Why it's always recommended to sit straight with an erect spine when we meditate.
The reason why in my meditations,
All of my guided meditations on Insight Timer would be asking you to either sit in an erect position with your spine straight or for any of the sleeping meditations you can lie down.
There are a few meditations that are okay to lay down for,
But in general we want to create a alignment with the geometry of this world in order to experience certain things in life.
So for instance,
If you were to ask a flower,
Because I know you like flowers Pam,
Why do you as a flower want to grow straight up or towards the sun?
And if the flower could talk,
The flower would say,
It's because I want to align myself with life.
I want to align myself with the greater force of energy and life that I'm also a part of.
And so if we look at ourselves and our bodies especially as satellites of life that are gravitating around a larger,
You know,
For instance,
The sun,
Then we will find a way to align ourselves physically with that object,
With that energy,
With that force of nature.
And that's why plants and flowers and trees and all these things,
They grow up.
They grow up towards the sky.
They grow up towards the sun.
They want to thrive.
And so there's a certain way that they can geometrically align themselves with that power.
And so we're the same way.
That's what yoga is all about.
Yoga is not about twisting and turning and locking yourself into different unimaginable positions.
It's about creating a certain atmosphere for your body to receive the information that it wants to pick up on.
When we are in yoga,
Essentially what we mean is we're in communion with all of life.
We haven't said no to this stuff and yes to this stuff and no,
I won't listen to that and yes,
I will listen to that.
It's I'm capable of everything because I'm a part of everything.
I'm life.
I'm not going to separate myself from life.
And I'm in touch with,
I'm in union with,
I'm connected with everything,
With life.
And I don't just mean one aspect of life.
I mean all of life.
From the very universe that has given birth to our solar system,
To the very galaxy that we are familiar with and living in,
The very planet that we're on and have evolved from,
All of this is working in a very intelligent way.
There's an intelligence inside of every single atom that has reflected out into the larger cosmos.
Look at the way that the objects in space are revolving around each other.
Look at how there's this space in between atoms,
In between the smallest particles that we know of,
Electrons,
Protons,
Neutrons.
There's a space in between all of these tiny substances,
Molecules that brings everything together.
Where does gravity come from?
It's hard to explain these sort of things.
Where do black holes come from?
It's hard to explain these things.
But we essentially are inhabiting all of that.
We're a reflection of this.
And so we get into a certain position for meditation so that we become available to experience different realities.
Because if we're sitting like this going,
All right,
Cool,
Time to meditate.
I really hope this works.
It's not going to happen actually because you're physically not allowing something to happen.
And just what happens when you do this,
Just like what happens when you smile,
Just like what happens if you bring yourself into a more healthy,
Wonderful,
Loving presence,
Position.
You're going to experience life in a different way.
So we want to be in a certain position.
So there's many different meditation postures,
Right?
There's different ways to sit.
There's different ways to hold the hands.
There's different ways of holding the head.
There's different ways of putting the tongue in the mouth.
There's different ways of keeping the mouth open and closed.
There's different ways of focusing with the eyes when the eyes are closed.
There's different ways of meditating with your eyes open.
There's many,
Many,
Many different ways to meditate.
So,
Yes.
That's why we have certain positions and that's why certain positions of sitting in meditation have been lasting for thousands and thousands of years.
That's why Adiyogi 15,
000 years ago created a posture that is still being used today because it works.
Geometry is truth.
Geometry is the truth of form in existence because the truth tends to repeat itself.
It tends to continue to expand and grow and reinforce itself in life.
That's what truth is.
It's something that resonates and it is a part of things because it is true.
And so geometry shows up in everything,
Shows up in nature,
Shows up in art,
Shows up in the cosmos,
Shows up in every aspect of life really because it's a sophisticated form,
A sophisticated arrangement of life.
And so when we get into a certain meditation position,
When I teach people to sit in different ways of meditation,
It's to evoke different things.
It's to create a different atmosphere in your physical body for certain things to take place or at least to be able to make yourself more available for something to take place and for something to happen.
Great question though,
Pam.
Thank you for that.
