Review And Instruction For The Four Postures Meditations

Wholeness and welcome to this talk on the meditation of the four postures,

A review and instructions,

The AM session.

So obviously,

As always,

I invite people to investigate all this for themselves.

It's just my experience and from my study,

And these are just frames of reference.

You have to practice this and experiment for yourself and know these for yourself.

And I encourage this experiment and practice with these.

But more so even is I'm opening myself for questioning and criticism of all sorts.

I mean,

I obviously don't recommend that for everybody,

But I'm putting myself out here as a teacher or whatever.

It can only benefit me and everybody else who's tuning into this and who puts any of this into practice.

It helps me be accountable and it'll increase the quality,

Hopefully.

I mean,

It obviously will be better if there's constructive criticism,

Right?

So we're not wasting each other's time.

So what I did is on Insight Timer,

I did the four main postures,

Sitting,

Standing,

Walking,

And lying down.

So these are,

And I guess unless you're a yoga teacher,

You're probably in one of these positions most of the day,

Right?

Or in the ballpark of one of these postures.

So why is this so difficult?

What I heard about this practice,

This basic practice,

Which is great because it doesn't really draw attention to ourselves so much,

Or you're not getting in conflict and it's pretty basic.

And so I wonder if so many people don't see the importance of this,

These four main postures.

But what really struck me is why is it so challenging and difficult to just when you're sitting,

Know you're sitting,

Having that in the forefront of consciousness.

It seems common knowledge,

But until I pointed that out,

I really didn't have any idea that I was sitting compared to lying down,

Standing or walking.

So I invite you to check in throughout the day to just notice what main posture you're in,

These four postures.

Also if there's any feedback of why people think this is so challenging to just sit at and know you're sitting,

There was one of Joseph Goldstein's teachers,

I think his name was Merninder Gee,

And he said,

Sit and know you're sitting and the whole Dharma will be opened up to you.

Kind of the truth of the way things are.

It's simple,

But not easy,

Right?

And so I chose to do the silent on Insight Timer because I tune in and I see so many great teachers,

But I thought it would be original to just sit there and not talk,

Right?

To just practice,

Let people have part of their own confusion and questioning like what's going on,

Some kind of novelty of,

I've never seen anything like this.

Why isn't he talking?

Why is he just doing this?

And so maybe that was part of the practice too,

Dealing with that unknown because so many things,

Unknown things can happen while we're meditating too.

It becomes part of the practice either just to set it aside and maybe come back to it later or even incorporate that into meditation.

And of course,

Music is a possibility in meditation.

I personally don't meditate with too much music.

When I do listen to music anymore,

Which used to be all in my twenties,

It was a big part of my life,

But now I just listen to instrumental things and that can be its own meditation,

Just listening.

So overall,

I'll go into the kind of the formal practice of these and then how they can be practiced in everyday life or how I occasionally practice them in everyday life.

Overall it's switching from the cognitive part of the mind into the sensing part of the mind and body and whatever else is going on.

And then there's our experience directly and then there's our interpretation of our experience.

So most of the times we're living in an interpretation of our experience instead of a direct knowing and sensing of our experience.

Even when you put words and vocalize our experience,

That's kind of our interpretation.

It's helpful,

Right?

We label it with perception.

We give labels and language to what we've experienced.

And sometimes it's difficult to suss out,

Well,

That's not actually the actual experience.

That's my explanation,

My interpretation of it.

So that's all we can.

It's like the classic thing,

The finger pointing to the moon,

Well,

Don't mistake the actual finger pointing to the moon for the moon itself,

Right?

Going through these individually for sitting,

Probably most people here will be familiar with a formal sitting practice.

I'm not going to spend too much time on that one.

There's this teacher,

Ajahn Succitto,

And I put his link in the bottom.

Ajahn means a teacher in Thai,

I'm pretty sure.

He invites this upright axis with the spinal column.

So tuning into kind of where the spinal column is.

And a lot of times the mind will go off and wander off if there's no place for it to be.

So this is kind of a gross,

Gross,

Not subtle thing that it can be this awareness of the spinal column can be with this.

And so instead of the mind going all over the place,

Which is that's going to happen from time to time,

Obviously,

It gives the mind an actual physical place,

Also energetic and ties in with our sensing as well.

Recollecting that spinal column,

That uprightness,

And then recollecting our goodness as well.

Bringing in a centering quality to that upright axis also,

We can reflect on what we've helped out with ourselves and others,

Kind of our practice,

Gratitude for whatever's arising.

