respect.
Figure 15 – soft floor covering to protect knees and ankles (NOTE wrong illustration!)
Figure 16 – padding supporting raised knee
ways to make sitting practice easier
The long-term solution to posture difficulties is to learn some kind of physical training which will give the body more flexibility and strength, and instil some postural awareness. We will soon be looking at a few helpful exercises. In the short term, however, there are a number of ways to make sitting easier.
Unless the weather is really hot, it is generally helpful to keep your legs and hips warm. Warmth takes the edge off those temporary, inconsequential aches and pains mentioned in the last section. Beneath your legs, whether you are kneeling or cross-legged, you should place a doubled blanket or a foam-rubber pad (though if the foam-rubber extends under the cushion it may make your seat unsteady). This not only insulates the legs but protects your knees. For people who are kneeling it also takes the pressure off their ankles and upper parts of the feet.
In fact, cushions and pads are generally good for alleviating pressure. Some people find a small pad, or perhaps a roll of material, helpful to cushion an ankle which is pressing into a thigh. If one knee (or both) will not touch the ground, a small cushion can be placed there for support.
Uncomfortable hands can be a source of distraction. It is therefore very helpful to have some padding beneath them, a flat surface on which they can be placed evenly. The position of this hand pad should be high enough to relieve the weight of your arms from your shoulders, so that the shoulders can more easily relax down the back, allowing the chest to open more freely (fig.17).
Figure 17 – padding supporting hands and knee
Figure 18 – blanket for warmth