Review And Instruction Suggestions For The Four Postures Meditations (Live Recordings From Two Insight Timer Live Events)

This is an edit of two 15 minute Insight Timer Live events at 11am and 11pm Central on November 10th, 2021 about instruction suggestions for meditating with the four main postures of sitting, standing, lying down and walking. This was inspired by a request for walking meditation instructions during my recent months’ silent Insight Timer Live events with these four postures at Forrest Park in St Louis Missouri. Some of my (edited) original notes and links:

• don’t recommend for many but since “teacher” I invite criticism and questions of all sorts for accountability and quality
• only my study and experience and are mere frames of reference
• encouragement for experiment, practice and to know for yourself
• why silent?
• why so challenging to sit & know you’re sitting?
• sensing not thinking
• upright axis with your spinal column via Ajahn Sucitto
• 32 parts of the body practice at 32parts.com
• details and suggestions for:
  • sitting (dennykmiu.com give good details on formal sitting posture)
  • standing
  • lying down
  • walking
• transitioning from one to another
• everyday practice
• https://joinwisdom.audio/integratingpresence

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Or listen via Insight Timer (app or website)

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The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:

wholeness and welcome

to

this talk

on the meditation of the four postures a

review and instructions

the am session

so obviously as always i invite people

to investigate all this for themselves

it’s just my experience and from my

study and these are just frames of

reference you have to

practice this and experiment for

yourself

and know these for yourself and i

encourage this experiment and practice

with these but more so even is i’m

opening myself for questioning and

criticism of all sorts i mean i

obviously don’t recommend that for

everybody but i’m putting myself out

here as a teacher or whatever it can

only benefit me and everybody else who’s

tuning into this and

who puts any of this into practice it

helps me

be accountable and it it’ll increase the

quality hopefully i mean it obviously

better if there’s constructive criticism

right so we’re not wasting each other’s

time so what i did is on inside timer

did the four main postures

sitting standing walking

and lying down so these are and i guess

unless you’re a yoga teacher you’re

probably in one of these positions most

of the day right

um or in the ballpark of one of these

postures

so why is this so difficult this what i

heard about this practice is basic

practice which is great because it

doesn’t really

draw attention to ourselves so much or

you’re not getting in conflict and it’s

pretty basic

and so i wonder if so many people don’t

see the importance of this

these four main postures

but what really struck me is

why is it so challenging and difficult

to just when you’re sitting know you’re

sitting having that in the forefront of

consciousness

it seems common knowledge but until i

until i pointed that out i really didn’t

have any idea

that i was sitting compared to lying

down standing or walking so i invite you

to check in throughout the day to just

notice what main posture you’re in these

four postures

also if there’s any feedback of why

people think this is so

challenging to just sit and know you’re

sitting there was one of joseph

goldstein’s teachers i think his name

was merninderjee

and he said sit and know you’re sitting

and the whole dharma will be opened up

to you kind of the truth of the way

things are it’s simple but not easy

right and so i chose to do the silence

on on insight timer

and because i i tune in and i see so

many great teachers but i thought it

would be original to just sit there and

not talk right to just practice

you know let people

have part of their own confusion

and

questioning like what’s going on it’s a

kind of novelty of

i’ve never seen anything like this why

isn’t he talking why is he just doing

this and so maybe that was part of the

practice too

dealing with that unknown because

so many things

unknown things can happen while we’re

meditating too

and it’s it becomes part of the practice

either just to set it aside and maybe

come back to it later

or even incorporate that into meditation

and of course you know uh music is

is is a possibility in meditation i

personally don’t meditate with too much

music

when i do listen to music anymore which

used to be all my 20s

it was a big part of my life but now

just listen to instrumental things and

that can be its own meditation just

listening so overall i’ll go into the

kind of the formal practice of these and

then

how they can be practiced in everyday

life or how i

occasionally practice them in everyday

life

overall

it’s switching from the cognitive part

of the mind into the sensing part

of the mind and body

and whatever else is going on and then

there’s our experience directly and then

there’s

our interpretation of our experience so

most of times we’re living in an

interpretation of our experience instead

of a direct knowing and sensing of our

experience

even when when you put words and

vocalize our experience that’s kind of

our interpretation that’s it’s helpful

right we label it with perception

we give labels and language to what

we’ve experienced

and sometimes it’s it’s difficult to

suss out well that’s not actually the

actual experience that’s my uh

explanation my interpretation of it so

that’s all we can it’s like the classic

thing the finger pointing to the moon

will don’t mistake the actual finger

pointing to the moon for the moon itself

right

going through these individually for

sitting probably most people here will

be familiar with a formal sitting

practice i’m not going to spend too much

time on that one

there’s this teacher john succito and i

put his link in the bottom ajan means a

teacher in thai i’m pretty sure

he invites this upright axis with the

spinal column

so tuning in to

kind of where the spinal column is

and a lot of times

the mind will

go off and wander off if there’s no

place for it to be

so this is kind of a gross

gross me

not subtle thing that can be this

awareness of the spinal column can be

with us

and so instead of the mind going all

over the place um which is that’s going

to happen time to time obviously it

gives the mind

an actual physical place also energetic

and

ties in with our sensing as well

recollecting

that spinal column that uprightness and

then recollecting our goodness as well

bringing in

[Music]

