Full-Lotus

[rain]

[松永道]

There must be something that comes good from half lotus or what about seated on a chair?

 

Full lotus has these benefits:

 

In proper full lotus position the legs are a stable platform for the strait spine. Half-lotus requires a pillow to acquire this posture. Cross legged a higher pillow. Kneeling also correctly orients the spine. Sitting on the front of a chair (so the equipment would be hanging down men) also puts the spine in proper position.

 

Yet there's also a transformation that occurs in full-lotus. The pain in the legs will move from ankle, to shin, to knee, to thigh, to butt, to coccyx. This stretching out, opening up is transformative. Then the pain will start moving up the spine. Where the pain has already been overcome is full of free flowing qi.

 

So in a sense, full-lotus will force you to overcome more personal issues (they are all disturbed qi flow) to obtain relaxation. Trancing out in a bed or chair is interesting, but you're not dealing with the whole body, only a superficial level of body relaxation is required.

 

But no rush. Where ever you are at, if you are dealing with pain and overcoming it with relaxed awareness you are progressing. It's as simple as that. Everyone's pain bodies are structured differently. Consider yourself lucky, the naturally flexible will have to search harder for their pain.

[Yoda]

Rain, you always make me laugh!

 

Drew, thanks for sharing... cool story! I know someone who passed out holding his breath in a grade school contest too. During band practice.

 

 

 

And then there is the full lotus vs siddhasana debate. From the Hatha Yoga Pradipika:

 

The Siddhasana.

 

37. Press firmly the heel of the left foot against the perineum, and the right heel above the lingha. With the chin pressing on the chest, one

 

should sit calmly, having restrained the senses, and gaze steadily at the space between the eyebrows. This is called the Siddha asana, the opener of the door of salvation.

 

38. This Siddhasana is performed also by placing the left heel on the Medhra (above the penis), and placing the right one next to it.

 

39. Some call this Siddhasana, some Vajrasana. Others call it Mukta asana or Gupta asana.

 

40. Just as sparing food is among Yamas, and Ahimsa among the Niyamas, so is Siddhasana called by adepts the chief of all the asanas.

 

41. Out of the 84 asanas Siddhasana should always be practiced, because it cleanses the impurities of 72,000 nadis.

 

42. By contemplating on oneself, by eating sparingly, and by practicing Siddhasana for 12 years, the Yogi obtains success.

 

43. Other postures are of no use, when success has been achieved in Siddhasana, and Prana Vayu becomes calm and restrained by Kevala Kumbhaka.

 

44. Success in one Siddhasana alone becoming firmly established, one gets Unmani at once, and the three bonds (Bandhas) are accomplished of themselves.

 

45. There is no asana like the Siddhasana and no Kumbhaka like the Kevala. There is no mudra like the Khechari and no laya like the Nada (Anahata Nada).

 

Padmasana.

 

46. Place the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh, and grasp the toes with the hands crossed over the back. Press the chin against the chest and gaze on the tip of the nose. This is called the Padmasana, the destroyer of the diseases of the Yamis.

 

47. Place the feet on the thighs, with the soles upward, and place the hands on the thighs, with the palms upwards.

 

48. Gaze on the tip of the nose, keeping the tongue pressed against the root of the teeth of the upper jaw, and the chin against the chest, and raise the air up slowly, i.e., pull the apana-vayu gently upwards.

 

49. This is called the Padmasana, the destroyer of all diseases. It is difficult of attainment by everybody, but can be learnt by intelligent people in this world.

 

50. Having kept both hands together in the lap, performing the Padmasana firmly, keeping the chin fixed to the chest and contemplating on Him in the mind, by drawing the apana-vayu up (performing Mula Bandha) and pushing down the air after inhaling it, joining thus the prana and apana in the navel, one gets the highest intelligence by awakening the sakti (kundalini) thus.

 

51. The Yogi who, sitting with Padmasana, can control breathing, there is no doubt, is free from bondage.

[gendao]

#27 - You are also missing another primary purpose. Full lotus is the one position that opens and brings your huiyin down closest to the ground (huge Yin reservoir). This allows you the fullest connection between Heaven & Earth as a human lightning rod.

