Experience and harvest of training sitting posture

Introduction to meditation Generally speaking, meditation pays little attention to sitting posture. Many Zen masters and teachers only teach you to stand up straight. Others just need to be comfortable and meditate for a long time. No special requirements! In particular, the inheritance of teacher S.N. Goenka's Vipassana doesn't talk about how to sit at all, as long as you find the posture that suits you best. First of all, you should learn how to meditate and set an appropriate meditation posture. You need to keep the following two important principles in mind: 1. Posture must make you relax and feel comfortable. This posture must keep you alert and awake. These two principles are very important. If you feel uncomfortable, you can't practice meditation because you are uncomfortable. If you can't relax, you won't experience the pleasure of meditation. Equally important, you can't abandon the potential emotional conflicts that lead to physical stress. After reading this, you may say, isn't it better to practice Zen while lying down? This is not a good idea! If you really lie down and practice meditation, your consciousness will become blurred and even fall asleep. If you have taken a yoga class, there is a Shavasana movement in the closing ceremony, and everyone lies on the floor to relax. You should notice that about one third of people snore within five minutes. So, forget to lie down and meditate. The best combination of relaxation and feeling is sitting posture. You don't have to sit on a plate, or even on the floor. Sitting up straight helps to open the chest and breathe freely, and at the same time helps to enter and maintain a relaxed and focused alert state. We will introduce three effective postures: sitting in a chair; Sit on a seat cushion or stool; Sit down. The choice of posture depends on which posture you feel more comfortable. Please remember: you may think that the double sitting posture is the coolest, but if you don't have the flexibility you need, it's simply suffering! Don't embarrass yourself, choose the posture that suits you. Second, the correct sitting posture elements There are many different sitting postures in meditation, including sitting in a chair, sitting on a mat, and sitting on a bench. There are all kinds of sitting postures, from simple distributed sitting posture to full squatting sitting posture. What I want to emphasize is that you need to find a sitting position that suits you and obey your body. An uncomfortable sitting posture will distract you from practicing meditation and make your body unable to tell where the problem is (although you need to learn to tell-maybe you have been able to tell what is awkward stretching and what is hurt pain. We will elaborate on this problem later). We will discuss the common bad sitting posture in the later part. However, in order to ensure your comfort and consciousness when posing, you need to keep in mind the following contents: (photo 1) 1. Your body should be straight, your spine should not be bent, and your sitting posture should be natural and stable. 2. Relax your back. 3. Relax your shoulders, slightly open your chest, and breathe naturally and smoothly. 4. Support with both hands, put them on the mat or legs, and relax your arms. 5. The head is straight, the front jaw is miniature, and the back of the neck should be relaxed. 6. Relax your face and put your tongue on the palate. (Not necessarily) Third, let's look at the most common sitting postures, and then look at the common problems in sitting postures and how to correct them. Shoulder posture Figure 2 In order to create a good state of consciousness, you need to keep your chest out and make your chest full of width. You can fill your lungs with several deep breaths to achieve this broad feeling. When inhaling, there will be a feeling of rising on the front of the body (see the arrow in the figure). Pay attention to the opening of the chest, relax the shoulders and let them droop and move backwards (as shown by the arrow behind the meditator). If you find it difficult to stretch your shoulders during meditation, you can put your hands higher. In meditation, when you exhale and inhale, you may feel the ups and downs of your shoulders. If the feeling of falling shoulders is consistent with the adjustment of exhalation, shoulders will be further relaxed. Head posture Figure 3 Head posture is very important. The head should be balanced and seem to float on the spine completely easily. As you can imagine, the corolla on your head is being pulled up by a connecting balloon, your chin is slightly retracted, and your back neck is long and relaxed. Therefore, with the recovery of the mandible, you should feel the muscles in the back of the neck relax and lengthen. If your jaw shrinks too tightly, your head will tilt outward, which will make you feel bored and sleepy, or fall into a repetitive, usually negative emotional circle. If your head leans back too much, your chin will protrude outward, and you will find yourself more likely to fall into meditation and become extremely "anxious". Only when the chin is properly restored can we stay awake and not get caught up in thoughts and emotions. Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4 Picture 5 Picture 6 Picture 7 Third, Wrong posture 1, Bow-back sitting posture Picture 4 Bow-back meditation posture makes people unable to keep alert and experience feelings, and also makes the nape of the neck and shoulders feel oppressive (as can be seen from this picture, the nape of the neck becomes short and compressed instead of long and open as it should be). There are three reasons for hunchback sitting posture: 1). Sitting too low 2). The seat angle is not enough 3). Habitual bending The meditator in Figure 4 sits too low. Sitting too low will cause the pelvis to lean forward. In order to keep balance, the upper back must bend forward. This will lead to chest closure and reduce the ability to breathe freely. If you meditate in this posture, you may feel bored or even doze off because of the pressure on your chest. The height of the chair is appropriate, but the chair is flat, or the angle is not enough, so there will be a bending posture. Sometimes hunchback sitting is purely a habit. After discussing the sitting posture that leans forward too much, we will further analyze how to solve the hunchback sitting posture. The most common solution is to keep your mind upright as much as possible. The result will be an ideal posture. If you bend down and force yourself to sit up straight, your sitting posture will look good from the outside, but before long, the tight muscles will start to ache from the inside. 2. Too leaning forward. Picture 5 Reasons for sitting too leaning forward: 1). Sitting too high 2). The inclination of the chair is too great. Habitual leaning forward The meditator in Figure 5 sits too high (pay attention to the exaggerated height of the seat). This sitting posture will make the meditator's pelvis lean forward. In order to prevent a frontal fall, the meditator must lean backwards, and the meditator's lower back is excessively depressed. Under normal circumstances, there should be a slight depression in the waist (medically called lordosis curve), but excessive depression will cause pain in the lower back of meditation practitioners. When the chair angle is too steep (to move the center of gravity forward, the meditator must lean back, resulting in excessive depression), there will also be situations where the sitting posture is too forward. Sitting too far in front may be a habit. Sitting cross-legged Not everyone can sit cross-legged-I am one of them. You don't have to meditate. In fact, if you insist on an uncomfortable sitting posture, it may cause long-term damage to your joints, that is to say, there is naturally no comfortable and effective meditation. Of course, if your bones and muscles are really flexible enough, then sitting in a dish can be regarded as a very stable and grounded sitting posture. There are several postures when sitting on a plate. 1. meditation posture: three sets (also known as Burmese meditation or arhat meditation) Figure 6 shows three sets, which is the simplest sitting posture and the most commonly used sitting posture of western meditators. Get enough support and make sure your knees are on the ground. Three-point (hip and knee) support is stable enough. Remember the last time you saw a photographer use a tripod to keep the camera stable? Without stable support, it is difficult to bear the pressure of the body. If you are not used to landing on your knees, you can put some pads (such as thin cushions or folded scarves) under your knees to keep your body stable. If one or both knees are 2~3 cm off the ground, you can use a chair instead, sit astride the mat, or practice with a long meditation chair or stool. You can also do some yoga to relax your hips, and then practice sit-ups. In addition, if you can't put your hands on your legs naturally, you can support them with cushions or blankets. You may have to adjust which foot is in front from time to time. Adjustment is necessary because all sitting postures are slightly asymmetrical. If you learn to adjust the position of your feet, you will find a balanced meditation posture. 2. Full pendulum (double disc) and half pendulum (single disc) are only suitable for those whose bones and muscles are very flexible. A friend of mine was forced to have his knee cartilage removed because of his habit of squatting for a long time. If you feel pain in your knee, or if this posture is uncomfortable, you can change to the posture discussed earlier. Individuals should realize that this posture must be practiced slowly for a long time, which is not so easy. Full sitting posture refers to putting your feet on the opposite leg with the center of your feet up (for example, to stop ankle pain and change to a simple posture). Half-sitting, that is, veneer, one foot is placed on the opposite leg, the center of the foot is up, and the other foot is scattered on the floor. Full swing is considered to be the most stable meditation posture. Comfortable sitting posture can make the meditator close to the ground (for some reason, it seems that grounding helps meditation), and it is also the most balanced and symmetrical meditation posture. Sitting in a chair, straddling a mat or sitting on a bench is a more symmetrical meditation posture, with the disadvantage of less contact with the ground. If you are confused about not sitting on the floor, you can try the difference between sitting in a chair and sitting on the floor. Fourth, the meditation method meditation method is actually "no way." Just sit there, pose, close your eyes, just sit! In this way, body and mind, everything and so on will automatically and slowly begin to transform, and in the process of transformation, various situations and ideas will appear. At this time, the meditator only needs to insist on doing nothing, ignoring