Main concerns of simple yoga (5)
1 Intend to be the best person that you can be when you practice yoga.
2 Allow your breathing to be free and thorough.
3 Straighten your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort.
4
Support your posterior (hips and the ends of your thighs at your hips) seated
firmly and support the ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees
firmly in a position that’s as near to a completely developed cross-legged
position as you can experience comfortably in your present physical condition.
5 Stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far enough
to press your knees downward then align your shoulders, arms, hands and head
with the position of your backbone as well as you can and hold those parts of
your position still as long as the position is comfortable.
Chapter 1 describes how to combine these concerns to gather your legs,
hips and backbone into a comfortable cross-legged position to remain seated
still to benefit from the position of your body.
Chapter 1 contains enough information
for you to begin and progress in simple yoga without personal help from an
instructor.
The
priority of concerns that you need to follow to place your body in the best
cross-legged position that you can to remain seated still to benefit from the
position of your body is the same priority of concerns that you need to
maintain to ensure that remaining seated still will be beneficial.
Although you might experience any one of these five parts of the method
naturally before the others, you need to maintain these five parts of the
method in this priority of their importance to benefit reliably from the
position of your body when you remain seated still to benefit from your
physical position.
Each concern supports the following concerns and each successive
concern helps to maintain the preceding concerns.
Intend to be the best person that you can be
when you practice yoga
The
first concern of simple yoga
1 Intend to be the best person that you can be when you practice yoga. It’s
sufficient that you intend to be the best person that you can be as you
understand it and as well as you can. Intend that all of your thoughts and
experience will be positive, beneficial, while you remain seated still
to benefit from the position of your body.
You need to intend to be the best person that
you can be for your breathing to be free and for the position that you hold
still to be reliably beneficial. If
you don’t intend to be the best person that you can be your breathing won’t be
free and the position that you hold still won’t be reliably beneficial.
You cannot practice the yoga that’s described
in this text when you’re concerned with thoughts that are negative as you
understand or experience them. Remaining seated still when you don’t intend
to be the best person that you can be can reinforce emotionality and discursive
thinking.
When you intend to be the best person that
you can be the illuminating quality of your mind pervades all of your experience
to some degree.
2 Your good intention, free and thorough breathing and maintaining the
best position of your body that you can are mutually supporting. You naturally experience beneficial positions
of your body during many ordinary experiences. This text provides information
that can help you to maintain a reliably beneficial position nearly
effortlessly.
You need to be seated in a position that’s as
near to a completely developed cross-legged position as you can experience
comfortably in your present physical condition to benefit reliably from the
position of your body while you remain seated still. The
intention to be seated cross-legged in a position that’s as near to a
completely developed cross-legged positon as you can experience comfortably in
your present physical condition is inherent in the integrating quality of an
upright position of your backbone and the proportions of length and range of
motion of your legs and arms and their potential to be gathered together into
progressively more integrated positions.
You can also use the method of simple yoga to
be seated in a beneficial position that’s not cross-legged. A method of breathing
is described that can help you to verify that the upright position of your
backbone is beneficial. When you use the method to ensure that the inhalations
of your breathing can be effortless you can experience many of the benefits of
a cross-legged position when you’re seated upright on a firm flat support with
your legs extended forward or when you’re seated upright on a firm chair with
your feet supported on the floor like when you’re standing.
3 Devote your attention to maintaining the best position that you can
maintain comfortably. Intend to be aware of your physical position.
Concern with your imagination, memory or discursive thinking can result in
becoming distracted by ideas or expectations and you might not perceive or
control your position as well as you do ordinarily.
A beneficial position is comfortable and easy
to hold still. When
you’re seated in the most integrated position that you can maintain comfortably
your position will be easy to hold still. A position of remaining seated still
that’s not comfortable and easy to hold still is not reliably beneficial. When
your usual cross-legged position is as integrated as you can maintain
comfortably gradual loosening and rotations of the ends of your thighs at your
hips allow you to support first one then both of your ankles comfortably on the
shin of your opposite leg beneath them.
Allow your breathing to be free and thorough
The
second concern of simple yoga
1 Breathing is an experience that’s intangible like your mind and tangible,
material, like your body. Breathing shares all the qualities of your mind. Allowing
your breathing to be free joins the illuminating quality of your mind with the
integrating quality of maintaining an upright position of your backbone still
and the proportions of length and range of motion of your legs and arms and
their potential to be gathered together into progressively more integrated
positions.
Your breathing will become free immediately
when you allow your breathing to be free. Whenever you allow your breathing to be
free your breathing will become as free and thorough as it can be in your
present physical condition.
Your breathing will gradually become more
thorough. Your breathing might be shallow and fill only
a small part of your lungs when you begin to be seated still. When you remain
seated upright and still in a cross-legged position that’s as near to a
completely developed cross-legged position as you can experience comfortably in
your present physical condition and allow your
breathing to be free and thorough your breathing will gradually become more
thorough.
