standing meditation: who does it & how

[sunshine]

I am interested in which way people do standing meditation.

 

Do you proceed a certain way, like starting with holding hands in front of Dan Tian, then at heart center then at third eye...?

 

how long do you hold each position?

 

Do you visualize anything or concentrate on certain points (like Dan Tian or Third eye) or just hold the position and emptying the mind?

 

any questions I have not asked you might want to answer?

 

thankx in advance

 

Harry

[spyrelx]

As I've said before, I highly reccomend "The Way of Energy". It's a simple, clear, powerful and well-illustrated book about standing meditation.

 

And the practice I do is largely from that book. They start in "wu wei", just standing quietly with arms to side. Then they do 4 postures in horse stance:

1. arms up at chest height, palms facing in (classic horse)

2. arms down palms facing floor

3. hands up near shoulders with palms out (like a fly on a wall)

4. like position 1 except arms down by the dan tien, palms facing in.

 

The idea is to move from 1 though 4 holding each for whatever length of time you've worked up to (e.g., 2 minutes each, 5 minutes each, etc.). I usually do about 20 minutes total, give or take 5 minutes.

 

Like most standing meditiation practices, they just advocate a calm mind during it, i.e., no visualizations, ect.. "Just stand".

 

For my own practice, sometimes I do quiet mind and sometimes I run the orbit. Ocassionally I'll do something els (e.g., Ken Cohen's "three tan tien meditation" or an inner smile meditation) but usually it's either quiet mind or the orbit.

 

HOWEVER, I kind of discovered something that I'm convinced is built into the Way of Energy 4-part practice but is not explicitly stated in the book. In position 1 the back channel is activated, in position 2 the central channel is activated, and in position 3 the front channel is activated. I often feel them/concentrate on them during these positions. You can either run energy through them or (what I would reccomend) just be aware of them with a quiet mind. When you get to the position 4, all the energy naturally collects in the dan tien! It is an extrordinarily elegant practice.

[sunshine]

>>And the practice I do is largely from that book. They start in "wu wei", just standing quietly with arms to side. Then they do 4 postures in horse stance:

1. arms up at chest height, palms facing in (classic horse)

2. arms down palms facing floor

3. hands up near shoulders with palms out (like a fly on a wall)

4. like position 1 except arms down by the dan tien, palms facing in.<<

 

 

Thankx for taking the time... will get that book soon I think...

 

regarding the positions above:

second postion: do I just turn them down from the position before... do the tipps of the right and left fingers show towards each other... are the arm still in a round position?

 

third position: fingers pointing directly up, elbows directly down???

 

thankx again

 

Harry

[GrandTrinity]

its different every time, there are infinite ways to do it, to put your hands, up down, pulsing chi, guiding it, whatever

[spyrelx]

Here's some answers

 

"regarding the positions above:

second postion: do I just turn them down from the position before..."

You just relax your arms and move them down to the side, and out a bit, and hold your palms out to the floor, as if you were feeling energy come from the ground.

 

"do the tips of the right and left fingers show towards each other..."

Not really, see above

 

"are the arms still in a round position?"

See above. The arms aren't flexed straight, but their not rounded as in the horse stance. They are just out to the sides a bit, but otherwise relaxed.

 

"third position: fingers pointing directly up, elbows directly down???"

Yes

 

Remember, all these positions should be as relaxed as possible. If you feel like you are tensing a muscle to hold a position you are probably doing it wrong.

 

If I can I'll try to post pictures from the book (no promises, I'm hampered by time constraints and my own lack of technological skill, but I'll see what I can do).

[Trunk]

I am interested in which way people do standing meditation.

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Lately I've been standing in very natural stance, arms at side - a little out to the sides (what Yoda has referred to as "gun-slinger" posture).

 

I keep my breathing centered in the lower tan tien, but I allow my meditation to migrate amongst the three centers (power, love, wisdom).. Allowing the energy to move there as seems natural, doing some refinement at the center, and resolution into the deep-center of each. I find that this approach is providing much easier, more fluent, and more coherent, integration.

 

I've been thinking for some years, now, suspiciously - that all the time just on one center (lower tan tien) is a somewhat silly approach. Experience is confirming, for me, that a three-center approach is more fruitful. Allowing for the fact that the lower energies are denser, so there is generally more time spent refining the lower center. And that the lower center is a good basis for breathing. But to include the love and wisdom center energies in the curriculum, in the blend, is just balanced and healthy.

