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Sometimes I do taoist meditations or other practices but sitting cross legged on the floor which is comfortable for me.
The question I have is … some meditative practices include going down the legs and into the Earth … but if I am sitting on my backside what should I do ? Should I :
(a) follow the practice along my legs even though they are crossed and then down in to the Earth even though my feet are not flat on the floor
(b) just go from perineum straight into the Earth forgetting about the legs
(c) visualise myself with legs straight and doing the practice ‘as if’ I were standing
(d) merge my legs with the Earth, and then do (a)
?
thanks
Depends what method you are following- Bruce has instructed different stages (not all the same, nor jump to the end), so first need stabilize down into the centre (lower dan-tien, energy pt, not anatomical imaged)… once that infrastructure is in place, then when you begin at the top, it layers upon that.. and works to the bottom.
IF one is then doing a practice down (perhaps with a stage of standing to build the infrastructure down to the floor/feet, after above, then when sit have felt that), then do the below (which is not listed in above).
–I’d think that watch any method where one is creating a visual-map imagery and trying to guess (imagine the movements and timing of “going to the bathroom” vs feel it.. likewise, plan out the imagery of writing with a pen/pencil.. vs need to have the feeling-skill of how to move it.)
Or in short answer-
consider:
*
(e) going down through your crossed legs downwards, just as if you were sitting in a bath, and the water was slowly running out..ie. starting at the hips, even as a “thigh”/leg ‘seems’ to go straight- it is still 3D, so the highest part first, (all parts), then lower; in other words, the level goes down inch-by-inch all the way through to the lowest layer.
nice koan ride
What is the sound of crossed-legs walking?
Do (a) and (b) and (c) and (d) and ?
Can a double amputee “sit” without legs?
Can you walk the dao without legs?
Satori without legs?
Can one do bagua without legs?
Can one do tai chi without legs?
Can you connect to the Earth and Nature without legs?
Can one meditate without legs?(a)
I’ve sat daily since 1976 with legs crossed.
Lately I’ve been doing (a).
I go up the spine vertebra by vertebra and follow each vertebra’s corresponding acupuncture meridian, nerves and internal organ; for example:
between lumbar vertebrae 3 and 2 is mingmen.
Its connected with the kidney meridian and the kidneys.
K-1, Bubbling Spring, is on the sole of the foot, between the balls of the foot. Sitting with crossed legs, the Bubbling Spring (a critical energy gate) does not touch the Earth.
I follow the Kidney meridian up to the collarbones where that superficial meridian ends, K-27, Shu Fu, A Vital Transfer to the Palace Treasury. And further to the Ears.
(Bruce places energy gates just inside the ears. So I open these and dissolve–ice to water to gas.)It’s fun.
When meditating at the end of a tai chi class I suggest students sit in a chair and put their feet flat on the ground,
so as to connect the Bubbling Spring with the Earth.
And at the end of meditation we do a little body tapping, ending class by leaning back and tapping the Bubbling Spring.But, sitting in Shikantaza, just sitting, the form is to cross legs–nothing else.
(b)
Dogen’s koan of being (Genjo Koan) says,
To study the self is to forget the self.
then you will have….
cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others.
forget about the legs
go straight into the Earth(c)
‘as if’ standing,
the one who sits and the one who stands are one,
not separate persons.
The Way, the dao, nirvana, is not something substantial like a book that can be transmitted from someone to some else.
It is a “wondrous” transmission beyond anything artificial, substantial.
It is something that “Is so,” something that humans beings cannot create.(d)
Merge everything with the Earth.
Though you and Nature are not identical, you are not one, though not one, you are not many
And go back to (a)
Why just sitting,
when it is only one of the four postures of standing, walking, sitting, and lying down?
Sitting has been universally applied by Buddhist ancestors,
beyond this no further reasons should be asked.
(Dogen)Ah, we each find our own way.
Happy New year.
Thanks Robert, that was very interesting material.
Once you are on the way there are many things that can be discovered, it is wonderous, but also you have to make priorities.
Taosim concerns itself a lot with the body, in a way that Indian spiritual does not … the latter is concerned with getting out of here asap.
The body is a great mystery, far more mysterious than our consciousness. We are our conscciousness but the body and the physical realm is a strange world far away from our pure formless nature.
Lately I have had the feeling that the body and the world is actually inside the formless. Wow.
Happy exploring.
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