2 When your breathing is free you can straighten your backbone with a
small muscular effort and hold a beneficial position nearly effortlessly. You need to allow
your breathing to be free while you’re placing your body in a position to
remain seated still and while you remain seated still to benefit from the
position of your body.
You need to allow your
breathing to be free to stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned
forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward. Allowing your
breathing to be free [allows you to balance or harmonize] the muscular effort
and rest in the muscles that support your backbone standing upright and curved
or leaned forward slightly. How to verify that the upright position of your
backbone is beneficial by observing or ensuring that the inhalations of your
breathing can be effortless is described in Chapter 1 and described in detail
in Chapter 8.
3 Don’t try to slow your breathing or hold your breathing still while
you’re remaining seated still to benefit from the position of your body.
It’s not beneficial to try to slow your
breathing or hold your breathing still while you’re practicing simple yoga.
Your breathing might become still sometimes while you remain seated
still.
Your breathing becomes still naturally and harmlessly during many kinds
of ordinary experiences.
While you’re remaining seated still you might
pause between exhaling and inhaling and allow your
breathing to be still for a while until you naturally begin to breathe again. The benefits of breathing continue for a
while even when you’re not exerting muscular effort to breathe.
4 Don’t hold your body still to help your breathing to be free.
Holding your body still can help your
breathing to be free after you’re supporting your legs and hips firmly in a
beneficial cross-legged position and standing your backbone upright and curved
or leaned forward far enough so that the inhalations of your breathing to be
effortless.
Remaining still in any natural and comfortable
position might be beneficial as long as you adjust your position to maintain
your position natural and to relieve discomfort.
If you hold your body still before you’re
maintaining the concerns that combine to make the position of your body beneficial,
the position that you hold still might not be beneficial and might become
uncomfortable or numb.
5 Some influences that might not interfere with the beneficial motion
and rest of energy in your body when you’re moving can disrupt, block or spend
the energy in your body while you remain seated still. Those influences are described in Chapter 3.
Tight clothing or an elastic waistband, stretch fabric or any cloth
pressed in the folds of your knees interfere with the beneficial motion and
rest of energy in your body while you remain seated still. Elastic and stretch clothing exert constant
pressure on the surface of your body that confuse and frustrate the motion and
rest of energy in your body and cause conflicting muscular tensions in your abdomen
that interfere with free and thorough breathing and straightening your backbone
while you remain still.
Tensions in your abdomen that are caused by
wearing elastic or stretch fabric don’t diminish by remaining still and might
cause nausea, anxiety or drowsiness.
6 The support beneath your body should be firm when you remain seated
still to benefit from the position of your body. You
need to support your posterior (hips and the ends of your thighs at your hips)
firmly -and support the ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees
firmly -and stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far enough
to press your knees downward -to distribute your weight on three firm bases of
support -to experience the integrating potential of your cross-legged position.
If
the support beneath any part of your body is not firm when you remain seated
still your breathing won’t be free. Springs, sponge, elastic or
rubberized supports exert fluctuating pressures when they're condensed by the
weight of your body. The energy in your body moves continually to remedy the
instability of your position and the muscles of your abdomen and legs move continually to
adjust your balance. Even when the
position of your body is beneficial when you’re supported
on springs or
sponge or a rubberized surface your breathing won’t be free and your position
won’t be still.
Tensions in your abdomen that are caused by
the support beneath your body not being firm don’t diminish by remaining still
and might cause nausea, anxiety or drowsiness.
7 Don’t rely on help from another person to maintain a beneficial
position of your body. Although another person can observe the
position of your body while you remain seated still and can tell you how your
position appears as they see it, depending on that help to maintain a
beneficial position will distract your attention from allowing your breathing
to be free and straightening your backbone, and your breathing won’t be free
and you won’t be able to maintain a beneficial position.
Similarly if you engage in conversation or
eye-contact, or watch or listen to another person while you remain seated still
to benefit from the position of your body, your breathing might not be free and
you might not be able to hold the position of your body still.
8 When your thinking is confused or when you’re anxious or ill your
breathing might be obstructed or impeded. Maintaining the concerns of simple yoga can
help to remedy confusion and anxiety and some causes and effects of illness.
Don’t concentrate on a difficulty of your
physical position. If you focus your attention on a difficulty
of your physical position any longer than you need to remedy it as well as you
can that will interfere with the natural remedy of simple yoga. Energy won’t
move and rest freely in your body, your breathing won’t be free and you won’t
be able to maintain a beneficial position.
