EXERCISE 4 - Sitting Down

If you have meditated before, this exercise may be unnecessary. If you have not, be gentle with your body as you try these different postures.

1. Read the instructions for each posture again.
2. Try each one to see if you can do it.
3. Choose one or two that are comfortable.

But It Hurts to Sit Still !
Unless you are very flexible, you will find that sitting meditation places stress on joints and muscles, which causes some degree of pain. You may find that your leg or foot goes to sleep, and then tingles painfully when you move. Your back gets tired, and your knees hurt from sitting cross-legged. As with any other activity, you have to train your body to meditate. It's not just a mental activity. As with any other activity, each day you meditate you will find that your back gets stronger, your knees become more flexible, and your foot doesn't go to sleep as much.

If you meditate for just a few minutes, you may not experience physical discomfort.

If you meditate for longer periods, you may want to get up and walk around a bit in the middle of your meditation time.During meditation retreats, each hour of sitting is broken up with a few minutes of walking meditation.

We can endure pain when we are playing a game or learning a skill. Many people go to the gym and work out to the point of pain in order to give themselves healthier bodies. The same is true of meditation. A little pain will distract you in the beginning, but it does not detract from the end benefits for both body and mind.

Any time you are working with your mind, some emotional response is likely. 
How often do you shy away from an activity because it is as emotionally straining as it is physical? Do you choose to engage in those activities where you excel, and retreat from areas where you can only achieve adequate, or even poor, results? 

In meditation the results are the results—nothing more and nothing less.
There are no fixed goals, and there is no direct path. You may say you want to learn to relax. You find you can relax your muscles but not your mind, or vice versa. One day you lower your pulse and blood pressure, another you don't.

What meditation gives you is a set of opportunities:
• To pay attention to your own mind.
• To develop a friendly relationship with yourself.
• To engage yourself at the intuitive level.
• To allow insight to arise.