Instructions to meditate usually begin with the simple invitation: Take your seat. It sounds innocuous enough but it's important. I'm told of people who meditate while lying in bed or in the ad breaks, but I'm personally doubtful about how possible that is. Sitting is a key to the whole process. Get this bit right and you're well on the way to learning how to meditate. I think.
Most of the time, most days we
are quite unaware of our bodies. They are just there, moving us around,
providing a handy receptacle for food and drink and giving us something
to park our glasses on. Our bodies do their thing automatically and we
don't have to think about them at all except when they hurt or itch or
make embarrassing smells or inexplicably fail to do exactly what we ask
of them. It's as well that we don't notice our bodies most of the time;
after all, the mark of a good servant is to be unnoticeable. During
meditation, though, we are going to be completely aware of our bodies
for quite a period of time, and we need to sit in a way that makes that
possible. We are also going to be still for longer than the body is
normally used to, so we need to be seated in way which minimises
pressure points and allows us to make subtle adjustments to our posture
when it might be necessary. Our bodies are -mostly - reliable servants,
but for much of the day they are also cunning and at times tyrannical
masters, telling us when to move or eat or fidget or scratch or sleep.
The mastery the body has over us happens mostly because we are unaware
that it is the body that is in control. For this period,while we are
seated, we are going to take complete power over our body and the body
doesn't much care for that.
Our bodies are as
seamlessly part of us as our minds and spirits and so connected that
what we do with our bodies will necessarily affect what we do with the
other two parts of our personal trinity. Of course we acknowledge this
fact whenever we kneel for prayer or stand when a visitor comes into the
room. In meditation we assume our seat, telling the deepest parts of
ourselves that we are here with a purpose.
The
way our bodies function can't be completely explained by any doctor,
no matter how big an anatomy textbook s/he may have read. They have
mysterious but quite predictable patterns of energy. They have rhythms
and flows and pathways and junctions and storage points for energy that
may all be affected by the way we are seated. We want all this stuff to
work for us in the most helpful manner, so we choose our place and
manner of being seated with care. Of course, the Eastern books all
recommend sitting cross legged on the floor, but unless the session is
going to become merely an exercise in pain control and a short one at
that, I'm going to sit on something. It's taken a while of experimenting
and thinking about it but I have it sort of OK now: a way of sitting
that I can maintain for sufficient time, and where I am as unencumbered
internally as I might possibly be. So, take your seat. What's next?
Easy. Breathe. We can all do that.
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