Honesty that we don't have to like,

Whatever we're experiencing too,

That's a form of goodness,

Being honest with ourselves and others.

So just any of these great qualities,

The heart qualities,

Kindness,

Compassion,

Rejoicing and equanimity,

All those can be recollected.

And then the mind starts to unify and concentrate around those qualities kind of naturally when we just be mindful of those and bring those to mind.

So in sitting,

You know,

Denny,

That I do occasionally,

I've taken a little break from his Saturday thing just for a little bit,

For a while,

Until I decide how I want to go forward with that.

He talks about the,

I think he calls it the vayachera,

Sanskrit's horrible,

Sitting posture.

So there's like,

I forget how many different points you go through.

But I mean,

Just more simply and more generally,

Your knees need to be lower than your hips for more extended comfort.

Big knees should be touching the floor,

Whatever you need to do for adjustments for the posture and whatnot.

I know for me,

Not having any kind of formal thing with meditation,

I was getting a couch cushion off,

Putting it on the floor and then trying to sit on that.

And of course,

My back hunched and I just,

It was wild.

It did help me correct posture through kind of forcing,

Having to force my muscles upright.

But anyway,

That's kind of standard for sitting.

And then of course,

Choosing a meditation object is really helpful.

There's so many different types of them.

We'll go into that.

Standing,

Not standing.

I did this the other day in my weekly meditation that I volunteer with.

And it's just putting the feet about hip width,

Hip width distance apart and bending the knees slightly kind of actually just locking them for a second.

So you know where your knees are locked out.

And then you can lock your hands to however there's comfortable,

Even leave them at the sides as well.

And this is one to do when you're tired,

Because as far as I know,

No one has ever fallen asleep.

There's been some times where I've really been sleepy and I started to fall asleep.

But as my body starts to fall,

It obviously I wake up and I catch myself and I've never felt fallen over.

So if you find yourself nodding off and sitting meditation,

If you really want to do it,

You still keep meditating without falling asleep,

You can stand up and do standing meditation.

All right.

Now to the lying down.

This is probably the most challenging one to do because we're just our body's just kind of encoded to go to sleep when we're lying down.

So there's different methods.

I mean,

In yoga,

There's a constructive rest.

So you can actually put your knees in the air,

Hands down to the side.

And then when you start to fall asleep,

The hands will fall over,

The knees will fall over.

You know,

An insight timer is kind of in the lion's pose.

I don't know if that's the same thing in yoga,

But it's the one if you ever see the Buddha lying down,

Kind of support your head.

The Shifu or master that I studied with,

He puts a little pillow into his stomach.

So it gives kind of like a physical feedback of focusing on the breath.

Can help if the eyes are open a little bit as well.

There's some other things like Denny says,

You know,

There'll be a point where we,

There could be a point where we're not able to have any other posture,

But lying down.

So that's why it can be so important.

Now walking meditation formal,

What I was doing on there,

For me,

It helps to have bare feet contact with the earth.

I know it's getting cold here,

So that's not always possible.

There's methods,

There's several methods.

You can just simply focus on the sensations in your feet,

Like you're getting a foot massage and just keep bringing the tension back and back to that.

You can also note lifting,

Moving,

Placing.

So when the foot rises up,

That would be,

That would be lifting.

And then when it moves,

It's moving.

And then when it sits down,

That's placing.

So if you like to kind of neurotically label things,

I've been there,

Done that,

Still do sometimes.

That's one way to involve the mind on the process and to keep it from wandering off as much.

But eventually you can remove those labels and you could just sense lifting,

Moving,

Placing.

And you can also notice really details like the foot will go down maybe towards the arch and then the heel will go down and then the toes are,

You know,

Are all variations thereabouts.

Okay,

Also,

Okay,

So the transitioning,

So we can be mindful of when we transition between the four major postures.

Okay,

So in everyday life,

I guess the most important ones are the walking in everyday life.

I'll just touch on that.

You can still blend in to the crowd.

You can just pay attention to the sensations in your feet.

That's easiest way and just walk normal.

You can also like your,

Imagine you're moving through water.

So your,

Your shoulders and hips are swaying as well.

Well,

Guys,

That's it.

Holness and welcome.

The first link is a YouTube video of the Insight Timer Live events that I've recorded.

It's under a minute long.

I did silent sitting,

Standing,

Walking and lying down.

And during the walking meditation,

A participant mentioned that she really liked it,

But she would like more instructions.

And since it was silent,

I did not give those obviously then.

So here we are now and maybe I'll spend less time of an intro here than I did on the one this morning.

