How To Sit For Meditation For Long Hours (At Home/Silent Retreat)
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
- I used this Meditation Posture at 3 10-day Silent Retreats. Want to know how to sit for meditation for long hours? Look no further.
Full Blog Post: bit.ly/3sgnH9x
Having a good meditation posture is often under-emphasized. It is both conducive to deeper relaxation which primes the mind for deeper investigation of mind and body, helps prevents injury and reduces pain in the body. This is useful when sitting at length for many hours daily such as a S.N Goenka 10-day Vipassana Meditation retreat or even just at home for 5-20 minute sits. It's important to realize that there is no perfect meditation posture. Making a short video on how to sit for meditation such as 'how to sit for meditation for beginners' is impossible as each individual is different. Moreover, there are many different meditation postures.
Traditionally, these are Walking, Standing, Sitting and Reclining. I didn't mention this in the video, however various postures produce different energetics. If you can lie down without falling into dullness/lethargy, go for it. Sitting is the most popular of all postures however as it is reliably allows for wakeful/relaxed investigation of mind. In this video I present 6 KEY principles for a successful meditation posture. They can be applied across many different meditation postures (such as Lotus). The posture presented in this video is known as 'Burmese' style or 'Easy pose'.
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Check out my new video 'I meditated for 2hrs daily for 2.5 years - Honest Reflections' if you're interested in what deep practice may result in.
ua-cam.com/video/885WJodCXwc/v-deo.html
This is called Ardha Sidhdhasana. Ancient Indian yogic posture. Did you mention it ?
This is essentially how I try to sit when i meditate but your video helped me identify some areas I can tweak! Thank you!
It was very usefull . I sat for 3 hrs 17 mins!!!
Damn.. that's more than I've ever done. Glad it works well for you my friend!
Yep buddy and keep on making videos on meditation . You are doing great!!
Congrantz!
👍👍👍🔥🔥🔥
Hritik bro ... I am Shambhavi practitioner. I can sit for 2 hours, but no longer. I need to sit for 4 hours to go beyond physical. I need help. This is urgent. Please help.
Brother you saved my kneecap it was breaking apart sitting for 3 hours in a sadhna . I used soft cushions and was sitting directly over them and after 2.5 hrs it was starting to pain and was breaking my focus. I'll try this it looks good I gave it 15 minute test
great video! sounds like wisdom from an experienced vipassana old student!
I have trouble with my ankles opening up, I find that I can kinda do this, posture, but I have to spread my legs enough to give my ankles room to maintain an 'L' shapes. The main posture I rely on is similar to this, but more spread out and on various benches that I've designed to accommodate the lazy posture that I'm accustomed to.
I love how concise you made this 🙏🏻
Rewatched about 5 times. Very useful, thank you :)
This is one of the best videos on how to sit while meditating. Many omit or do not give enough attention to the fact that your knees should be below your hips but you did just that.
Yes, in my experience it's very important.
Thank you so much for this. I will watch it several times
Fantastic tips, thankyou!
I use this posture but you video clearifyed some points. Thank you!
Thank you! This is very helpful !!!
Very helpful, thanks! 👍🏼
Great video Sam! Thank you and keep up the good work!
:) no problems Ugne!
Great video - thank you very much. and the tip to sit towards the edge of the Zafu made a big difference
Thank you very much;) your video was helpful
Revisiting this to polish my posture. Very useful
Tank you so much, it's help me a lot!
thank you! great content..
thanks for sharing!
Its the very best i found
Thank you for your help. Been trying to find the right position.
Thanks much love ❤️
Good stuff Sam! Thank you!🙏
My pleasure Rafal.
I have been meditating for last 2o years. Never had issues with positioning - never bought anything special.
Great tips, will try and see.
Thank you soo much
Thank u. I’m spending a week of the winter retreat with the monastics at mid America Buddhist association right now and am going to try this in 25 minutes. I’ve been sitting in half lotus for years and it has its issues.
I will be updating my posture thanks for the tips!
Awesome man! Glad it was helpful ;)
Excellent video.
thanks so much
Well said!
I’ve been struggling so much, thank you for this !! You’re surrounded by angels 💛🥰
So glad it could help you Ivana! :)
Thanks Sam, that's cleared up a few posture issues for me. I love that cushion by the way 😀
Very useful tips! Thank you for sharing that with us :D
My pleasure! Glad you found it helpful
Thanks for the tips!