anything, not participating, not following, not resisting fear or disgust. This is the so-called "not moving". If you insist on doing nothing in meditation every day, you are simply "doing nothing and being natural". In this way, the days of meditation will be active, and as long as it continues, there will be all kinds of progress and breakthroughs. In fact, the present state in meditation is essentially the same as that in daily life, which is reflected by human feelings. This meditation method can also be used flexibly in daily life, that is to say, there is no fixed place to live. The longer you sit, the better. The longer you can persist, the greater the breakthrough you can make, which is the case for people who work hard for a long time. For beginners, there should be a gradual period of one to two years. This one to two years is a critical period of tempering. Many people are fishing for three dynasties and drying their nets for two days. If they insist on making an appointment for more than one year, there will be real progress! The difficulty of this inaction method is naturally not in the law. The law itself is very simple, that is, doing nothing, and then making everything wonderful and transforming everything automatically. Simply put, it is "sitting". The difficulty of this method lies in the "persistence" of practitioners, and whether they can persist in not participating until they sit down for three years. As long as you are willing to sit down every day, the longer the better, the transformation of body and mind will be great, and people will gain a lot! From a single case, from half an hour to an hour after meditation, people are full of distractions and can't stop thinking. At this time, people either read Buddha, or follow fate, or hold spells, or visualize and see through. This is the second method, which can achieve a temporary effect, but the higher trick is to just sit and do nothing, let all thoughts come and go, and not entangle. If you sit for 1~2 hours, your qi will suddenly change, and people will suddenly be enlightened, and your body and mind will suddenly open up another new world and your wisdom will flow. At this time, you can look back at the old you and the new you, both mentally and visually, which are worlds apart. The psychological obstacles that can't be crossed on weekdays and the problems that can't be figured out are solved in this sudden mutation. And all these wonderful changes, so you didn't do anything, didn't think about anything, just sat there suddenly and naturally! This is the beauty of inaction nature, and beauty lies in inaction. After inaction, everything is natural and wonderful, which comes from nature and is not artificial. Doing nothing naturally actually refers to the same thing, that is, a state of mind and a special state of mind of people. Then, after these wonderful new changes have happened many times, maybe one day, the yogi will break through to a relatively stable state of mind, which is very peaceful and peaceful, and it is a natural peace, that is to say, people naturally return to a natural peace of the universe without doing anything. At this time, through constant meditation, the above process will be accelerated, and within three years, people will have great changes and sublimation! The beauty of this inaction method is that it will automatically observe, sit in inaction and suddenly observe automatically, and often at the same time, at this moment, people at the same time will suddenly understand and see through it. The process from observation to seeing through is very short. When a question comes out, it will be understood in an instant, as fast as the autumn wind sweeps away the leaves. There is another thing, which is observed on weekdays but not understood, will suddenly have an epiphany in inaction, and will automatically understand without conscious observation in advance, which is even more remarkable: automatic understanding. As for the transformation of the body, it is even more remarkable. When people sit through inaction, the longer they sit, the more air will flow into their bodies when they sit once, and they will automatically pass through the orifices and open the chakras. When the chakra is opened, it is often accompanied by wisdom and understanding. It is a method of stimulating wisdom with psionic energy. It is said that it is a method of cultivating life in practice, combining with automatic observation in inaction, and automatically realizing and developing wisdom. These two wonderful methods of practice are unified into this inaction. Meditation and practicing dharma, doing nothing without doing anything, is really a wonderful method! This is the core content of Tiantai view, and it is also the heart of hiding handprints. Zen has no place to live. In fact, this method is nothing in the Diamond Sutra, and it is the mentality of "quiet as water, sand must be quiet" in the Shurangama Sutra. Is well known. This is a wonderful method for confident and wise scholars, and it can also be used as the last effort of practitioners, and it is the only way to get immediate results. For people with poor roots or who are particularly stupid, as long as they persist in this kind of inaction and natural meditation, the transformation and promotion of roots are far faster than ordinary people. As long as they persist in their spare time, these people can also become wisdom roots! Because wisdom and essence are equal to everyone, but they only blind the difference in depth.