Lotus Pose for Meditation

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Lotus4U
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 8:30 am
Location: Toronto

Lotus Pose for Meditation

Post by Lotus4U »

Hi Bernie,

I am very happy to have found your website on Yinyoga. Your ability to put things together amazes me and the result is an eye opener. I have learned separately about yoga (but not Yinyoga), meridians, body anatomy, meditation, Buddhism, Daoist and even Man Tak Chia's work, but do not know how they are related. Thank you for your insight.

You said, " The Lotus Pose (padmasana) is the prescribed pose for conducting pranayama. " Also, " It is hard to face your mind when all you can hear is your body screaming. " and " the purpose of the physical practice was to prepare the student for the deeper practices of meditation. "

Based on Sara Powers' experience you related, I know I need to use YinYoga to help me improve my meditation. I am hoping to find Lotus pose instructions from your site (I use half lotus only) so that I can find and do the appropriate YinYoga poses to help me get deeper into meditation, but I could not find the Lotus Poses when I searched both the Bikram and your YinYoga asanas.

Where can I find instructions for this Lotus pose and the associated YinYoga poses in support? My goal is to be able to maintain comfortably the Lotus sitting position for 2 hours. I appreciate your suggestions and insight.
OM FALA MAME SOHA
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Preparation for meditation

Post by Bernie »

Thanks for posting your question here. The quote you submitted was not an originally statement by me, but rather it comes from the ancient yoga text, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Lotus pose, also called Padmasana, is a well know pose. The Pradipika does describe the pose is some detail but a more modern explanation may be better for you. You can see a picture of it here:

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/488

This site will give you all you need to know about how to get into the pose. While this pose is said to destroy all disease, it is not for everyone, and it is certainly not the only pose you need do in order to meditate. In fact, for most Westerners, I would not recommend you be in Lotus Pose at all. While it may indeed destroy all diseases, it also may destroy your knees.

Our posture for meditating should be stable and comfortable. For most people, that is not Lotus pose. Try half-lotus or just sitting cross-legged, and make sure you are sitting on a bolster of some sort. Sitting up allows the pelvis to rotate slightly forward, as opposed to sitting on the floor where the pelvis rotates backwards, which means that the lumbar looses its nice lordotic curve, which in turn can interfere with the flow of energy.

If your goal is to be able to sit for a long time in Lotus Pose, then you will want to work on opening the hips so that they can easily handle external rotation, without stressing the knees. Try the flow I give in YinSights for the hips: https://yinyoga.com/yinsights/flow-for-the-hips/ Also, try sitting on the floor whenever you can, just to keep working at the hips and lower back. You don’t have to sit in any particular way, just get on the floor and move around when you need to. Get off the couch.

Your goal of sitting for 2 hours in Lotus is an ambitious one. I don’t know of any meditation practice that would make you do that. In the advanced Zen sittings (known as sesshins) students may sit for 45 mins at a time, but not much longer. In Vipassana, one may sit for up to one hour at a time. But after 45 ~ 60 minutes, it is time to take a break and move. Walk for 10 ~ 15 minutes, mindfully and quietly, then resume sitting. If your posture is really painful, then it is okay to mindfully adjust your posture and find a new position that is doable. But make sure you are not just fidgeting. We are trying to open the body, not break it. :wink:

Hope this helps.
Bernie
faerrleah
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:47 pm

Post by faerrleah »

Naturally, it is not mandatory to sit in the Lotus pose in order to meditate. It is important, however, that you can sit still for a period, without having to worry about the body. Meditating in Padmasana or Lotus Pose calms our mind and body. The posture enhances the spinal energy and aligns the chakras.
Skyland2001
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:57 pm

Re: Lotus Pose for Meditation

Post by Skyland2001 »

Did you do it?
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