No problems man!
Thank you for all the advice.
You're very welcome :)
Great video. Helped me a lot! First time I’ve been able to keep a practice going.
So good to hear Victor!
Thank you
This information in the video has been a life saver for me ...thank you so much Sam!!!😍
You're very welcome brother!
Yes it helps me Mr.
Did give useful insight
Nice to hearing thanks 🙏 🙏
Thanks so much, God bless you!!
You're very welcome ☺️
Your advice on posture is so helpful and gave me the exact information I was searching for… thank you so much for your clear, simple and succinct explanation 🙏🏽🌺🙏🏽
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you. This was helpful.
You're welcome Abhishek!
I will try this. Thank you! Trying to get prepared for a 10-day retreat in June.
you're welcome!
Thanks , Will definitely try👏🏻👍🏼
you're very welcome KS!
Thanks bro! This video help me a lot!
You're welcome brother! :)
Thanks a lottt!
You're welcome Kavin! :)
thank you for this, i always had back pain from trying to keep my back straight and i couldnt meditate for long periods of time
This will definitely help me
Thank you
My pleasure brother. Glad it could be helpful for you
Very helpful!!
🙏
Thank you Sam this will be a recommend vdo to my friends. I don't have a problem when i sit like this because i get used to it. My new year's resolutions is do a meditation more than 30 minutes. I hope that i could reach to 1 HR.
My pleasure Mali. Keep me posted! :)
I love the free light-show I get during meditation. I even wear sleeping mask for complete darkness
Haha sounds fun!
THANK YOU BRO.
No worries Mason!
Awesome video. Just what I needed. Going Vipassana next week. Wish me luck 😃🤞
Good Luck!!! Make good use of the time ;)
This video was so useful. I was struggling with my posture
So glad to hear it was helpful Aashna!
Thanks my friend. I will try with this leg position. It’s has been also helpful lately to do the posture exercise from Jeremy Ethier vídeos to keep upright throughout the meditation.
Will have to check him out brother. Glad it could help you!
Will try the cushion again!
Hope it helps out.
Very useful video. Thanks. The best tip I've gotten about posture is the chin tilt. It helps lighten head weight away from the neck and keeps the neck from feeling compressed and tight. Good tip, Sam.
Definitely.. It's crazy how much the neck can hold tension. Glad you found it useful Jonathan!
Check out the Alexander technique! It centres around balancing the he'd and keeping it free and buoyant!
Brother you have explained the most difficult and needed thing - correct posture - in a very scientific, technical and simple manner. God bless you 🙏🏻
Love from Jaipur 🙏🏻
Much love back at you brother. Glad it was helpful!
100% going to get myself a cushion. Definitely been feeling it in my lower back sitting without a cushion and even on a chair I get the same thing as my back naturally wants to fall backward
Awesome brother :) definitely can help!
2:14 Bro, This helped so much I currently have a strain MCL from BJJ so meditating was getting uncomfortable. Thanks this helped
So glad brother. That's awesome!!
Yes
Subscribed.🏴
I'm thinking of attending my first Vipassana 10 day retreat and have heard the biggest negative is finding a position that works for all those hours. I usually sit in something similar to what you are suggesting but now that I have a meditation cushion (gift from my daughter-in-law) I will try your posture. Thank you.
Excellent, I hope it works for you Alison!
This is perfect.
One suggestion, if you keep the hands resting on thighs near knees
palms facing downwards, back pain will not arise for long. However if you are comfortable with this posture kindly continue.
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
May we all be happy and peaceful 💝
Great suggestion my friend!
Be happy :)
Thanks brother for the tips, I will definitely try it. I was using padmasana to sit during meditation for an hour but it generates heat in the body which causes sweat and slides the feats off each other, even they are a bit painful during and after mediation. But padmasana helps me to focus well
Give it a try brother, can always revert back to your old posture 🙏
Glad you found it useful.
The Lotus pose is an excellent pose for meditation
Sam thank you so much
Much love from India 🇮🇳 ♥️
Namaste
Much love from Australia man!
@@SamRoff keep promoting such beautiful yoga and meditation 🧘♀️ videos.
They are truly Inspiring.
Thank you Sam for suggesting the book ' The illuminated mind' it is the best meditation guide i ever read.
Kindly suggest more good books.