You know,

I was going through these Insight Timer Live events and I was like,

Well,

Nobody's quite done anything like I did with the,

That I know of.

I mean,

I don't watch all of them obviously,

Or even hardly much of them at all,

I guess,

But I haven't seen anybody do a silent thing.

I'm sure there's some though maybe,

But anyway.

So it was these four main postures,

Which we'll just jump right into it.

These are what we're going to spend most of our time in unless we're doing something like a yoga instructor or I don't know,

Like you're a underwater diver,

But for the most part,

These four main postures are what we spend most time in and there's formal practices with these and we can practice with these in everyday life as well.

So just quick before we,

Actually before we dive in here,

I just want to know that I'm putting myself on,

You know,

As a teacher here,

So I invite criticism actually,

And I don't recommend everybody do that obviously,

But you know,

If I'm putting myself out here in public,

It helps me grow and it's quality control as well and keeps me accountable.

So and then these are just my experiences in my study and my practices for a frame of reference for you guys.

Obviously I encourage you to experiment and practice and know these practices for yourself.

So the main question I have with these four,

You know,

Simple things that we do every day,

Day in day out continuously,

Pretty much sitting,

Standing,

Walking,

Lying down is why is it so difficult to know you're sitting when you're sitting?

Like until I mentioned that,

I really wasn't aware that I was just actually sitting because this is not something that's in the forefront of our awareness that often as far as I know.

I mean,

Please share your experience,

But you know,

And I still don't have a good answer for it.

Why is it so challenging to when you're standing,

Know you're standing when you're walking,

Know you're walking when you're lying down,

Know you're lying down.

If I had to venture a guess,

Maybe I would say it's because people don't value just this simple bare awareness,

But it's actually a really powerful practice.

I think Joseph Goldstein's teacher,

I mentioned this this morning,

Merninder Gee said,

Sit and know you're sitting and the whole Dharma will open to you.

And Dharma here meaning the,

Not just the teachings of the Buddha,

But the just reality itself kind of provocative statement.

I'm sure you're all familiar with sitting practice,

Formal sitting practice,

Meditation.

So for all these postures,

It's helpful,

At least in my experience,

To switch from the thinking mind to sensing.

So anything I will say now is just kind of my attempt to explain in language what's actually going on in the experience.

So it's sensing our experience.

So basically it's like sensations.

So if we're choosing breath as an object,

We might feel pressure,

Movement,

I feel tingling,

Coolness,

Warmth,

Vibration,

Pressure,

Lifting,

Subsiding.

So all these,

These are words and you know,

Obviously we can label these,

But we don't have to,

We can just feel them and experience them directly.

And of course it's okay to explain your experience afterwards.

We have to do that to relate to each other.

And of course,

Relation,

Relationship is everything in life,

Even to ourselves and our own experiences.

Now moving on to standing.

Standing meditation doesn't get as much airplay,

I guess,

As sitting or even walking meditation.

What it can do though is standing meditation will bring energy,

Like a fire type energy to your practice.

So the instructions are basically sitting hip-width distance or feet hip-width distance apart,

And then briefly locking your knees so you know where they lock,

But you don't want to keep them locked while meditating.

So slightly bent and then rocking back and forth on the feet side to side to find a balance point.

And then picking an object.

You can either focus on the breath or you can put pressure on the feet,

Not pressure on the feet,

I'm sorry,

You can put the attention on the feet so you can notice sensations in the feet.

And then another way is to lock your hands,

Or they can be down to the side.

And so what tends to happen,

Especially when you start a formal meditation practice,

Standing,

Is it can be uncomfortable a little bit and there's a tendency to want to move or readjust,

And that can be done too.

It's just noticing when the body wants to move and then readjust.

Formal standing meditation,

There's this teacher,

Ajahn Succitto,

I put his link in here too,

And find him really helpful.

He talks about this upright axis,

This inner spinal column.

So some people call this the Hara line or the central channel.

And so the mind tends to go out if it doesn't have a place to be.

So that's one place,

Especially since it's often associated with the nervous system.

So when the mind collects and gathers in the central channel,

The upright spinal column,

And then we recollect good,

Wholesome qualities,

Skillful qualities,

Wise qualities,

Maybe things that have benefited us,

Benefited others,

Gratitude,

The heart qualities like loving kindness,

Compassion,

Rejoicing,

Equanimity,

Then the mind tends to gather and unify by itself.

And what better way to have attention placed than in the body on the central nervous system and all the other things going on in that area of the body and the way the winds move through the body.