a centering quality to

that upright axis also like we can

reflect on what we’ve helped out with

ourselves and others kind of our

practice

gratitude for whatever’s arising

honesty that we don’t have to like

whatever we’re experiencing too that’s a

form of um

goodness being honest with ourselves and

others so just any of these great

qualities the heart qualities um

kindness compassion

uh rejoicing and equanimity

all those can be recollected and then

the mind starts to

unify and concentrate

around those qualities kind of naturally

when we just be mindful of those and

bring those to mind

so in sitting you know denny and then i

do occasionally i’ve taken a little

break from his um

saturday thing just for a little bit for

a while and until i decide how i want to

go forward with that he talks about the

i think he calls it the var via chair

sanskrit it’s horrible

sitting posture so there’s like i forget

how many different points you go through

but i mean just more simply and more

generally

your knees need to be

lower than your hips for more extended

comfort legs knees should be touching

the floor

whatever you need to do for adjustments

for the posture and what whatnot i know

for me

not having any kind of formal

thing with meditation i was getting a

couch cushion off putting it on the

floor and then trying to sit on that and

of course my back hunched and i just it

was wild it

it did help me

correct posture through

kind of forcing having to force my

muscles upright

but anyway that’s kind of standard for

sitting

and then of course choosing a meditation

object is really helpful there’s so many

different types so i won’t go into that

standing now standing i did this the

other day in my weekly meditation that i

volunteer with

and it’s just putting the feet about hip

width

hipaa distance apart

and bending the knees slightly kind of

actually just locking them for a second

so you know where your knees are locked

down might help and then you can um lock

your hands however there’s comfortable

even leave them at the sides as well and

this is one to do when you’re tired

because as far as i know no one has ever

fallen asleep there’s been some times

i’ve really been

sleepy and i started to fall asleep but

as my body starts to fall it obviously i

wake up and i catch myself and i’ve

never felt fallen over so if you find

yourself nodding off in sitting

meditation if you really want to do it

still keep meditating without falling

asleep you can stand up and do standing

meditation

all right now to the lying down this is

probably the most challenging one to do

because we’re just

our bodies just kind of encoded to go to

sleep when we’re lying down right so

there’s different methods i mean in yoga

there’s a constructive rest so you can

actually put your knees in the air hands

down to the side and then when you start

to fall asleep the hands will fall over

the knees won’t fall over the one i did

on inside timer is kind of in the lion’s

pose i don’t know if that’s the same

thing in yoga but it’s the one if you

ever see the buddha lying down kind of

supports your head

the shifu or master that i studied with

he puts a little pillow into his stomach

so it gives kind of like a physical

feedback of focusing on the breath

can help if the eyes are open a little

bit as well

there’s some other things

like denny says you know there’ll be a

point where we there could be a point

where we’re we’re not able to have any

other posture but lying down and so

that’s why it can be so important

now walking meditation formal what i was

doing on there for me it helps

to have bare feet

contact with the earth i know it’s

getting cold here so that’s not always

possible

there’s methods there’s several methods

you can just simply focus on the

sensations in your feet like you’re

getting a foot massage

and just keep bringing the tension back

and back to that you can also

note lifting moving placing so when the

foot

rises up that would be that would be

lifting and then when it moves it’s

moving and then when it sits down that’s

placing so if you like to

kind of neurotically label things

i’ve been there done that still do

sometimes that’s one way to involve the

mind on the process and to keep it from

wandering off as much but eventually you

can remove those labels and you could

just sense lifting moving placing

and you can also notice really details

like the um

the foot will go down maybe towards the

arch and then the heel will go down and

then the toes

are you know are all variations

thereabouts um

okay also okay so the transitioning so

we can be mindful of when we transition

between the four major postures

okay so in everyday life i guess the

most important ones are the walking and

everyday life i’ll just touch on that

you can still blend in to the crowd you

can just pay attention to the sensations

in your feet that’s the easiest way and

just walk normal you can also like your

imagine you’re moving through water so

your your shoulders and hips are swaying

as well well guys that’s it

wholeness

and welcome the first

uh link is a youtube video of the

insight timer live events that i’ve

recorded uh just it’s under a minute

long and i did silent

sitting standing walking and lying down

and during the walking meditation a

participant mentioned that

she really liked it but she would like

more instructions and since it was

silent

i did not give those obviously then so

here we are now and maybe

i’ll spend less time of an intro here

