Meditation posture
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It’s not only important to be able to sit comfortably for meditation; 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.
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!
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