Meditation posture workshop
It can take a lot of trial and error to find an effective meditation posture. Often we have to go through periods of discomfort before we can learn to sit comfortably. The important of posture, however, goes well beyond finding a way to sit comfortably, because the way we hold the body has a profound effect on the emotions and mental states that we experience. Something as subtle as the angle that you hold your chin at affects how much thinking you do.
In this section we explain how to use your body effectively in meditation, so that you can relax and at the same time develop alertness. Although relaxation and alertness may appear at first to be opposites, they can in fact coexist during a meditative state.
We’ll explain that it’s a myth that you need to be able to get into lotus position in order to meditate effectively. In fact you can meditate while sitting in a chair or while using a meditation bench.
It’s even possible to meditate while lying down, although the results are not usually very good for this particular posture and so it should only be used when absolutely necessary, as when there are injuries that prevent any other posture from being used.
We’ll take you through the whole process of setting up your posture, including what to sit on, the importance of supporting your hands, the angle of the head, and some basic trouble-shooting tips.
We’d like to acknowledge the kindness of Windhorse Publications, who allowed us to use illustrations from “Meditation: The Buddhist Way of Tranquillity and Insight”, by Kamalashila in this section of the site.
Use the links in the menu on the left to explore different aspects of meditation posture.
Comments
Comment from Leonard Hewson
Time: January 18, 2008, 3:31 pm
I am looking for something online because I live in rural area and cannot find classes within a reasonable distance from home.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 20, 2008, 8:10 am
Well, we’re here! Do check out our online course listings: http://www.wildmind.org/mindworks/date.
Comment from Joe Jayasinghe
Time: May 27, 2008, 12:35 am
We have four in our family. My son (30 years) came to me and told his work is stressful and find a way to get guidance to practice Buddhist meditation. We live in a remote area in Illinois U.S.A. and know nobody who can guide us. could you please help us. Thanks
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: May 27, 2008, 7:43 am
Hi Joe,
Since you’re living in a remote area it’s likely there won’t be a meditation class near you, but it’s always worth checking. I once visited a group in Quincy, for example, which isn’t a particularly large town. Sometimes meditation groups spring up in the most unlikely places!
Failing that, your son’s best bet is to get hold of a good meditation CD so that he has the benefit of guidance. With all due modesty I’d recommend my first CD, “Guided Meditations for Calmness, Awareness, and Love” which he can order from Amazon or from our store.
With a CD and the support of the materials available on this site (and the ability to ask questions about practice by using our comment forms) he would have a pretty good base of support for establishing a practice.
Of course he could go one step further and explore one of our online courses. Those are particularly useful for those who need structure and discipline, and of course there’s a teacher available to answer questions.
Good luck to you and your family.
Comment from Annica
Time: August 29, 2008, 12:35 pm
Hallo again. I wrote to you about how I started with meditation after reading this site. I have meditate 10 minutes every morning and sometimes in the evening.
What effect does the mediation have on the blood pressure?
I have always had 135/70 and suddenly yesterday I had 95/60.
Is it okey for me continue with the meditation you think?
I feel so god when I meditate. I have been so stressed for a long time so maybe it´s a normal reaction. I don´t know
Best reguards
Annica
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: August 29, 2008, 1:07 pm
Hi Annica,
As you’ve found, meditation and relaxation tend to bring the blood-pressure down. This is a normal effect of the parasympathetic nervous system kicking in, causing relaxation in your peripheral blood vessels.
One woman I taught meditation to, who was monitoring her blood-pressure daily because of a medical condition, found that she had to talk to her doctor about reducing or eliminating her blood pressure medication because of this. If you’re on medication you might want to do likewise.
I’m not medically qualified to give you advice here (I used to be a veterinarian, but that was a long time ago, and anyway humans were not one of the species we studied), however, it seems you’ve gone from “high normal” to “low normal”. It doesn’t seem to be to be anything to worry about (if fact I’d see this as a good thing) but I’d confirm this with a doctor just to be on the safe side.
In the meantime, I’d suggest that you get up slowly from meditation and be careful about getting up from any seated position. It may take time for your system to adjust to a lower resting blood pressure and it would be unfortunate if you fainted because of standing up quickly. But slowing down may be something you now want to do anyway if meditating is having a beneficial effect.
That’s an interesting and significant physiological change from only 10 to 20 minutes of meditation per day.
I’d be interested to hear how you get on. Please feel free to keep in touch.
Pingback from Getting started with meditation « Breathe
Time: January 17, 2009, 9:00 am
[...] has all kinds of free resources to help you! I suggest you start on either the Meditation Posture page or the Mindfulness of Breathing [...]