but i did than i did on the the one this

morning you know i was going through

these inside timer live events i was

like well

nobody’s quite done anything like i did

with the that i know of i mean i don’t

watch all of them obviously or

even hardly much of them at all i guess

but i haven’t seen anybody do a silent

thing i’m sure there’s there’s some

though maybe but anyway so is he silent

these four main postures which are we’ll

just jump right into it these are

what we’re gonna spend most of our time

in unless we’re doing something um like

a yoga instructor or

i don’t know like you’re a underwater

diver

but for the most part these four main

postures are where we spend most time in

and there’s formal practices with these

and we can practice with these in

everyday life as well

so just

quick before we actually before we dive

in here

so i know that i’m putting myself on

you know as a teacher here so i invite

criticism actually and i don’t recommend

everybody do that obviously but you know

if i’m putting myself out here in public

i

um

it helps me grow in a in its quality

control as well

and keeps me accountable

so and then these are just my

experiences in my study and my practices

for a frame of reference for you guys

um obviously i encourage you to

experiment and practice and know these

practices for yourself

so the main question i have with these

four you know simple things that we do

every day day in day out continuously

pretty much sitting standing walking

lying down is why is it so difficult

to know

you’re sitting when you’re sitting like

until i mentioned that i really wasn’t

aware that i was just actually sitting

because this is not something that’s in

the forefront of our awareness that

often as far as i know i mean

please share your experience but

you know it and i still don’t have a

good answer for it why is it so

challenging

to when you’re standing know you’re

standing when you’re walking while

you’re walking when you’re lying down

know you’re lying down

if i had to venture a guess maybe i

would say it’s because

people don’t value just this simple bear

awareness but it’s actually a really

powerful practice

i think joseph goldstein’s teacher

i mentioned this this morning um

berninderji said sit and know you’re

sitting and the whole dharma will open

to you and dharma here meaning the not

just the teachings of the buddha but the

just reality itself

kind of provocative statement

basically i’m sure you’re all familiar

with sitting practice formal sitting

practice meditation so for all these

postures

it’s helpful at least in my experience

to

switch from the thinking mind to

sensing

so anything i

will say now is just kind of my attempt

to explain in language what’s actually

going on in the experience so

it’s sensing

our experience

so basically it’s like sensations so if

we’re choosing breath as an object

we might feel pressure

movement

i feel tingling

coolness

warmth

vibration

pressure

lifting

subsiding

so all these these are words and you

know obviously we can label these

um but we don’t have to we can just feel

them and experience them directly

and of course it’s okay to explain your

experience afterwards we have to do that

to relate to each other and of course a

relation

relationship is everything in life even

to

ourselves and our own experiences

now

moving on to

standing

standing meditation

doesn’t get as much airplay i guess as

sitting

or even walking meditation

what it can do though

is

standing meditation

will bring

energy

like a fire type energy to

to your practice so

the instructions are basically sitting

hypo distant or feet hypo distant apart

and then um

briefly locking your knees so you know

where they lock but you don’t want to

keep them locked while meditating

so slightly bent and then rocking back

and forth on the feet side to side to

find a balance point

and then picking an object you can

either focus on the breath

or you can put pressure on the feet

ah not pressure on the feet i’m sorry um

you can put the attention on the feet so

you can notice

sensations in the feet

and then

another

way is to

lock your hands

art that can be down to the side

and so um what tends to happen

especially when you start a formal

meditation practice standing

is um it can be

uncomfortable a little bit and there’s a

tendency to want to move or readjust and

that can be done too

it’s just noticing when the body wants

to move and then

readjust

formal standing meditation there’s this

teacher um ajahn suchito

put his link in here too

and um find him really helpful

he talks about this upright axis this um

in your spinal column so some people

call this the hara line or the central

channel

and so the mind tends to go out

um

if it doesn’t have a like a place to be

so that’s one place especially since

it’s often associated with the nervous

system

so when the mind collects and gathers in

the central channel the upright spinal

column

and then we recollect good wholesome

qualities skillful qualities wise

qualities

maybe things that have benefited us

benefited others

gratitude the heart qualities like

loving kindness compassion rejoicing

equanimity

then the mind is tends to

gather and unify by itself and what

better way to have attention

um place than in the body

on the

central nervous system and all the other

things going on in that area of the body

and the way the winds move through them

okay so that’s standing meditation now

lying down