No problems at all Reema, it's almost the bible of meditation, isn't it 😂
Daniel Ingrams Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha is a powerful compliment (although a little controversial). I'd also highly recommend 'Seeing that Frees' it it follows similar tropes to The Mind Illuminated.
Hope you're well Reema!
S.N.Goenka says choose any sequence , whether it's taught by them or created by us . But sequence of order is important . So i want to go with their sequence . So please make a video , if possible make a video on guided point's step by step .
Neevu meditation maadtira
Nimma e kelasakke manna pranamagalu 💕
kannada language?
@@ankita_156 howdu bro
helpful
You're welcome my friend
Im still amazed by the number of hours one can spend in such position, and on top of that even meditating hah hah. Personally the best I did is one hour so eleven hours is mind blowing to me. Anyway, I was struggling to keep my meditation position for such long time even if its just 15 minuts so this might be my cure. I shall give my opinion after few days of trying it out.
Great video. I would just have added that it's absolutely fine to sit on a chair or with back support. Not everyone is physically able to sit on the ground or cross their legs. How about doing a basic video on actually how to meditate like "Jump start your practice" in pg 23 of The Mind Illuminated.
Thanks J, Definitely. And I appreciate the suggestion. I'm going to be working on some fundamentals-type videos coming up so that's a great suggestion
I have an patellar instability causing my knee cap to dislocated and lock my knees in the bent position when I sit with legs crossed. I really want to figure this out because for the short times I sat in burmese It changed my meditation experice deeply.
I will use this posture and see if it works for me.
Great Aneesh! Hope it works for you man
Is there any stretches you did to be able to sit like this? I’m struggling to get into this position
I'm totally going to try lowering the knees.
Awesome!
Very helpful video. Thank you so much 😊. Seems like you are a vipassana meditator. You are glowing. Saadhu saadhu saadhu 🙏 I just found out what zafu is 😂 Gonna sew my own.
Glad you found it helpful friend. May the zafu you purchase give your butt many calluses from sitting ardently. Haha
@@SamRoff haha hope so too
Amazing tips... I just tried sitting in this posture to meditate.. I could sit for 38 mins but after that i could feel lotta tingling/pinching sensation on my feet and hence stopped there. Then i had to lie down for few mins until the tingling/pinching faded. Any tips on how to over this so that i can sit longer?
Very useful. Thank you very much Sam. One question please, how are you managing the sleep to go away during long meditation and hence maintain the same posture for long hours?
There's a lot of antidotes you can use, rather than listing them here I actually made a video on this specifically you might enjoy
ua-cam.com/video/d62S1K-zgqs/v-deo.html
Best of luck :)
How to make folding both the legs flexible?
What about walking, standing, and reclining!?
Hahaha perhaps a future video man. Just wanted to hit sitting in this one as it's the most common/reliable
I’ve been working on this for the past week and am not able to do it. My knees don’t touch the ground and so all the weight is on my rear, and on the top of the foot just below the ankle - which gets painful! It looks like you are kneeling and sitting at the same time, which I can’t manage. Hmm! Tough for me, and I’d like to use this pose because it looks very natural. Alas. Thanks, jz
Try raising the cushion higher and sitting closer to the edge. Hope that helps :). Although remember this posture might not work for everyone, people have different anatomies.
@@SamRoff Thanks SR, will do! And I understand I might have some unfortunate limitations -- wondering if I can work towards this, or if it will be forever outside of my reach. Hopefully not, it does look like an efficient posture. Cheers and best wishes! jz
This is called Ardha Sidhdhasana. Ancient Indian yogic posture. Did you mention it ?
Nope! I thought it was called Burmese/Easy Pose. Cool to have more context
Im seeing white color,Green and last Violet,,what it is?
I was doing some variation of this posture, but still, it is quite painful for me. I'll try with rotating feet and a higher cushion. Thanks for the tips.
No problems Sergejs, will be glad if it can help you!
Very helpful. Can you tell me what is karma biting practice? Thank you!
So glad it waa helpful.I'm not sure Cheryl! Sorry I can't be of help there
@@SamRoff you mentioned it at 4:15. The transcript says ...if you're doing shamata or karma biting practice... Maybe you said something else? Hopefully you can clarify. Thanks! 😊🙏
@@cheryle7920 ohhhh
Calm adibing
Not karma biting 😅
@@SamRoff haha that's funny! Thanks for the clarification.