Okay so that's standing meditation.

Now lying down meditation is,

There's a formal practice.

So like I was talking this morning,

You can do,

If you're into yoga asana,

You can do constructive rest with knees in the air,

Obviously,

And the sides of the hands down.

So when you start to fall asleep,

The knees will tip over and that will wake you up.

So going back to standing really briefly,

As far as I know,

No one's ever fallen asleep and fell over while they're standing meditation.

I've started to fall asleep many times and the body will just wake itself up and recorrect before you get into any kind of danger zone.

It's really quite interesting if you've never experienced that.

It's something that,

Because the body has its own intelligence,

Right?

We walk over ice and we don't have to think about balancing or,

Oh,

I'm slipping.

The body just readjusts and corrects itself if we're in the body.

Okay so back to lying down,

The formal lying down process.

The other one is lion's pose or lion's posture.

I don't know if it's the same as in yoga,

But with the head on the arm and the shifu or master.

Dharma master,

I learned from,

He puts like a pillow or something in his,

Pressed firmly up against his gut.

So there's like a physical presence for feedback because lying down meditation can be very challenging because we're associated with falling asleep when we lie down.

So in everyday life that can be practiced as just kind of have an intent to do some formal lying down meditation before we go to sleep.

So eventually you'll fall asleep and,

But before that we can take a few breaths,

Conscious breaths or whatnot.

There's even a way to set the resolve to,

I haven't done this yet,

Become conscious of the last breath we take to know if it's an inhale or an exhale before drifting off to sleep.

Now I have been able to a few times notice if it's an in breath or an out breath upon awakening.

That seems a little bit more doable,

Still very challenging,

But that's one way to also do formal lying down meditation with sleeping.

Now walking,

For me it helps to have bare feet on real earth or natural material to kind of get that feedback and negative ion exchange with the earth,

Which is the healthy negative ion exchange.

If you have a salt lamp,

That's the same thing.

Look that up,

You look up earthing.

Earthing is really healthy for all kinds of different things.

So with walking,

There's the method,

Formal walking meditation.

You can lifting,

Moving,

Placing each foot.

So if you like to mental note things,

Lifting one foot,

Moving and then placing.

What I was doing,

I was doing more of this,

The Dharma master was,

He calls it as Tai Chi walk where the weights in the back foot and then the foot going forward is placed.

And then once it's firm,

Only when it's firm is when the next foot goes forward.

And like I said,

The weight's always on the back foot.

And then when we notice our foot touching the ground,

A lot of times it will go different ways very subtly.

So like the ball and then maybe the toes and then the arch and then the heel,

Or it could be the heel,

The ball,

The toes,

The arch.

So in there it can be all kinds of variations and how much pressure is on each toe or what order the toes go down and the timing of it.

So I mean,

Obviously you're not going to think of all these things and label them and visualize them or whatever,

Or I guess you could,

But it's just feeling and sensing that and it can get very subtle,

But it doesn't have to be either.

So I'll just spend a few moments here about how to do this in everyday life without drawing attention to yourself to these things.

We talked about lying down a little bit,

But so the transitioning stage though in formal practice.

So that's one of the most challenging things.

So if you get up from a sitting practice,

A formal sitting practice,

It's to keep the mindfulness being aware that the posture is being changed from sitting to standing and then from standing to walking,

Or if however you transition to lying down and then back from lying down up.

Okay,

So everyday practice,

The sitting,

This,

I don't really have many good things to add on this.

I know it's a whole other can of worms for interacting with a computer,

Which I have really challenging with staying mindful when interacting with computers to the point where sometimes I will notice that my body's tensed and hunched up and I'll just ignore it and keep interacting with the computer.

If you guys have tips,

Chime in here.

I know there's a few things,

But I'll bypass them today.

Standing in everyday life,

It's not too much we stand,

Although if you're in the grocery aisle line,

You can stand and just be aware that you're standing and be aware that seeing is happening.

Of course,

Walking,

This is the most common one.

And then I'll wrap up here.

You can walk like you're moving through water,

So the hips and shoulders can sway like moving through water.

Also,

Just walk normally and pay attention to the sensations in your feet at a normal pace.

That's another good way to do it.

Yes,

And then this last one,

It's one I'm working with here too,

Is the 32 parts of the body.

Of course,

There's more parts of the body,

But if anybody's interested in that practice,

Going through systematically 32 parts of the body,

It's 32parts.

Com.

A little bit over time,

I'm going to wrap this up.

I appreciate everybody joining and hopefully you got something out of this.