meditation is um

there’s a formal practice so like i was

talking this morning you can do if

you’re into yoga asana you can do

constructive rest with knees in the air

obviously and

sides of the hands down so when you

start to fall asleep the knees will tip

over

and

that will wake you up

also going back to standing really

briefly as far as i know no one’s ever

fallen asleep and fell over or they’re

standing meditation

i’ve started to fall asleep many times

and

the body will just wake itself up and

re-correct before you get into any kind

of danger zone it’s really quite

interesting if you’ve never experienced

that

it’s it’s something that because the

body has its own intelligence right we

walk over ice and we don’t have to think

about balancing or oh i’m slipping the

body just readjusts and corrects itself

if we’re in the body right

okay so back to lying down the formal

lying down process the other one is

lion’s pose or um lion’s posture i don’t

know if it’s the same as in yoga but

with the head on the arm and the shifu

or master

dharma master i learned from he puts

like a pillow or something in his um

pressed

firmly up against his gut so there’s

like a physical presence for feedback

because lying down meditation can be

very challenging because you know we’re

associated with falling asleep when we

lie down

so in everyday life that can be

practiced as just kind of have an intent

to do some formal lying down meditation

before we go to sleep or you know so

eventually you’ll fall asleep

and but before that we can take a few

breaths conscious breaths or whatnot

there’s even a way to

set the resolve to

i haven’t done this yet

become conscious of the last breath we

take to know if it’s an inhale or an

exhale before drifting off to sleep now

i have been able to

a few times notice if it’s an in-breath

or an out breath upon awakening that

seems a little bit more doable still

very challenging but that’s one way to

also do formal lying down meditation

with sleeping

now walking for me it helps to have bare

feet on real earth or natural material

to kind of get that feedback and

negative ion exchange with the earth

which is the healthy negative ion

exchange if you have a salt lamp that’s

the same

thing you can look that up and look up

earthing earthing is really healthy for

all kinds of different things

so with walking there’s a there’s the

method formal walking meditation you can

lifting

moving placing each foot so if you like

to mental note things lifting one foot

moving and then placing

what i was doing i was doing more of

this

the the dharma master was he calls it

his tai chi walk where the weights in

the back foot

and then the the foot going forward is

placed and then once it’s firm only when

it’s firm is when the next foot goes

forward and the like i said the weight’s

always on the back foot and then when we

notice our our foot touching the ground

uh a lot of times it will go

different ways very subtly so like the

ball

and then maybe the toes and then the

arch and then the heel or it could be

you know the heel um the ball the toes

the arch so and then there can be all

kinds of variations and you know how

much pressure is on each toe

or what order the toes go down and you

know the timing of it so i mean

obviously you’re not gonna think of all

these things and label them and

visualize them or whatever or i guess

you could but

um it’s just feeling and sensing

that and it can can get uh very subtle

but it doesn’t have to be either

so um

i’ll just spend a few moments here about

how to do this in everyday life uh

without drawing attention to yourself to

these things so we talked about lying

down a little bit but so the

transitioning stage though in formal

practice so that’s one of the most

challenging things so if you get up from

a sitting practice a formal sitting

practice

it’s to keep the mindfulness being aware

that it’s being

the posture is being changed from

sitting to standing

and then from standing to walking

or if however you transition to lying

down and then back from lying down up

okay so everyday practice um the sitting

um

this i don’t really have many good

things to add on this i know the it’s a

whole another

can of worms for interacting with

computer which i’ve

really challenging with um

staying mindful when interacting with

computers to the point where sometimes i

will notice that my body’s tensed and

tense and hunched up and i’ll just

ignore it and keep interacting with the

computer um if you guys have tips

chime in here you know there’s a few

things but i’ll bypass them today

standing it’s that’s pretty in everyday

life it’s not too much we stand although

if you’re in the the grocery aisle line

you can stand and just be aware that

you’re standing right and be aware that

seeing is happening of course walking

this is the most common one and then

i’ll wrap up here

you can walk like you’re moving through

water

so the hips and shoulders can sway like

moving through water also just walk

normally and pay attention to the

sensations in your feet at a normal

normal pace that’s another good way to

do it

yes and then this last one it’s one i’m

working with here too is the 32 parts of

the body of course there’s more parts of

the body but

if anybody’s interested in that practice

going through systematically 32 parts of

the body it’s 32parts.com

a little bit over time i’m going to wrap

this up i appreciate everybody

joining and hopefully got something out

of this