Comment from Ron
Time: March 19, 2009, 1:12 am
I practice ceremonial magic, and an important part of my routine involves daily mediation. I used to meditate in a chair, but I find this isn’t always the most practical. I have began sitting in the seiza posture, but my knees get a little sore and my feet fall asleep. Should I be concerned about any affect this may have on my health? I’ve tried sitting crosslegged on pillows but this hurts my knees quite a bit more.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: March 19, 2009, 7:55 am
You don’t say whether you sit on a mat (zabuton) or not, but that should give your knees adequate protection. And if you position yourself so that the ankles are hanging off the back of the zabuton this will relieve the tension in your ankles.
Comment from Zero
Time: April 7, 2009, 2:53 pm
Hello, I am new to Buddhism and i have no idea where to start may somone please give me a tip?
Please note I am a teen…
- Zero
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 7, 2009, 3:38 pm
Hi Zero,
It doesn’t do any harm to do some background reading and to get a sense of what kind(s) of Buddhism you’re interested in. At some point though you have to connect with other Buddhists, preferably face to face in a meditation class. There’s nothing that can beat that. There are online forums, but they often tend to attract people who like throwing their weight around and who have little practice to their name. It’s always possible to learn quite a bit about Buddhism by reading on the web, though. There’s lot of information including guided audio in our structured guides, and meditation can give you an experiential sense of what Buddhist practice is about.
I wouldn’t recommend getting too much into the original Buddhist scriptures at this point because they can just be confusing without the guidance of someone who understands where they’re coming from. But the site, accesstoinsight has a lot of good stuff and you could always see what you make of it. The Dhammapada is one of my favorite texts and you can find a couple of translations on that site.
Good luck!
Comment from Kharka
Time: October 7, 2009, 6:43 am
I want to meditate but i can’t concerntrate on it when it is 30min or 45min my leg pains and feel sleepy as i really want to do
the meditation plez help me sir
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: October 7, 2009, 10:28 am
This probably is related to posture, Kharka, but without seeing you it’s impossible to know what’s going on. It may be that you need to sit a little higher, or to create more space behind the knees by rotating the calf muscles as you settle into your meditation posture. Also make sure, if you’re wearing long trousers, that the fabric is not bunched up behind your knees.
Comment from turtledove
Time: November 24, 2009, 7:54 pm
Meditation is new for/to me. My doctor suggested looking into it since
I suffer from severe depression. Which medation can you recommend.
Hoping for a gentle way out and easing my mind.
Willing to spent time.
Thank you.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: November 25, 2009, 8:32 pm
Hi Turtledove,
If you have severe depression I’d suggest that you should only take up meditation under fairly close supervision. Otherwise meditation can be just another way to get caught up in making judgments about yourself. You may be able to find a course in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression in your area. I’d suggest Google to check what’s available.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Comment from alexcarr
Time: May 21, 2010, 2:04 am
Hi there,
I would love to start to meditate regularly, but I find it extremely hard to sit up cross-legged since my body is quite stiff and not flexible at all, and so it’s difficult to completely relax. Am I going to get used to it?
Thank you very much!
Alex C
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: May 21, 2010, 9:12 am
Doesn’t sound like you should be sitting cross-legged, Alex. I gave up on sitting cross-legged years ago. I’d have had to put in hours of yoga every day for years to get the flexibility I’d need to sit comfortably that way. I’d suggest you try out some of the other ways of sitting recommended in this posture workshop.
Comment from DavidR
Time: July 9, 2010, 6:37 am
Hi,
I’m new to meditation and I have this issue I hope someone can help me with. I find it really difficult to concentrate on my breath and breathe natrually at the same time. Each time I try to meditate my heart rate rises and start feeling uncomfortable, I talked about this to a friend that practices yoga and she says it’s probably hiperventilation.
thank you!
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: July 10, 2010, 4:45 pm
Hi David,
Your friend is probably right.
You might want to take a read of this article: http://www.wildmind.org/mindfulness/one/breath-control. We’ve all had problems at times with controlling the breath, and this is what worked for me.
You could also check out the peripheral vision exercise that you’ll find embedded as a video on the following page: http://www.wildmind.org/applied/stress/meditation-for-the-very-very-busy
I suspect both of these might be helpful.
Pingback from Meditation 101 « How to Live Buddhiciously
Time: September 11, 2010, 1:11 am
[...] Wildmind Buddhist meditation – Meditation for Beginners: listen to “Improving Our Relationship with Others” – [...]
