The Four Postures
These four postures , if you practice them mindfully, will significantly reduce the dependency on exercise. If you can bring quality and ease to these, your practice will become very strong because everything else we do is an extension of them.
They act as the medium through which you can transfer the quality of formal practice into everyday life. Sitting is the most well known of Zen practices, but there are many walking practices, lying down practices and standing practices. They all mirror each other. If you lie down in an open posture the breath will fall into the belly in the same way it does when you are sitting in a posture that is open and centred. Equally, if you lie in bed with the body closed up, you will find that the breath will rise in the same way it does if you stand with the weight on the heels. The body is not meant to have its weight on the heels. No animal body is designed to have the weight on the heels and no animal does it, other than human beings. The body is designed to float and bend; it is designed in a series of curves rather than stiff straight lines.
When you place the weight on your heels, your legs are locked back and you will feel jarring through the body. Your pelvis retracts, your chest box will slump and your shoulders will go up to your ears. This shape is stressful and yet, we constantly carry our weight on the heels, with shoulders up and the head forward. These shapes are not good for the body or the state of mind. If you allow the weight to come forward to the front of the foot and the let the knees bend slightly, you will find buoyancy. The stiffness in the body has gone. At the same time, your arms will relax and just hang by the side of the body. So these changes change you ! They change how you feel. If you stand in this position with the knees bent, chest box open and the head up for a little while, you will feel profoundly different. You feel the harmony of the body and mind resting on itself. These are very simple changes.
The human body is designed to be happy, but it also has the skills to meet all sorts of experiences. If I was being attacked by a tiger, the first thing I would do is protect my vulnerable areas. I would raise the shoulders, close the legs to protect the groin and close the armpits and protect all the arteries and the important systems of the body. Such a protective shape would help save me from attack, but you see many people walking down the street just like this. It may be very useful against a tiger, but for shopping it is completely inappropriate. It prevents the experience of connection. If you want to connect with what is going on your body has to be open.
If you are sitting down at a table and notice your hands are gripping a cup, just relax the hands around the cup and feel the feet underneath the table suddenly give way and soften. That letting go begins the process of emptying identity out. These are the sort of physical aspects that meditators have addressed for hundreds if not thousands of years. Writings from centuries ago recommend to teachers 'Watch your students when they are walking in sand, you will notice their manner in the footprints'. Your footprints mirror the trail of personality you leave behind in the world. Breath out and go lightly and there will be no trail of you, nothing left behind.
It is helpful, when walking, to ensure that body is not continually falling over. In walking, the leg moves and then the weight moves. So walking always has the weight over the leg that is resting on the ground. That is what true walking is, rather than running. It is the act of standing, balanced on one leg, moving the other leg and then letting the weight transfer with the belly from one to the other. This seems obvious and yet most people move the weight before the leg has landed, falling forward with both the weight and the mind out of balance.
The practice of walking skilfully will stop the distraction of mind. Attention is fully absorbed in the sensuality of the action rather than drifting off somewhere else. If you walk with the weight balanced on the front of the foot you will find that chattering mind becomes silent. You will connect and merge with the moment. To stop the process of distracted mind, attention must be fully absorbed in the sensuality of the action; moving the leg, moving the weight, feeling the weight resting into the floor. It is the placing of attention in the leg moving, and the weight, and the breath that is the meditation. This is the route into the present moment and to finding out what you truly are.
The way into the moment is to let go of distraction and place the attention on what is happening right here and now. It is a different form of habit, a different form of training from clinging and craving. It is also important that you realise meditation practice is a sensual activity, not an intellectual one. It is the direct experience, even when one is observing thought. It is awareness of the sensuality of the thought process, rather than what the thought means. The work of the meditator is to observe what rises and falls as a sensual event; of the body in the body and mind in mind.
If you follow this practice it will profoundly change your life. It will bring you more in touch with what is really going on, whatever that is. It will begin to feed into the way that you behave, but you must give it time.
