Meditative postures
Meditative postures or meditation seats are the body positions or asanas, usually sitting but also sometimes standing or reclining, used to facilitate meditation. Best known in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions are the lotus and kneeling positions; other options include sitting on a chair, with the spine upright.
Meditation is sometimes practiced while walking, such as
Postures in the Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe yoga as having eight limbs, one being asana, the meditation seat. The sutras do not name any asanas, merely specifying the characteristics of a good asana, stating:[1]
स्थिरसुखमासनम् ॥४६॥
sthira sukham āsanam
Your [meditation] seat should be steady and comfortable. Yoga Sutras 2:46
The Sutras are embedded in the Bhasya commentary, which scholars including Philipp Maas now believe are by the same author;
Sitting on the ground
Sitting positions, often cross-legged, provide a stable base for
The lotus position in particular can be extremely uncomfortable for Westerners who have not practised sitting cross-legged since early childhood. They may, in the words of the yoga and meditation teacher Anne Cushman, be practising "self-torture ... apparently believing that bruising your inner thigh with your ankle is crucial to spiritual awakening."[7] The pose can cause beginners knee pain[8] and injury.[9][10] Baddha Konasana is a safer alternative, provided the knees are not pushed down.[11]
Cushman notes that since meditation is not a posture, no particular posture is required. All the same, she writes, a formal method is helpful, and the asana chosen needs to be stable and comfortable, as the Yoga Sutras state: on the one side, few people would wish to hold strenuous postures like
Other postures
In various traditions people meditate in other postures. People who find sitting cross-legged uncomfortable can sit upright on a straight-backed chair, flat-footed and without back support, with the hands resting on the thighs, in what is sometimes called the Egyptian position.[6]
Theravada and Zen Buddhists sometimes vary their sitting meditation by meditating while walking, often very slowly so as to be mindful of each movement.[13]
Standing meditation or zhan zhuang is practised in the Chinese martial art training system Yiquan.[14]
See also
- List of asanas
- Mindful Yoga
- Yogapattasana
References
- ^ Patanjali. Yoga Sutras. p. Book 2:46.
- ^ Maas, Philipp A. (2006). Samādhipāda. Das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert [Samādhipāda | The First Chapter of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra for the First Time Critically Edited] (in German). Aachen: Shaker.
- ISBN 978-0873957281.
- ISBN 978-1623154981.
- ISBN 978-0834822429.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-904998-01-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-61180-098-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85538-166-7.
- PMID 24146758.
- PMID 22869991.
- ^ Cole, Roger (5 February 2019) [2007]. "How to Protect the Knees in Lotus and Related Postures". Yoga Journal.
- ^ Kallistos-Ware, (Bishop). "Jesus Prayer - Breathing Exercises". Orthodox Prayer. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- ISBN 086171315X.
- ^ Marshall, Chris (7 August 2007). "Paradoxes of Standing Meditation". Retrieved 2007-10-23.