Once the energy channels are opened then a person can sit in full-lotus, which is a tetrahedron, made up of 4 equilateral triangles, each made up of two 2-3-4 triangles, resonating as yin (3:4) and yang (2:3). The full-lotus is a very quick and powerful means to harmonize the electrochemicals of the body. Eventually light can be shot out of the eyes, via the 3rd Eye or the pineal gland, so that healing of others can be achieved. This is a natural resonance revolution from the formless awareness. More details can be found on my old blog, drewhempel.gnn.tv.

Drew, could you post or link some mp3s that have the perfect yin (3:4) and yang (2:3) harmonic ratios?

 

Because I still don't really understand all this mathematical music theory...but it might help if I could actually HEAR the difference in comparison to modern Western music that does not have it.

 

Also, I would really love to see a vid of you generating an O at a D on some unsuspecting girl. Would you ever consider videoing this sometime and letting us watch her cluelessly squirm and quake from your projected yang light bliss?

[rain]

[mantis]

when i sit in full lotus i feel a warm tingly sensation all over, pretty good

[Ian]

I think a distinction can usefully be made between

 

1) getting enough flexibility to sit in full lotus

and

2) actually having ones legs cleared enough that sitting in full lotus is a good idea.

 

I know I've ranted on this before, and I really don't want to be more of a miserable bastard than necessary, nor do I want it to appear that I'm persecuting Drew Hempel, however obliquely.

 

BUT I would like to reiterate that there is a school of thought that full lotus, or indeed any kind of crossed leg posture is very much an obstacle to health for beginners. And that we are more beginners than we think.

 

For starters this posture originated in places where there weren't chairs! And yes it's stable and concentrated, if what you want to do is force stuff up to your head in order to have head-based realisations.

 

But for overall taoist body-based health the legs gotta be included. Healing requires that bioenergy settle down. Right down. And 60% at least, of healing release from chi kung or seated practices goes down the legs. And spending ages with legs awkwardly folded prevents this unless you have done massive massive amounts of leg clearing before hand. Like five-ten years' worth.

 

If your path doesn't involve clearing all the gunk out of your system, or if you really think you've already done that, then please ignore this. But otherwise, please be careful. Sit in full lotus and tune in to nothing but your legs. See if they, not the rest of you, feel alive. Then do a lotus walk. Feel the difference.

 

I'll shut up now. Sorry.

[Yoda]

what's the lotus walk?

[Wun Yuen Gong]

Good points Ian, i also like to add that if one is in constant pain of full or even half lotus how does one reach stillness/emptyness or even consider being relaxed?

 

I know that some pain can lead people into a certain bliss state but is it the same state of bliss to something like Kunlun or other Dao, buddhist systems?

 

Ive got pics of Daoist gods seated on chairs not in lotus positions. I have seen many Buddhist pics of lotus though!!!

 

Does pain mean you are getting better results??? hmmm

 

WYG

[voidisyinyang]

OK well if you read NISA -- the Bushmen female healer -- she states that she stopped healing because the pain was too great.

 

This is true -- the pain of a BROKEN HEART!

 

Actually NISA states that females can take the pain of child birth so therefore males take the pain of healing -- how the N/UM -- the boiling heat -- works its way through the body, enabling stronger healing energy.

 

Gurdjieff states the same thing and you'll find this in Autobiography of a Yogi, as well as Master Nan, Huai-chin's books.

 

The body is inversely proportional to the level of energy or spirit that a person creates -- so the deeper samadhi the deeper it works on the body.

 

Advaita Vedanta uses left-brain logic -- inference -- to just focus the energy straight to its source, until the heart actually stops for over 10 minutes and then restarts. After that "eternal liberation" is achieved -- meaning that all pain immediately empties out to pure consciousness, with each breath/thought.

[sunshine]

If I got it right full Lotus can happen spontaneously if a "critical mass" in ones practice is reached... before that it might be better to go without for most of us...

 

 

Harry

[sheng zhen]

when i sit in full lotus i feel a warm tingly sensation all over, pretty good

I feel wind blowing through my body when in full lotus.