 

Trunk

[BobD]

You just relax your arms and move them down to the side, and out a bit, and hold your palms out to the floor, as if you were feeling energy come from the ground.

For a picture, see here

 

I don't do standing any where near as much as I should. To be honest I'm struggling with my morning practices at the moment. Need a good kick up the arse. When I do standing, I follow the Lam Kam Chuen approach from this book, and try to stand 5 minutes or so in each position (or longer in those I am concentrating on - mainly 1 and 4 from spyrelx's post)

[sunshine]

thankx very much for the link

 

Harry

[spyrelx]

Trunk said: "I keep my breathing centered in the lower tan tien . . ."

 

I'd like to talk a bit about breath. I notice that I don't breath much at all during standing meditation.

 

Also, rather than having my breath centered in my lower belly, I find that my breath appears kind of shallow and centered in my chest (or perhaps both the belly and my chest).

 

I've gone through periods of worrying about this, and tried to center it more in my belly, but that always feels kind of false.

 

I should note that in everyday life I'm normally a belly breather. I also don't think this has to do with tension, since I seem to breath this way during standing regardless of whether I'm tense or not. Indeed, the MORE relaxed I am, the less I seem to breath and the "shallower" my breath becomes.

 

I'm wondering If anyone else has any thoughts or experiences regarding this.

[Yoda]

Doesn't sound like a problem, increase your knee bend if you want to breathe more.

 

The gunslinger looks just like high noon in Dodge City. Many people move the hands slightly forward a few inches, but do whatever feels best.

 

My experience with the gunslinger is that it is the safest way to really get a charge from standing--the energy stays low and strong doesn't get stuck upstairs. I get angry if I spend much time focusing the energy on the head or heart.

 

-Yoda

[Trunk]

...during standing meditation.

Also, rather than having my breath centered in my lower belly, I find that my breath appears kind of shallow and centered in my chest (or perhaps both the belly and my chest).  ...

I should note that in everyday life I'm normally a belly breather.  I also don't think this has to do with tension, since I seem to breath this way during standing regardless of whether I'm tense or not.  Indeed, the MORE relaxed I am, the less I seem to breath and the "shallower" my breath becomes.

5259[/snapback]

There are the meditative states where breath stops, or sometimes nearly stops as one approaches those states. It goes to a very rich deep place. Could be that you are going that direction during standing meditation. (?)

 

In any case, what you are doing seems to be working for your body, and that's the main thing. When your body is ready for something else, things'll shift, and then something else will be right.

 

There is some physical integration that comes from doing the lower belly breathing. It does tap into the more physical layers, and so integrates.. whatever you're working with, with that. For me, the lower tan tien is more and more the pivot point from working with earth energy through the legs and the higher energies that are drawn from the upper.

 

It could be that some moving work, especially in which your legs are moving (and so the ltt engaged) could be complementary work in which its more natural for you to do lower belly breathing.

 

Trunk

[Cameron]

Of course the second i say I am taking a break you guys start talking about really interesting stuff..

 

It depends on whether you are talking about shallow breathing or the breath stopping.

 

Shallow breathing means you are breathing at the normal BPM(breath per minute) for a normal person or Qigong novice this is around 15 or so breaths per minute.

 

What Ken Cohen says in his book is after standing for a regualar period and getting good your BPM's should go down. The number he is shooting for is 3 or 4 BPM. A simple way to test this with standing meditation is to count your breaths. If you count sixty breaths in any standing meditation posture and it takes 5 minutes you are really still a Qigong beginner and have pretty shallow breathing. With time and patience you should get to the point(per Cohen's book) that sixty breaths takes about 20 minutes

 

My experience is this has to do with both mental and phyisical tension. For example, when I do a zazen practice the Mind may be very busy and stressed out from the day and the first few minutes my breath is shallow. After 30 minutes or so my body really lets go into the posture and drops into the lower tan tien and the breath may become very, very deep.

 

One thing I read from a zen teacher that I liked which is I think applicable to both sitting zen and standing meditation is you don't need to focus on making anything happen. It's mostly about letting go and when that truly occurs everything that is supposed to happen happens. The breath drops into the tan tien, circulates in the orbit, connects with the heart center, etc etc. It all goes by itself if you just learn to let go.

 

Or as one zen teacher so eloquently told me " Learn to trust the process".