9 When you’re standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned
forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward you
can verify that the angle that you’re curving or leaning forward is beneficial
by condensing the muscles of your abdomen inward to exhale then relaxing those
muscles so the following inhalation is effortless. If you’re not curving or leaning forward far
enough or too far the following inhalation won’t be effortless. When you’re
seated in a beneficial cross-legged position and standing your backbone upright
and curved or leaned forward sufficiently the muscles beneath your thighs and
hips and at the sides and back of your body exert more effort to support your
position upright than they exert ordinarily. This allows the muscles at the
front of your body to exert less effort to support your position upright than
they exert ordinarily. The comparative rest of the muscles of your abdomen and
chest allows your breathing to be more free and thorough than you experience
ordinarily.
Condensing the muscles of your abdomen inward
to exhale then relaxing those muscles so the following inhalation is effortless
can be as free and thorough as breathing spontaneously.
Although exerting effort to exhale and inhaling effortlessly can help you to
verify that the position of your backbone is beneficial you don't need to be
concerned with your breathing any other way than allow your breathing to be
free and thorough.
10 When the muscles that support your body upright become too tired to
support your position nearly effortlessly you’ll need to exert more muscular
effort to breathe. When you become tired your breathing will
become difficult. Then you should rest.
Don’t remain still if your position is not comfortable. You won't benefit
reliably from remaining seated still when your position is not comfortable. If your breathing is not
nearly effortless or you cannot stand your backbone upright nearly effortlessly
any position that you hold still might become uncomfortable or numb.
You
can practice simple yoga beneficially for as long as only one cycle of inhaling
and exhaling your breathing. You don’t need to remain seated still for a
long time to experience the benefits of an integrated position of your body.
Even a moment of experiencing an integrated position of your body is
beneficial.
Straighten your backbone as well as you can
with a small muscular
effort
The
third concern of simple yoga
1 Straightening your backbone is the third main concern of simple yoga. Although
you might intend to be the best person that you can be spontaneously and might
allow your breathing to be free and thorough naturally before you straighten
your backbone, you need to intend to be the best person that you can be and
allow your breathing to be free and straighten your backbone as well as you can
with a small muscular effort in this order to benefit reliably from the
position of your body when you remain seated still to benefit from your
physical position.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort is natural and nearly effortless. You straighten your
backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort during many of the actions that
you do ordinarily.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort for even a moment is beneficial. Straightening your backbone as well as you can
with a small muscular effort frees your abdomen
and chest from [conflicting] muscular tensions and [allows] your breathing to
be free and to become more thorough.
2 Straightening your backbone as well as you
can with a small muscular effort gathers the energy in your body to establish a
foundation of rest and strength in your abdomen and draws all of your energy
into alignment with your entire backbone between the lowest level and the top
of your head. The spaces between the individual vertebrae of your backbone
expand minutely where the vertebrae
were pressed together excessively. Each vertebrae separates minutely from the vertebrae above and below
it. This allows energy to flow more freely through the vertebrae and
vitalizes your backbone.
3 Your backbone remains flexible and you can move any other part of
your body while you’re straightening your backbone as well as you can with a
small muscular effort. Straightening your backbone as well as you can
with a small muscular effort does not interfere with your freedom to move any other part of your
body.
Don’t think that you need to become still to straighten your
backbone. You can straighten your backbone as well as
you can with a small muscular effort while you’re moving as easily as you can
straighten your backbone as well as you can with a small
muscular effort while you’re still.
4 Straighten your entire backbone when you straighten your backbone as well
as you can with a small muscular effort. Straighten all the levels
of your backbone as well as you can between the lowest level and your waist,
between your waist and shoulders and the upper levels
of your backbone, neck and head. Don’t try to improve the straightness of a
particular level of your backbone. Straightening a particular level of your
backbone should follow being already seated firmly in a beneficial cross-legged
position and standing your backbone upright and curved or
leaned forward slightly.
Any
level of your backbone might straighten spontaneously before the other levels.
Straightening your backbone as well as you
can with a small muscular effort straightens your entire backbone to some
degree and in time straightens excessive curves of your backbone naturally and nearly
effortlessly.
5 Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort
should always be comfortable. If your experience of straightening your backbone is not
comfortable, move your body for your position to become
comfortable or rest for a while.
Don’t imagine lifting your backbone or being lifted or suspended. Imagining lifting your backbone
or being lifted or suspended does not help
to straighten your backbone nor help to improve your seated position nor
help to stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward slightly. Imagining lifting your backbone
or being lifted or suspended when you’re seated
will cause you to exert confused
muscular effort or no effort at all and you won't
be able to remain still.
Don’t try to cause unusual feelings inside
your body and don’t be concerned with unusual feelings that occur if they’re
not uncomfortable. If you feel or hear the motion of fluid or air inside your
body, observe its relation to the inhalations and exhalations of your
breathing. If the motion of fluid or air occurs during both the inhalations and
exhalations of your breathing, it might be caused by exerting
excessive muscular effort or holding a mistaken position of your body. Exert less muscular effort or
improve the position of your body, or move or rest for a while. If the motion
of fluid or air occurs during either the inhalations or the exhalations but not
during both, and if it continues for only a few cycles of your breathing, then
it might be an effect of tensions relaxing beneficially like they do ordinarily.
6 If you don’t straighten your backbone as well as you can you might
not exert enough muscular effort to support your body upright with normal
stability and control. You might not straighten your backbone as
well as you do ordinarily.
Your backbone might not
straighten naturally or spontaneously when you don’t intend to straighten it. Don’t imagine that your backbone is already straight
enough or that your backbone will straighten when you don’t exert enough
muscular effort to straighten your backbone as well as you can. Straightening
your backbone won’t reliably follow intending to be the best person that you
can be and allowing your breathing to be free if you don’t straighten your
backbone as well as you can.
7 You need only a little energy or strength in the muscles that
adjoin your backbone to straighten your backbone as well as you can with a
small muscular effort.
Don’t exert more than a small muscular effort to straighten your
backbone. Exerting
excessive muscular effort to straighten your backbone is a common mistake and
reason for not continuing to practice yoga.
Don’t try to generate force or cause pressure inside your body while you
remain seated still to benefit from your physical position. Trying
to generate force or trying to cause pressure inside your body while you remain
still can damage fragile parts of your body.
If
you exert excessive muscular effort to support your body while you remain
seated still the energy in your body won’t move and rest beneficially. The
hazards of exerting excessive muscular effort while you remain seated still are
described in Chapter 3.
If you perceive that you’re exerting too much
muscular effort, exert less effort and improve the position of your body as
well as you can. Exerting too much muscular effort does not reliably diminish any
other way than by exerting less effort and improving your
position. If
you don't exert less effort and improve your position you might continue
exerting too much effort and your position won't be beneficial.
8 Your backbone will move and become straighter when you straighten
your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort.
Your backbone will become as straight as it can be in your present
physical condition, within the natural range of your
strength and
flexibility at the present time.
The
physical change that will occur in the straightness of your backbone might be
very small when you straighten your backbone as well as you can with a small
muscular effort. Your backbone might move only a small amount toward becoming
straighter.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can might not change your
position immediately as you perceive the position of your body.
The position of your backbone
might seem to not change because the change that occurs
might be small, or because you might not perceive the change that occurs.
The
apparent straightness of your backbone as you might imagine that your position
might appear to another person is not relevant to this description of
straightening your backbone. Straightening your backbone as
described here is an internal action and
experience and is not defined by how
your position might appear to another person if another person were observing the
external appearance of your body.
A position of your backbone that you
straightened as well as you can might not appear straight or even nearly
straight to another person if another person were observing the external
appearance of your body. Straightening your backbone as well
as you can might not straighten your backbone enough so that another person
observing your position would know that you straightened your backbone.
9 Pressure on the surface of your body caused
by tight or elastic clothing confuses and frustrates the motion of energy in
your body and distracts your energy from straightening your backbone as well as
you can with a small muscular effort while you remain seated still.
When you’re experiencing pressure on the surface of your body because
you’re wearing tight or elastic clothing it’s possible that when you intend to
straighten your backbone the muscles that need to exert effort to straighten
your backbone won’t exert any effort at all.
Don’t rely on a stimulus
to straighten your backbone because you cannot control the effects of a
stimulus to remain seated still to benefit from the position of your body. The harmful effects of
tight or elastic
clothing and relying on a stimulus are described in Chapter
3.
10 You don’t need to support your weight firmly first or stand your
backbone upright first to straighten your backbone. Straightening your backbone does not depend on exerting
effort in most of the muscles that support your weight. Many of the muscles
that support your weight don’t exert more effort when you straighten your
backbone.
You don’t need to straighten your backbone
for a long time before you improve how your body is supported. Intending to be the best person that you can
be –and allowing your breathing
to be free -and straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small
muscular effort are enough preparation for you to place your body in a
beneficial seated position.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort helps you to place your body in a beneficial cross-legged position more
easily.
Support
your posterior (hips and the ends of your thighs at your hips) seated firmly
and support the ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees firmly in
a position that’s as near to a completely developed cross-legged position as
you can experience comfortably in your present physical condition
The
fourth concern of simple yoga
1 Chapter 1 describes how to support your posterior seated firmly and how
to support the ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees firmly.
Chapter 2 describes a beginner’s cross-legged position in detail and Chapter 4
describes a developing cross-legged position in detail. Chapter 6 describes how
you can be seated in a beneficial position on a chair with your feet supported
on the floor like when you’re standing. Chapter 7 describes how you can support
your posterior and the ends of your shins at your knees in a beneficial
kneeling position.
Chapter 1 is the only
chapter in this text that describes how to experience each main concern of
simple yoga combined with the all of other main concerns of simple yoga.
This section describes some details about
supporting your posterior and the ends of your shins as near as possible to
your knees and is concerned primarily with the support of the lower levels of
your body.
2 You don’t need to think about how your weight is supported to allow
your breathing to be free or to straighten your backbone as well as you can
with a small muscular effort. You don't need to be concerned
with whether your legs, hips and backbone are supported in
beneficial positions -or not before you allow your breathing to be free and straighten your backbone
as well as you can with small muscular effort.
Your legs, hips and backbone might be already
supported before you allow your breathing to be free and before you straighten
your backbone as well as you can. When you
intend to be seated in the best cross-legged position that you can
maintain comfortably, if you're already seated cross-legged then remain seated in that
position and allow your breathing to be free and thorough. Then straighten your
backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort. Then be concerned with improving the support of your posterior and the ends of
your shins at your knees.
3 The positions of your legs, hips and backbone
are more beneficial when you’re seated cross-legged, compared to when you’re
seated on a chair with your feet supported on the floor like when you’re
standing. When you support your legs, hips and backbone in
a beneficial cross-legged position that’s as near to a completely cross-legged
position as you can experience comfortably in your present physical condition,
the positions of your legs, hips and backbone are mutually supporting and
agile, and your legs and hips move minutely toward a more developed cross-legged
position while you remain seated still. In time, your weight becomes supported
comparatively less beneath your posterior and comparatively more beneath the ends of your shins at your
knees. These developments of a
cross-legged position are described in Chapter
4.
4 When you’re seated in a beneficial cross-legged position the support
of your weight is distributed on three bases:
Your posterior is supported firmly and the
ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees are supported firmly.
Your feet, ankles and the ends of your shins
at your ankles should be gathered together as near to your abdomen as you can
support them firmly and comfortably. Your feet, ankles and the ends of your shins
at your ankles should not support any more than their own weight when you’re
seated cross-legged to benefit from your physical position.
Your posterior and both knees are located relatively equally far apart
when you seated cross-legged. Your posterior and your knees form three firm
bases of support. A triangular base composed of your posterior and both knees
supports your legs, hips and backbone. Your legs, hips and backbone are held
together internally by the muscles and tendons that support your seated
cross-legged position and the lower levels of your backbone.
Supporting your posterior elevated higher than your knees and standing
your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far enough to press your
knees downward –
Cause the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the sides and
back of your body to exert more effort than they exert ordinarily to support
your position upright. That allows the muscles at the upper sides of
your shins and thighs and at the front of your body to exert less effort than
they exert ordinarily to support your position upright.
The
ends of your shins at your knees press downward firmly on the upper sides of
your feet and ankles beneath them.
The downward pressure of your weight moves
forward from being supported most of all beneath your posterior to being
supported more beneath the ends of your shins as near as possible to your
knees.
The transfer of some of your weight from being
supported beneath your posterior to being supported beneath the ends of your
shins at your knees helps to support your crossed legs more
firmly and comfortably in each more developed cross-legged position.
Your ankles and the ends of your shins at
your ankles rotate minutely, the upper side forward, lower side backward, and
your legs tend to fold inward nearer to your abdomen. Your legs will be more comfortable folded
inward slightly nearer to your abdomen if you want to improve your position at
that time. Your ankles and the ends of your shins at your ankles rotated
forward minutely and then lifted dlightly nearer to
your abdomen by your hands feel more comfortable than your ankles and feet felt
previously and show that your position is developing. These events don’t cause
any distraction to your experience.
You can experience all the events described here
while you remain seated still in a cross-legged position that’s as near to a
completely developed cross-legged position as you can experience comfortably in
your present physical condition. All of the events described here are natural
and result in your position becoming more firm and comfortable while you remain
seated still.
5 When you’re seated on a chair with your feet supported on the floor
like when you’re standing, the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at
the sides and back of your body exert the same kinds of effort that they exert
ordinarily to support your position upright. And the muscles that support your shins and
thighs and the front of your body also exert the same kinds of effort that they
exert ordinarily to support your position upright.
Your weight does not become distributed more equally beneath your
posterior and beneath the ends of your shins at your knees. Similarly your weight does not become
distributed more equally when you’re kneeling.
When you’re seated on a chair you can maintain your position
upright comparatively less easily and for a shorter time than you can when
you’re seated cross-legged. Similarly when you’re kneeling you can
maintain your position upright comparatively less easily and for a shorter time
than you can when you’re seated cross-legged.
6 The support that a beneficial cross-legged position contributes to
your experience of remaining seated still can be influenced harmfully if you
stand your backbone upright and lean -backward.
Standing your backbone upright and leaned backward even slightly -
Causes the muscles at the -upper sides of your thighs and the -front of
your body to exert more effort than they exert ordinarily to support your body
upright and that causes muscular tensions in your abdomen and chest. Your breathing won’t be free and won’t become
free after some time has passed as long as you continue to lean backward.
The
tensions in the muscles at the -upper side of your thighs and the -front of
your body caused by leaning backward pull your thighs upward so the ends of
your shins at your knees don’t press downward on the upper side of the foot and
ankle of your opposite leg beneath them.
The ends of your shins at your knees will be -suspended above your feet and
ankles by the muscles at the -upper side of your thighs and the -front of your
body, even when you might be able to support the ends of your shins at your
knees on the upper side of your foot and ankle of your opposite leg beneath
them if you did not lean backward.
Pressure from the weight of your crossed legs that are suspended above
your feet and ankles presses your feet and ankles down on the mat supporting
them. Supporting the weight of
your crossed legs by exerting effort or stretching the muscles at the upper
side of your thighs and the front of your body pulls the outer side of the
joints of your feet and ankles apart and presses the inner side of the joints
of your feet and ankles together. Those separations and pressures of the joints
of your feet and ankles are uncomfortable and cause injury.
When the ends of your shins at your knees -are not supported on the
upper side of your feet and ankles beneath them when you’re seated
cross-legged, then the weight of the upper levels of your body is not supported
thoroughly by the muscles at the sides and back of your body, so the position
that you hold upright is not strong and tends to fall toward a side. The vertebrae of your
backbone press together harmfully at the inner side of an excessive curve and
pull apart harmfully at the outer side of an excessive curve as long as you
lean your body backward. If you repeat that position often when you sit
cross-legged your backbone will develop an unnatural curve toward one side and
possibly another unnatural curve toward the other side.
Your crossed legs will tighten uncontrollably and the ends of your
thighs at your knees will pull your legs upward.
Leaning your body backward when you’re seated cross-legged presses the lowest
vertebrae of your backbone forward. The joints of your hips and knees will
twist unnaturally and your legs, hips and backbone might become numb.
The positions of your legs, hips and backbone
are not mutually supporting and won’t improve.
7 Don’t support your foot excessively high on the shin or thigh of your
opposite leg to progress as quickly as possible to be able place your legs in
the most developed cross-legged position that you can. It’s not beneficial to support your foot
excessively high on the shin or thigh of your opposite leg beneath it or too
near to your abdomen in a cross-legged position. Chapter 4 describes the
hazards and possible injury of supporting your foot –or both feet excessively
high on your opposite leg or too near to your abdomen when you’re seated
cross-legged to benefit from the position of your body.
Don’t take longer than one or two minutes to be seated in a cross-legged
position to remain seated still benefit from the position of your body. Chapter 4 describes the hazards of taking
longer than one or two minutes to place your body in a cross-legged position to
remain seated still to benefit from the position of your body.
8 All of the concerns for
maintaining a beneficial cross-legged position that are described in this text
improve the mutual support and stability of the gathered positions of your
legs, hips and backbone.
When you’re seated in
each more developed cross-legged position you’ll be able to stand your backbone
upright and curved or leaned forward slightly more easily and each improved
position will be more comfortable and vital.
You'll experience more rest in the muscles that support your body upright and
your energy will be renewed. You'll be able to remain seated still and alert
for a longer time in every position that's nearer to a completely developed
cross-legged position.
When you think about
achieving progress in the development of your physical position of yoga it’s
important to remember that at whatever stage of progress toward a completely
developed cross-legged position your physical achievement might be whenever you
practice simple yoga as well as you can you experience
all the benefits.
Stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward
far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward
then align your shoulders, arms, hands and head
with the position of
your backbone as well as you can
and hold those parts of your position still as long as the position
is comfortable
The
fifth concern of simple yoga
1 Chapter 1 describes how
to stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward beneficially and
how to align your shoulders, arms, hands and head with the position of your
backbone in the context of the main concerns of simple yoga.
This section describes
some features of the physical nature of your backbone, -
Then describes how the
gathered positions of your legs, hips and backbone tire and improve while you
remain seated still.
Then some conditions of
weakness in the muscles that support your body and excessive curves between the
vertebrae are described and how maintaining a beneficial position can help to
remedy those conditions.
Chapter 9 describes in
detail how to align your shoulders, arms, hands and head with the position of
your backbone.
2 To understand and
control your experience of standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned
forward beneficially it can be helpful to appreciate that your weight presses
downward through all the levels of your backbone during all of the time that
you’re standing, walking or seated. Standing your backbone upright
and curved or leaned forward slightly occurs within the condition
of your weight pressing downward through your backbone onto the support beneath
your body.
Your backbone is a
relatively straight and naturally curving tower of bones (vertebrae) that are
larger at the lower and middle levels and taper to smaller at the lowest and
highest ends. The word
backbone refers to your entire spine including the lowest levels, the levels
adjoining your hips, waist and shoulders and all the levels of your neck.
Although the position of your backbone is relatively straight when you're
walking, standing and seated upright, your backbone naturally curves forward
and backward at some levels and might also curve toward a side to
some degree at one or more levels.
The lower and upper
surfaces of each vertebrae are relatively flat and socket-shaped where a
vertebrae is connected to the adjoining vertebrae below and above it. Each vertebrae is separated
slightly from the adjoining vertebrae below and above it by a relatively flat
compressible cushion of cartilage.
Both sides of the lower
levels of your backbone where the vertebrae are thick and strong are connected
to your hips.
Your entire backbone is
supported by your hips. Your hips support all of the
weight of your body above the level of your hips.
Each vertebrae above the
level of your hips supports all of the weight of your body above it.
Each vertebrae is held in
position and moves because it’s connected by ligaments and muscles to the
vertebrae below and above it.
The vertebrae at
specific levels of your backbone affect the positions and motions of your legs,
hips, shoulders, arms, hands and head.
3 Tiring as the word is used here refers to the natural tiring that
occurs in the muscles that exert effort to support your body. Fatigue accumulates
in the muscles that exert effort to
support your body upright after some time has passed.
You might be too tired
to stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward slightly to benefit
from the position of your body as described in this text. Experiencing energy, effort, tiring and rest
in the muscles that support a position of remaining seated still to benefit
from the position of your body is described in Chapter 3. Chapter 3 features
energy and effort. This chapter and Chapters 8 and 9 feature tiring and rest.
Exerting excessive
effort in the muscles that support your body upright while you’re remaining
seated still to benefit from the position of your body is harmful. Exerting excessive effort to maintain even a
beneficial position still is harmful.
You experience rest in
parts of your position immediately when you place your legs, hips and backbone
in a beneficial position to remain seated still, and you experience rest in
parts of your position after some time has passed. Chapters 1-2 describe these events in a
Beginner’s cross-legged position. Chapter 4 describes these events in a
Developing cross-legged position.
4 Both exerting muscular effort and experiencing rest begin when
you’re seated in a beneficial cross-legged position. Supporting
your posterior and the ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees
firmly and standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far
enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward causes the
muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the sides and back of your
body to exert more effort than they exert ordinarily –or stretch to support
your position upright, and allows the muscles of your abdomen and chest to rest
more than they rest ordinarily when you’re supporting your body upright.
The muscles at the upper
sides of your shins and thighs rest and your feet and ankles press downward
less on the support beneath them. The ends of your shins at your ankles rotate
minutely, the upper side forward, lower side backward, and the combined
positions of your legs, hips and the lower levels of your backbone gather
closer together and become more stable.
5 The tiring and rest that occur after some time has passed also help
to improve the position of your body. When you’re seated on three firm bases of
support comparatively more of the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and
at the sides and back of your body exert effort to support your position
upright than exert effort to support your position when you’re standing,
walking or seated on a chair. This is described in the preceding section
regarding Support.
When the muscles that
support your position upright tire some of those muscles will rest and
alternative sets of muscles will exert effort to support your position upright
until they tire. Then the muscles that rested will exert
effort again to support your position upright.
When the most of muscles that support your position upright tire
so much that they cannot support your position any longer many of those muscles
will rest, and parts of the combined positions of your legs, hips and the lower
levels of your backbone will loosen and fall downward minutely. Some of the muscles and ligaments that
support your legs, hips and backbone will stretch beneficially and allow other
muscles and ligaments to rest and the combined positions of your legs, hips and
backbone will become more flexible and vital.
You’ll be able to
perceive and control the improved position of your body more easily and
precisely than you could when you began to be seated still and you’ll be able
to remain seated upright and still for a longer time comfortably than you can
ordinarily.
6 If your habitual postures of standing and walking don’t engage
enough of the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the sides and back
of your body to exert effort to support your position some of the muscles
adjoining your backbone might become weak or dormant and an excessive curve or
stiffness might develop or worsen between some of the vertebrae even though you
exercise a lot. The strength of some of the muscles
adjoining your backbone might diminish so severely that they don’t exert any effort, not even
when you do everything that you can to make those
muscles exert effort. Some of the muscles that adjoin
your backbone might be dormant, inert.
The space and
flexibility between some of the vertebrae might diminish and an excessive curve
might develop between some of the vertebrae so acutely that you cannot
straighten the excessive curve even when you do everything that you can to
straighten it. That level of your backbone might
be stiff, rigid. The
conditions described here might be effects of injury, illness or aging. Then
even ordinary standing, walking
and being seated on a chair might make you feel tired or tense unnaturally soon.
When some of the muscles
adjoining your backbone are weak or dormant or when there’s an excessive curve
or stiffness between some of the vertebrae you might be able to stand your
backbone upright and curved or leaned a little bit forward for only a few
cycles of inhaling and exhaling your breathing, or only a few minutes, before
you need to move and rest from being seated upright to benefit from the
position of your body.
When you maintain a
beneficial position of your body seated upright for at least a few minutes
nearly every day for several weeks or months, in time the muscles that adjoin
your backbone will become stronger and your backbone will become more flexible
and straighter. You
don't need to wait until your backbone becomes more flexible or straighter to experience the benefits of
yoga. Whenever you practice yoga as well as you can you experience all the benefits.
7 The progressive rotation of the ends of your shins at your ankles
in a rudimentary seated position with your legs extended forward and in
a beginner’s cross-legged position and a developing cross-legged position
8 When you’re seated in a rudimentary position on a firm, flat support with your legs extended forward, standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward causes the muscles beneath your shins, thighs and posterior and at the back of your body to exert effort or stretch and allows the muscles at the upper sides of your shins and thighs and at the front of your body to rest.
When you have been seated in a rudimentary
position for at least a few minutes nearly every day for several months, the
ends of your shins at your ankles tend to rotate, the upper side outward, lower
side inward -
And tend to gather together and feel more
comfortable crossed, one ankle over the other.
You
can support one ankle on the other ankle beneficially whenever you can cross
your ankles comfortably.
Being seated in rudimentary position is
conducive in this way to becoming able to be seated on a firm, flat support in
a beginner’s cross-legged position with the ends of both of your shins as near
as possible to your knees supported on the upper side of your ankles and feet
of your opposite leg beneath them or supported on small firm cushions. These motions of the ends of your shins at
your ankles might not occur when you’re concerned with something that’s
happening in your external environment.
9 When you’re seated in a beginner’s
cross-legged position supporting your posterior firmly with the ends of your
shins as near as possible to your knees supported on the upper side of your
ankles and feet beneath them or supported on small firm cushions -
Standing your backbone upright and curved or
leaned forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees
downward causes the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the sides
and back of your body to exert effort or stretch, and allows the muscles at the
upper sides of your shins and thighs and the front of your body to rest.
That causes more of your weight to be
supported beneath the ends of your shins as near as possible to your knees, and
the ends of your shins at your ankles rotate minutely, the upper side forward,
lower side backward while you remain seated still.
When you have remained seated still in a cross-legged position that’s as near to a completely developed cross-legged position as you can experience comfortably in your present physical condition, standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward for at least a few minutes nearly every day for several months - The ends of your shins at your ankles rotate minutely progressively farther, the upper side forward, lower side backward, while you remain seated still - And your cross-legged position progresses
from needing to support the ends of your shins at your knees on small firm
cushions to being able to support the ends of your shins as near as possible to
your knees on the upper side of your ankles and feet beneath them.
10 When you’re seated in a developing cross-legged position supporting your posterior elevated higher than your knees on a firm cushion or stack of folded cloth, -
Supporting one foot, ankle, shin and knee
firmly on a rug or mat beneath them -
And supporting the shin at your knee of your
other leg, on the upper side of your partly upturned foot that remains
supported on the rug or mat beneath it, -
And supporting the ankle of your leg that’s
uppermost as high on the shin or thigh of your opposite leg and as near to your
abdomen as you can support it comfortably with only small downward pressure, -
Standing your backbone upright and curved or
leaned forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees
downward -
Then curving your backbone toward the side
where the end of your shin at your knee is supported on the partly upturned
foot –between the ankle and heel- of your opposite leg beneath it -
Presses the end of your shin at that knee
downward on the partly upturned foot of your opposite leg beneath it -
And the end of your shin at your ankle of your leg that’s uppermost rotates minutely, the upper side forward, lower side backward while you remain seated still. When you have remained seated still in a developing cross-legged position, standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward far enough to press the ends of your thighs at your knees downward for at least a few minutes nearly every day for several months - The end of your shin at your ankle of your leg that’s uppermost rotates minutely progressively, the upper side forward, lower side backward -
And presses downward less on the shin or
thigh of your opposite leg beneath it, -
And the muscles inside the fold of it exert
effort and pull the end of your shin at your ankle upward higher on the shin or
thigh of your opposite leg beneath it while you remain seated still. The end of your shin at your ankle of your
other leg rotates progressively also, the upper side forward, lower side
backward but rotates comparatively less. And presses downward less on the shin
or thigh of your opposite leg beneath it -but comparatively less. And the
muscles inside the fold of it exert effort to pull the end of your shin at your
ankle upward higher on the shin or thigh of your opposite leg beneath it –but
comparatively less than the other leg while you remain seated still.
11 When you’re seated in a completely developed cross-legged position, the ends of your shins at your ankles have already rotated, the upper side forward, lower side backward, as far you want or need to support them on the shin or thigh of your opposite leg beneath them with only small downward pressure.
And the muscles inside the fold of your shins and thighs have already exerted effort and pulled the ends of your shins at your ankles upward slightly higher. Chapter 3 describes how you can add to the minute rotations and motions of the ends of your shins at your ankles upward by lifting your ankle with your hands to place as high on the shin or thigh of your opposite leg beneath it and as near to your abdomen as you can support it comfortably with only small downward pressure.
Your legs, hips and backbone are gathered together in the most integrated position that you can experience so you simply maintain the best position of your body that you can as long as the position is comfortable.