@@cheryle7920 abiding* and you're welcome :) calm abiding is synonymous with Shamatha meditation, means the same thing.
Pain is bless . Don avoid pain went meditate . Those meditator encounter pain blessed .
In no time U will realizes four noble truth .
True but you don't have to get sadistic about it. You want to preserve the body as to not cause long term injury. A degree of relaxation is helpful. No matter what posture you assimilate, eventually pain will become apparent that can lead to an investigation into the nature of sensation. My thoughts on this.
Just an add on peeps
Don't move. Stop moving. Sit totally still. Don't even move your eyes, tongue or toes . Let it be. It'll pass. Just observe your breath or thoughts.
Keep focus between eyebrows.
Very helpful tips. I find myself swallowing my saliva periodically and its find of distracting. Any tips on that?
Haha I feel you, I recall this has been a difficulty for me on meditation retreats. You can take the sensation/urge to swallow as an object of meditation for investigation/insight. What is this intense urge to swallow? What sensations drive me to swallow? This sort of deepening of investigation into ALL experience is valuable that eventually permeates outward to all of experience on and off the cushion. Let me know if you have any questions friend.
Also, swallowing is not bad. If you feel resistance to wanting to not do it, take THAT as the object of meditation. And then say you feel weird about inquiring into the resistance to swallow. Take THAT as the object. Nothing is excluded from experience you see 🙏
@@SamRoff Thank you!
@@mub9087 My pleasure, let me know if you have any more questions :) have a great day.
Putting your tongue resting on the palate, touching the back of your upper teeths should help with that, it's actually a really natural position and it reduces saliva production. Hope it helps
Do they provide cushions at the 10-day retreat?
At the ones I attended - yes absolutely. Not sure about every center around the world though.
Have you experienced numbness in this position? I'm wondering if that goes away after getting used to it.
Yeah I do. You can try shifting your weight around in your butt and then tends to help. But I rarely get numbeness anymore after sitting this way for many many hours. Sometimes I still do but it’s not the throbbing painful kind, just numbness - which isn’t a problem.
I am 6ft6 tall and can only sit for about 30 mins before the pain in my upper back becomes too distracting. Have tried reclining meditation but has a tendency to put me to sleep
Hello Brother , i did Vipassana beofre 5 years ago , i lost the sequence of points where we need focus our attention from top to bottom . Can you please make a video on those sequence points which has been taught in meditation centre . Sequence is important . 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Hey mate, I appreciate the suggestion! I might make a fundamental video on 'what is vipassana' in the future and talk about this briefly but from memory he says it actually doesn't matter what order you use, as long as you scan the entire body. Finding a system that works for you is what's important, as the goal is to feel subtle sensation over the entire body to appreciate its changing nature. The order isn't so much important. Let me know if that helps my friend
I saw video of an Goenka where he says order is important . So please create a video on sequence.
@@cprogramming1 Interesting, can you please link me the video?
It is in Hindi language . There are many q and answer videos are there . It was one of them .
What do you do if you don't have the cushion?
Sit on any elevated surface. A stair could work. Or any cushion in the house. It doesn't have to be a Zafu like i used in this video :).
Hi Sam!
I've been to 2 Vipassana retreats also. I use 2 zafoos and sit on them kneeling on the ground. By doing that, I have 5 points of support, my 2 knees, my 2 feet, and my butt. With my posture, I've been able to sit 2 hours without moving. Once in a while, I try to sit crossing legs but I don't have the flexibility to touch the ground. In this posture, I have deep insightful meditations, probably because of the trancendence and lessons of the pain (I usually complete the hour without moving), but then my groins became sore in the region where the tendon is attached. I tried your posture right now but I don't have the flexibility to achieve it. This is going to be my posture on the future. Any tips to improve flexibility?!
Hey Savio! 2 retreats, awesome!
I would suggest the following:
1. You could try to set your feet in the way I describe in the video to the best that you can manage. If you can't get your knees all the way to the ground, your lower back will try to compensate by arching requiring more effort. If this arching gets too much, try resting up against a wall. Over time, your hips will open (It's bound to happen if you commit to it, especially 1 hr daily). Raising the cushion slightly higher will also help and could be a good alternative to having your back against the wall - especially for vipassana practice where working with pain can actually be a tool to strengthen equanimity.
2. Try some formal hip opening exercises with Yoga. Personally, I use the phone app 'Daily Yoga'
Hope that's helpful :)