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Asanas

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kbear

In Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics. He talks about siting in a chair but not resting your back on the backrest of the chair. So that your back and neck is straight, feet are together as well as knee's.

Peace be unto you.
kbear


Tom

There is something called the Alexander technique. It was developed by someone from Australia. F. M. Alexander. I forgot what the initials stand for. It helped me with the same problem, even sitting in the full lotus. My legs used to start with the pains and my feet began to turn a purplish blue after 20 minutes. The problem is much diminished and getting better with practice.

The Taoists prefer sitting on a chair with the feet flat on the ground. They note that a lot of Buddhists (who prefer the full lotus) have crippled themselves by just ignoring the pain and working through it. Many have required surgery to fix their knees. The Taoists have another reason, too. They say that drawing energy from the earth up through the feet is better than getting it at the base of the spine. I like the Taoists, but as a Buddhist I'm attached to my full lotus.



distant bell

Hi Tom!

I am neither buddhist nor taoist, but still have a strong feeling for the full lotus. I never manage to sitt in full lotus longer then 20 minutes though, and that is a problem. If I sitt with tha legs crossed, but not full lotus, it works up to 30-40 minutes before the
ache becomes unendurable.

"My legs used to start with the pains and my feet began to turn a purplish blue after 20 minutes. The problem is much diminished and getting better with practice."

This is exactlly my problem too! The question is if it is damaging for the legs when they turn purplish and get numb. Of course there has to be a difference if you sitt for an hour or if you sitt for many hours. But sitting up to an hour in ful lotus, would that be damaging?

Pleas tell me more about the "Alexander technique"





Tom

The Alexander Technique starts with the orientation of the head, neck, and back. It moves on from there to organizing the rest of the body. In normal usage, parts of the body become compressed in ways that are hard to notice as they are happening but which become increasingly painful. The idea is to learn to become aware of tension, compression, and other such forms of misusage of the body before pain develops. It is also important to see the parts of the body as connected. When one part of the body moves, everything else really does shift along. This applies especially to breathing. By learning how I was tensing up to some extent, I was able to stop doing it and it put less pressure on my lungs. This led naturally to taking deeper breaths with less effort. This led to further relaxation and awareness, which led to further improvements. My head had been tilted forward and my shoulders, too. I was leaning forward and my legs had to press down to keep my body from falling over forward. This pressed my legs together, leading to the circulation being cut off. At the time, though, even with eyes open I thought I was sitting up straight. When I tried to counter it by leaning backward, I still did the same thing. My body compensated by leaning forward even more and compressing my legs even more. This is because I thought I was sitting up straight when leaning forward. Sitting up straight felt like leaning backward. It led to compensating for the feeling of falling backward by leaning forward even more. I still hadn't managed to lean backward at all, but I felt like I was. The Alexander Technique uses indirect methods to correct how the body feels in its position in space and orientation to itself. Now I am closer to sitting up straight and feeling like I am sitting up straight. It helps to have a teacher because the sensations from the body are so unreliable without training. Mirrors can help, but only a bit. I was leaning forward and genuinely thought I was sitting up straight. How can I correct that when even my eyes said I was sitting up straight? I can watch for tension and pain and compression, but without having had a teacher to help me interpret these things I would still be leaning forward more so than ever. In Buddhist traditions, it is said that any deviation from correct seated meditation posture can be directly associated with a mental deviation from correct technique. This has been true for me. My mind is a lot clearer and closer to actual meditation now than before my training.



Dog Faced Liar

I prefer laying on my back, for meditation or sitting in my bean bag chair.


distant bell

I have been been trying to find a good asana for
quite a while now. I actually prefere to sit on the
floor cross leged, but this way after thirty minutes
my legs start to hurt and get numb- and naturally getting
out of the posture is a another problem.... The lovly
stinging half numb sensation in the legs when you try
to unfould them.
Is this something that is actually damaging the fysicall
body? Or is it just a pain to ignore?

Is there any other asana that is as good, but without the
side effects of the cross leged one? (no, it´s not even a full
Lotus I sitt in..)

How do I know when I have reached the different trance states?