02-10-2012, 10:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-10-2012, 10:42 PM by Steppingfeet.)
Gribbons,
I've been attempting the discipline of daily meditation since 2002 (though lack of time, or fatigue, or the occasional hangover sometimes intervene). For years I didn't understand how people could sit upright and meditate on the ground. Though in a physically healthy body myself, attempting to sit upright on the floor was too much of a strain, and required way too much of my attention to maintain any sort of focus.
Sometime around 2006 I attended a workshop at the Omega Institute in New York where they have lots and lots of these: http://www.dharmacrafts.com/2zzset/Dharm...plies.html.
Two cushions, one called a zafu, the other a zabuton, allows you to sit with your but elevated above your knees and ankles. With this arrangement you can sit upright on the floor without back support with relative ease.
The instant I tried a zafu/zabuton it worked beautifully. I soon after purchased my own that I continue to use to this day. My sessions last anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes, and occasionally up to an hour. Once I set my position, my back never interferes with the meditation's focus. Would highly recommend.
Alternatively, these operate on the same principle and work well: http://www.dharmacrafts.com/100xMB/S7013...onomy.html. (You can find them cheaper or just build one yourself!)
About heaviness, this affects me as well. Like you, I have a (knock on wood) excellent physical complex, but a mind that weighs heavy with confusion and suffering, especially when taking into account this world's seeming state of affairs.
One thought to offer: there is a fundamental error, you might say, in the premise which says, "I should base my own joy, love, and light according to what is happening/not happening around me or in the world."
If we make our emotional well being and state of mind dependent on outer circumstances, we're setting ourselves up for failure, I think. No configuration of catalyst and circumstance will ever be perfectly to ones liking, and if it ever happens to configure itself just to ones liking, it will be fleeting and soon change.
Better it is, I think, to find the strength, the resolve, and the focus to greet the catalyst of the moment, no matter how it appears or how undesirable its outer appearance, with a disciplined attitude of love, acceptance, and appreciation; and cultivate a the capacity to witness whatever arises in the moment with equanimity.
Ask yourself not what your catalyst can do for you, but what you can do for your catalyst. (Thanks, JFK.
) In other words, instead of hoping for an arrangement of catalyst that creates pleasure/happiness, ask oneself what opportunities of service exist within the situation. Personally I think recognizing and experiencing the love already present in the moment is the meat of whatever service might be rendered.
: ) GLB
I've been attempting the discipline of daily meditation since 2002 (though lack of time, or fatigue, or the occasional hangover sometimes intervene). For years I didn't understand how people could sit upright and meditate on the ground. Though in a physically healthy body myself, attempting to sit upright on the floor was too much of a strain, and required way too much of my attention to maintain any sort of focus.
Sometime around 2006 I attended a workshop at the Omega Institute in New York where they have lots and lots of these: http://www.dharmacrafts.com/2zzset/Dharm...plies.html.
Two cushions, one called a zafu, the other a zabuton, allows you to sit with your but elevated above your knees and ankles. With this arrangement you can sit upright on the floor without back support with relative ease.
The instant I tried a zafu/zabuton it worked beautifully. I soon after purchased my own that I continue to use to this day. My sessions last anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes, and occasionally up to an hour. Once I set my position, my back never interferes with the meditation's focus. Would highly recommend.
Alternatively, these operate on the same principle and work well: http://www.dharmacrafts.com/100xMB/S7013...onomy.html. (You can find them cheaper or just build one yourself!)
About heaviness, this affects me as well. Like you, I have a (knock on wood) excellent physical complex, but a mind that weighs heavy with confusion and suffering, especially when taking into account this world's seeming state of affairs.
One thought to offer: there is a fundamental error, you might say, in the premise which says, "I should base my own joy, love, and light according to what is happening/not happening around me or in the world."
If we make our emotional well being and state of mind dependent on outer circumstances, we're setting ourselves up for failure, I think. No configuration of catalyst and circumstance will ever be perfectly to ones liking, and if it ever happens to configure itself just to ones liking, it will be fleeting and soon change.
Better it is, I think, to find the strength, the resolve, and the focus to greet the catalyst of the moment, no matter how it appears or how undesirable its outer appearance, with a disciplined attitude of love, acceptance, and appreciation; and cultivate a the capacity to witness whatever arises in the moment with equanimity.
Ask yourself not what your catalyst can do for you, but what you can do for your catalyst. (Thanks, JFK.
) In other words, instead of hoping for an arrangement of catalyst that creates pleasure/happiness, ask oneself what opportunities of service exist within the situation. Personally I think recognizing and experiencing the love already present in the moment is the meat of whatever service might be rendered. : ) GLB
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear, but love unexplained is clearer. - Rumi
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