[Spectrum]

[Smile]

Ian is giving a smart advice. This is not a competition. The wise man knows when to go slow to build a stable foundation. Stretch your hip area. Love your knees.

[Smile]

Drew, did you read "Healing Codes for Biological Apocalypse" by Leonard G. Horowitz? Here is a review of this book.

[voidisyinyang]

Yeah I read Leonard Horowitz' book -- he relies on gematria or "one-to-one correspondence" of letter and number, therefore he's no different than anything Western civilization cranks out.

 

As for using up energy -- sickness is caused by EXTRA energy in the body but it's just not harmonized. So to shoot energy out the pineal gland while in full-lotus you actually heal yourself because you transform lower emotions (lust, anger, fear, worry) into bliss-light or love-light, healing energy. You also take in the lower emotions of the people around you -- so if a person is an alcoholic and angry then you feel your liver get hot, sadness, you feel the lungs, fear the kidneys, worry, the pancreas.

 

As for lust -- well since this energy exchange works on complementary opposites then it's a matter of connecting the life-force energy of the reproductive organs with the heart energy whereas the left-brain dominance of the West cuts off that connection causing fear, anger, worry and sadness to dominate.

 

At first I wasn't sure if I was just losing energy or not -- but then I realized that if I do this too much then I also have to convert the lust energy I've taken in from females (or male perverts) and make sure it gets ionized into heart energy again, or else in sleep, subconsiously, it will convert back into water.

 

So normal loss of sex energy is not harmonized with the mind -- it's separated from the brain through left-brain dominance and therefore it's separated from the other organs and emotions and the connection between sex and love is lost.

[松永道]

Edited April 1, 2008 by 松永道

[Wun Yuen Gong]

Yo, that post was awesome and thankyou made alot of sense for many things for me!!!

[rain]

..............

Edited April 17, 2008 by rain

[Ian]

what's the lotus walk?

 

It's one of my all time favourite things.

 

Just walk, body loose as if you're the happiest bunny on the planet, and feel every footstep, every contact of the soles of your feet with the ground.

 

It drags your attention down through the body - you can sometimes feel it pulling through tight areas. And if you get loose enough you will lurch and stumble like a drunk. Only then do we find out how much tension we need to walk normally.

 

It's called lotus walk because after a while (maybe quite a long while) you get little explosions under each foot, that have been likened to a lotus flower opening.

[minkus]

So normal loss of sex energy is not harmonized with the mind -- it's separated from the brain through left-brain dominance and therefore it's separated from the other organs and emotions and the connection between sex and love is lost.

 

Hey thanx Drew

 

*Respectfull bow*

[voidisyinyang]

Yes Yogananda in his Autobiography of a Yogi was told that the full-lotus BURNS KARMA and so this is a no brainer! haha.

 

Now for something completely different....

[voidisyinyang]

OK left the house again BEFORE I went into full-lotus (danger, danger). So made the requisite primal "uaahs" as I just went into full-lotus for the first time today.

 

Who's with me?

 

I feel that kundabuffer stretching out, the knees are coming down. I'll soon put the feet up farther on the thighs and I'll look for to more magic.

 

Yes Yogananda in his Autobiography of a Yogi was told that the full-lotus BURNS KARMA and so this is a no brainer! haha.

 

Now for something completely different....

[gendao]

I just attended a Flower of Life workshop and was told that the lotus is an ideal position because it places precisely half the star tetrahedron (primarily the female part) underground into the earth. Which goes back again to the concept of seeking a well-connected balance between Yin Mother Earth with Yang Father Sky.

 

However, I believe it's better to be comfortable first - and work up to that position second. Because if you are in full-lotus but really tense from it, most of your fringe benefits will be negated as you won't be able to go very deep when you are so distracted by your pain body. And if you can't go deep, then the rest won't even matter that much.

[Wun Yuen Gong]

Vortex,

 

The flower of life seminar sounded good did they give any explaination to the chinese stone lions holding the ball that is the same pattern of the flower of life or any chinese connection?

 

If you like to start a thread on the Flower of Life seminar would be awesome if not its kool! Was there anything else on meditation and Flower of Life?

 

regard

WYG