Comment from Shakya
Time: September 16, 2010, 12:34 pm
Hi,
I used to meditate may be some five years but now I want to start again and also I have started meditating when I have some free time. Before when I used to meditate I used to have this sensation of my body heating up or lets say my body gets heated up. I learned meditation from one of the meditation classes here we had. So what did I have those feelings? Also now when I meditate I do not have that feeling. Why is that so…
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: September 16, 2010, 12:46 pm
To be honest I don’t know for sure why you experienced warmth, but those kinds of things aren’t uncommon. It could be that you were relaxing and your peripheral blood vessels were opening up. That would be my best guess.
As for why you’re not having the same experiences now, this is also quite common. It often happens that people have a desire or expectation to recreate a particular experience, and that attitude of grasping is often enough to prevent real relaxation from taking place. The original experience probably happened because there was an absence of grasping and of expectation. This is why they talk about ‘beginners’ mind.” Oddly, beginners’ mind will reappear as you continue meditating and as you learn to let go of your expectations.
Comment from ursula clyde
Time: September 30, 2010, 7:00 am
i find it very hard to still my thoughts and be positive i am usually tired and fall asleep when meditate i am never even sure how to meditate i would like to feel calm most times not allowing the small things to blow out of context
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: September 30, 2010, 9:19 pm
Hi Ursula,
If you’re not sure how to meditate, I’d suggest getting hold of a guided meditation CD or MP3. There are many places you can get these, but of course we have some on our store. We only stock meditations we think are effective: http://secure.wildmind.org/store/home.php
Comment from Simon
Time: October 9, 2010, 11:53 am
The reason you may be having different experiences second time round is due to your mind rejecting the control you are attempting to exert over it through meditation. The mind will play tricks on you by giving you different experiences that you need to put to oneside in order to achieve the same level of enlightenment as you achieved previously. Try looking through your feelings (such as anxiety in this case). Have fun.
Comment from Rick
Time: December 17, 2010, 9:25 am
I don’t understand this site. I get short partial articles that end and I see no way to find the rest of the articles!
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: December 17, 2010, 9:42 am
Hin, Rick. There’s a menu on the left side, under a large, orange heading “Meditation Posture.” Click on those links and you’ll be taken to other articles in the series on meditation posture.
Pingback from Popcorn Calm: Two Hot Buttered Resources for Friday Self-care (On A Sunday) | The Circus Serene
Time: March 6, 2011, 12:03 pm
[...] if you aren’t an expert in meditation, I highly recommend Wildmind’s free Meditation Posture Workshop before you begin. It solved several issues for me. There are tons of other valuable free [...]
Comment from Taya
Time: March 8, 2011, 8:38 am
HI.,
Ive always had an intrest of being a buddhist, but ive been raised in a christian home and am pretty afraid of what will be thought of me. all thou i dont believe in the christian god i have always found a better connection with buddhist ways. anyway the main reason im saying this is ive found myself angry all the time and i chanted once and it was good. now im ready to be enlighten. but im plus size and may have some discomfort. so my question is how can i do a posture that comfortable to me?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: March 8, 2011, 12:11 pm
Hi, Taya.
Without knowing you or seeing you it’s impossible to know what posture would work for you. It’s not just a question of your size, but also of your degree of flexibility. What meditation postures have you tried, and which have/haven’t worked for you?
Comment from Claire
Time: April 7, 2011, 9:30 pm
I am thinking of attending your retreat at Omega this summer. Will there be Yoga and meditation sessions?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: April 7, 2011, 11:17 pm
Hi, Claire.
There will definitely be meditation sessions, although yoga is not my thing.
I hope you can come!
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
Comment from rani
Time: September 4, 2011, 1:40 pm
Last week my mother fainted while she was meditating, this week my father fainted while he was meditating. Any reasons for this?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: September 4, 2011, 1:45 pm
You know, I’ve heard of this happening. Although it seems to be rare, some people have a tendency to feel dizzy or faint while meditating. I’m not in a position to know why, but meditating lowers your blood pressure, and it may be that in some people that happens too quickly, or they already have low blood pressure, or they go from having high blood pressure to normal blood pressure and their systems can’t adapt. Do you know if either of your parents was meditating in hot conditions, or if they had the lower half of the body kept warm by a blanket?
Comment from k.v.narendran
Time: January 18, 2012, 9:55 am
i want to start meditation.can i do it without going to the meditation centre?
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 18, 2012, 10:10 am
Absolutely. We have plenty of meditation instruction on this site that you can follow.
Comment from kees
Time: January 26, 2012, 3:02 am
Hello, which DVD’s or CD’s would be the best to start with as a beginner, I had a look at the online shop but was unsure where to start.
Thankyou
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 26, 2012, 8:32 am
I’d suggest starting with this one: http://secure.wildmind.org/store/product.php?productid=1
Write a comment