These four postures , if you practice them mindfully, will significantly reduce the dependency on exercise. If you can bring quality and ease to these, your practice will become very strong because everything else we do is an extension of them.
They act as the medium through which you can transfer the quality of formal practice into everyday life. Sitting is the most well known of Zen practices, but there are many walking practices, lying down practices and standing practices. They all mirror each other. If you lie down in an open posture the breath will fall into the belly in the same way it does when you are sitting in a posture that is open and centred. Equally, if you lie in bed with the body closed up, you will find that the breath will rise in the same way it does if you stand with the weight on the heels. The body is not meant to have its weight on the heels. No animal body is designed to have the weight on the heels and no animal does it, other than human beings. The body is designed to float and bend; it is designed in a series of curves rather than stiff straight lines.
When you place the weight on your heels, your legs are locked back and you will feel jarring through the body. Your pelvis retracts, your chest box will slump and your shoulders will go up to your ears. This shape is stressful and yet, we constantly carry our weight on the heels, with shoulders up and the head forward. These shapes are not good for the body or the state of mind. If you allow the weight to come forward to the front of the foot and the let the knees bend slightly, you will find buoyancy. The stiffness in the body has gone. At the same time, your arms will relax and just hang by the side of the body. So these changes change you ! They change how you feel. If you stand in this position with the knees bent, chest box open and the head up for a little while, you will feel profoundly different. You feel the harmony of the body and mind resting on itself. These are very simple changes.
The human body is designed to be happy, but it also has the skills to meet all sorts of experiences. If I was being attacked by a tiger, the first thing I would do is protect my vulnerable areas. I would raise the shoulders, close the legs to protect the groin and close the armpits and protect all the arteries and the important systems of the body. Such a protective shape would help save me from attack, but you see many people walking down the street just like this. It may be very useful against a tiger, but for shopping it is completely inappropriate. It prevents the experience of connection. If you want to connect with what is going on your body has to be open.
If you are sitting down at a table and notice your hands are gripping a cup, just relax the hands around the cup and feel the feet underneath the table suddenly give way and soften. That letting go begins the process of emptying identity out. These are the sort of physical aspects that meditators have addressed for hundreds if not thousands of years. Writings from centuries ago recommend to teachers 'Watch your students when they are walking in sand, you will notice their manner in the footprints'. Your footprints mirror the trail of personality you leave behind in the world. Breath out and go lightly and there will be no trail of you, nothing left behind.
It is helpful, when walking, to ensure that body is not continually falling over. In walking, the leg moves and then the weight moves. So walking always has the weight over the leg that is resting on the ground. That is what true walking is, rather than running. It is the act of standing, balanced on one leg, moving the other leg and then letting the weight transfer with the belly from one to the other. This seems obvious and yet most people move the weight before the leg has landed, falling forward with both the weight and the mind out of balance.
The practice of walking skilfully will stop the distraction of mind. Attention is fully absorbed in the sensuality of the action rather than drifting off somewhere else. If you walk with the weight balanced on the front of the foot you will find that chattering mind becomes silent. You will connect and merge with the moment. To stop the process of distracted mind, attention must be fully absorbed in the sensuality of the action; moving the leg, moving the weight, feeling the weight resting into the floor. It is the placing of attention in the leg moving, and the weight, and the breath that is the meditation. This is the route into the present moment and to finding out what you truly are.
The way into the moment is to let go of distraction and place the attention on what is happening right here and now. It is a different form of habit, a different form of training from clinging and craving. It is also important that you realise meditation practice is a sensual activity, not an intellectual one. It is the direct experience, even when one is observing thought. It is awareness of the sensuality of the thought process, rather than what the thought means. The work of the meditator is to observe what rises and falls as a sensual event; of the body in the body and mind in mind.
If you follow this practice it will profoundly change your life. It will bring you more in touch with what is really going on, whatever that is. It will begin to feed into the way that you behave, but you must give it time.
It starts with letting go