Do Meditation Postures Matter?

[Martin Kojour]

I know that i have meditated at least for more than a month now.       (i have not counted all the days from the beginning)

Before when i meditated i would just sit cross-legged with my spine upright without giving really much thought about it. If my mind said something about it i would just classifiy it as a thought. I just tried to concentrate on the meditation technique.

Now always before meditating i think of the posture for example about how my hands are placed. If they are in to my stomach or with some space between. I feel it is my mind distracting me from doing the real meditation inner work, but something also says that it is important for my body health and effectiveness on the meditation.

It is possible for me to just meditate and watch my thoughts while lying down, but does it affect my effectiveness on my meditation?

Even that question feels like some thought from my mind distracting me. I have tried to do a meditation posture on the yogajournal website. The posture has 7 steps.

They say: 

"if you take the time to establish your meditation posture correctly, you will find it is much easier to rest your mind and connect with the object of your meditation. When you go through these seven points you will enter your practice feeling relaxed yet uplifted."  Is this also just distracting for me and gets me out of really wacthing my thoughts and emotions (meditating).

Yesterday when i meditated i just listened to what Leo said in "how to meditate" so the "musts" for me in my posture was just to sit upright in a cough.

I have considered to lie down on my bed with my knees lying on a blanket, so i alleviate my back pressure. Will this have influence on the effectiveness? 

 

[Prabhaker]

35 minutes ago, Martin Kojour said:

It is possible for me to just meditate and watch my thoughts while lying down, but does it affect my effectiveness on my meditation?

Patanjali’s Yoga has been very misunderstood, misinterpreted. Patanjali is not a gymnast, but Yoga looks like it is a gymnastics of the body. Patanjali is not against the body. He is not a teacher to teach you contortions of the body. He teaches you the grace of the body, because he knows only in a graceful body a graceful mind exists; and only in a graceful mind does a graceful self becomes possible; and only in a graceful self, the divine.

Step by step, deeper and higher grace has to be attained. Grace of the body is what he calls asan, posture. He’s not a masochist. He is not teaching you to torture your body. He is not a bit against the body. How can he be? He knows the body is going to be the very foundation-stone. He knows if you miss the body, if you don’t train the body, then higher training will not be possible.

The body is just like a musical instrument. It has to be rightly tuned; only then will the higher music arise out of it. If the very instrument is somehow not in right shape and order, then how can you imagine, hope, that the great harmony will arise out of it? Only discordance will arise. Body is a veena, a musical instrument.

The posture should be steady and should be very, very blissful, comfortable. So never try to distort your body, and never try to achieve postures which are uncomfortable.

For the Westerners, sitting on the ground, sitting in padmasan, lotus posture, is difficult; their bodies have not been trained for it. There is no need to bother about it. Patanjali will not force that posture on you. In the East people are sitting from their very birth, small children sitting on the ground. In the West, in all cold countries, chairs are needed; the ground is too cold. But there is no need to be worried about it. If you look at Patanjali’s definition, what a posture is, you will understand: it should be steady and comfortable.

If you can be steady and comfortable in a chair, it is perfectly okay – no need to try a lotus posture and force your body unnecessarily. In fact, if a Western person tries to attain to lotus posture it takes six months to force the body; and it is a torture. There is no need. 

[Arman]

Hi Martin. Congratulations on having meditated for a month.

Yes, posture does indeed have effects on consciousness and awareness and therefore our meditation because it changes our bodies energy. 

This is however not a big issue, especially for beginners. I suggest that comfort and sustainability are more important factors for establishing long term meditation practice. Some believe that pain and discomfort should not be avoided in meditation, but this should not be at the cost of body and joint health.

In time as you meditate more, it will become more obvious how posture effects your consciousness. If in the future you want to experiment with new postures, then do so. For now, pick a posture that is comfortable and sustainable for you. I suggest using back support as a general rule. If you wish to lay down, that is ok too. Position your hands where they are most comfortable. 

For you it seems the hangup is not so much the postures themselves, but the worry that you will do it incorrectly or ineffectively; overcome this by choosing a comfortable posture and sticking to it. The difference between meditating lying down and sitting cross-legged is not worth your worrying over. Set your intention to stick to a posture and release opposing thoughts and doubts into awareness. 

All the best in your practice.

[Nahm]

While meditation of course has a long list of benefits, imo, stay true to the pursuit of nonthought. Don't get caught up in posturing, etc. Don't delay with more thinking. 

[Loreena]

Wrong postures can cause injury.

[Martin Kojour]

Thank you all for the wisdom. 

Prabhaker what do you mean about steady? 

Is it because the mind gets distracted by pain and therefore can't concentrate on the technique, you should have a comfortable posture?

[Prabhaker]

3 hours ago, Martin Kojour said:

Prabhaker what do you mean about steady? 

Postures in which you stay for longer periods comfortably. 

12 hours ago, Martin Kojour said:

It is possible for me to just meditate and watch my thoughts while lying down, but does it affect my effectiveness on my meditation?

Meher Baba (Merwan Sheriar Irani was born in 1894 in Pune, India to Irani Zoroastrian parents.) for years together he was staring just at the ceiling of his room. For years together he was just lying dead on the floor, staring at the ceiling without moving an eyelash, without moving his eyes. He would lie down for hours together, just staring, not doing anything. Meher Baba stared and stared and stared. By and by thoughts ceased, movement ceased, and he became just a consciousness, he became just a staring. 

[OKO]

"What any taketh (or can) isn't them, and what another taketh from them isn't them. Release the inessential, anything another from you isn't your requirement; not crucial." -Me

[jse]

Correct meditation posture: