Am I sitting right? | Sister True Dedication | #shorts #mindfulness #sittingmeditation

Some folks may think ok I can't have

good posture because I have this pain or

this difficulty. And am I saying everyone

needs to sit in the full Lotus position.

Not at all. I think the most important

parts, honestly, of our posture are, you

know? From our neck and the position

of our head in relation to our spine and

really the trunk of our body. So it's

the up brightness of our spine or the

elongation of our spine. Our spine being

stacked, some people say, and our

shoulders being open. And that is

possible whether we are sitting in full

Lotus, half Lotus on a chair, or even

lying down. So if we happen to be lying

down there are ways to kind of stretch

out and lengthen our spine to roll open

our shoulders. By opening our palms and

to lengthen the back of our neck

while we're lying down. For example, we

have chronic back pain and need to do

our concentration meditation practice in

a lying posture. If we're on a chair how

can we sit so that we're on our sitting

bones. So that we kind of feel that the

back can be fully upright and carry its

own weight. So basically I'm saying you

cannot do sitting meditation on a sofa

or an armchair, is more or less what I'm

saying here. Because that would curve

your spine um and you wouldn't have the

uprightness. Which is one of the

foundational qualities of of the

meditation for us in Plum Village. We do

think the position of the knees are

important because we want to have like a

kind of tripod, so that our knees are

actually touching the ground in order to

get stability there. And there are some

different ways you can establish that.

But the main point is that the trunk

should be open and that we have a

softness around the chest so that our

lungs and breathing can have their deep

and mysterious function and so that our

shoulders can also release their tension.

As we practice

these are some kind of core elements to

what I'm describing and I think

the trick here is to feel that this is a

path, this is a journey, this is something

that can be developed and not to say to

ourselves "oh I can't I can't sit like

this" or "I can't sit like that" and we

kind of give up. But to continually

challenge

ourselves maybe my back could be more

straight my shoulders, could be more open.

My arms could be more relaxed and to see

how we can develop that over time and to

kind of not give up so in the monastery.

That's part of our kind of cultivation

but there are times when folks have back

pain, they might sit on a chair,

or lie on their back or even do slow

walking. If there's too much pain so

there is space always to take care of

our body. But this path of cultivation

can be so rewarding, so it's something to

invest.