Seated Meditation

After the body has been emptied through Yoga Nidra, after the channels have been cleared by pranayama, the practitioner sits. This is dhyana - the seventh limb of Patanjali's eightfold path - and it is the heart of the morning practice.

Meditation is not something you do. It is what remains when doing falls away. The seated posture is the scaffolding for this falling-away. The breath is its rhythm. The gaze, turned inward, is its single direction.

What follows is a traditional method, offered without invention or simplification. Begin where you are. Sit as you can. Return tomorrow.

I · The Seat

Asana - The Posture

The Yoga Sutras describe the meditation posture in two words: sthira sukham asanam - steady and comfortable. This is the entire instruction. The seat must be stable enough that the body forgets itself, and comfortable enough that the mind does not flee into pain.

Traditional Postures

Sukhasana - the easy pose. Cross-legged on the floor, with a cushion beneath the sits-bones to elevate the hips above the knees. This is enough. It has always been enough.

Siddhasana - the accomplished pose. One heel pressed into the perineum, the other heel resting above it. Said to be the posture of the realised ones. Difficult, and not necessary.

Padmasana - the lotus. Each foot resting on the opposite thigh, soles upward. A posture of long discipline. Not to be forced. The knees are precious; do not damage them in pursuit of an image.

The chair - if the floor is not yet available to you, sit on a firm chair. Feet flat on the ground, spine away from the back of the chair, hands resting on the thighs. The lineage does not exclude you. The seat is wherever you can sit.

The Three Essentials

1. Hips above knees. Sit on a cushion, a folded blanket, a meditation bench. Whatever raises the pelvis tilts it forward and allows the spine to lengthen without effort.
2. Spine erect. Imagine a thread from the crown of the head drawing gently upward. The chin slightly tucked. The chest open but not pushed forward. The shoulders soft.
3. Stillness. Once the posture is set, do not move. Itches will arise and pass. The legs may go to sleep; they will wake. Stillness of body is the foundation of stillness of mind.

When the posture is mastered, the dualities cease to disturb. Patanjali · Yoga Sutras 2.48

II · The Hands and Eyes

Mudra and Drishti

The hands rest in a mudra - a seal. The most traditional is chin mudra: the tip of the index finger touches the tip of the thumb, the remaining three fingers extended gently. The palms face upward, resting on the knees. The index finger represents the individual self; the thumb represents the universal. Their meeting is the silent statement of the practice.

Alternatively, rest the hands palm-up in the lap, the right hand resting in the left, thumbs lightly touching - the dhyana mudra. Either is correct. Neither needs explanation.

The Gaze

The eyes may be closed, or held softly open with the gaze directed downward toward the floor about three feet in front of you, unfocused. Closed eyes can encourage sleep; open eyes can encourage distraction. Find which serves you, and use it.

Some traditions direct the inner gaze to the ajna chakra - the space between the eyebrows - or to the heart centre. Others to the tip of the nose. These are not visualisations to be imagined; they are anchors for attention. Choose one. Do not switch from day to day.

III · The Breath

Pranayama Within Stillness

Before meditation proper, the breath is gathered. Three rounds of nadi shodhana - alternate nostril breathing - purify the channels and balance the two streams of energy that govern the mind. This is brief, deliberate work.

Then the breath is allowed to settle. Do not control it. Do not deepen it artificially. Simply observe. The natural breath, when attended to, slows and refines itself. The traditional ratio that emerges is roughly equal in-breath and out-breath, with a slight pause at the top and bottom.

In meditation, the breath becomes the second anchor. When the mind wanders - and it will - return to the breath. Not as punishment, but as homecoming.

IV · The Practice

The Method of Sitting

What follows is the traditional progression of antar dhyana - inner meditation - as taught in the classical schools. It moves from gross to subtle.

1. Settling - The First Five Minutes

Sit. Feel the body's weight settle. Make any final adjustments to the posture, and then commit to stillness. Take three conscious breaths, each one deeper than the last. Set a quiet intention: I will sit, and I will be aware.

2. Anchoring - Breath Awareness

Bring attention to the natural breath. Feel the air at the nostrils - cool entering, warm leaving. Or feel the rise and fall of the abdomen. Or count: in-one, out-one; in-two, out-two, up to ten, then begin again. The count gives the wandering mind something to hold.

3. Witnessing - Watching the Mind

Once the breath has steadied, broaden the awareness to include thoughts. Do not engage them. Do not push them away. Simply notice their arising, their passing. Each thought is a cloud across an unchanging sky. You are not the cloud. You are the sky.

This is the hardest stage, and the most fertile. The mind will offer entire films - memories, plans, arguments, fantasies. The instruction is the same for all of them: see, and return. The seeing is the practice. The return is the practice. The seeing-and-returning is itself meditation, even when it feels like failure.

4. Resting - The Final Stage

In the final portion of the sit, release the technique. Let go of the breath. Let go of the watching. Rest as awareness itself. There is no method here. There is only being. This is the doorway through which dhyana becomes samadhi - meditation becomes absorption - and even that distinction dissolves.

Do not seek experiences. Do not measure progress. Sit. That is the whole instruction.

V · A Companion

The Bell

Set the duration. Choose your intervals. The bell will sound to begin, to mark the passage, and to close. Nothing else. No voice, no guidance, no count of breaths. The silent hour is yours.

VI · A Note on Patience

On Sitting Through Difficulty

You will sit, and the mind will be wild. You will sit, and the knees will ache. You will sit, and an hour will feel like four. This is the practice. Not a failure of the practice - the practice itself.

The teaching does not promise immediate stillness. It promises that, with constancy, a different relationship to the mind becomes available. The mind does not necessarily quieten; the practitioner becomes able to sit beside it without being swept away.

Return tomorrow. Return the day after. The cumulative effect of daily sitting through Brahma Muhurta over months and years is not something that can be described - only confirmed by those who have walked the path.

For one who is moderate in eating and recreation, moderate in work, moderate in sleep and wakefulness - for him, yoga becomes the destroyer of suffering. Bhagavad Gita 6.17