These are the main concerns of simple yoga:
1 Intend to be the best person that you can be.
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 at 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 slightly and 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 in a beneficial position.
Chapter 1 contains enough information for you to personally practice the
yoga.
The
order of concerns to follow to place your body in a beneficial position is the
same order of concerns to maintain to ensure that your position will continue
to be beneficial. Although you
might experience any feature of the method naturally before the others,
maintain these concerns in this order of
importance to benefit reliably from the position of your body while you remain
seated still.
Your experience of each concern can progressively improve, supported by
each following concern.
Intend
to be the best person that you can be
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.
The
method described here does not depend on holding any particular ideas or
association with another person. The method describes how you can combine
natural positions of your legs, hips and backbone, small muscular effort and
rest to be seated in a beneficial position of your body. The yoga that’s
described in this text is natural and you might experience it spontaneously,
without needing to learn or think about a method.
If you don’t intend to be the best person
that you can be, your breathing won’t be free and the position of your body
won’t be reliably beneficial. You cannot practice the yoga that’s described
in this text while 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.
2 You need to be seated 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, to benefit reliably from the position of
your body while you remain seated still. The
instinct 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 energizing 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. The text begins with
a description of a position of being seated upright with both legs extended
forward, 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 that 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 the bottom of both
feet supported on the floor like when you’re standing.
3 Devote your attention to maintaining the best position that you can
maintain comfortably. The positions, small muscular efforts and
rest that are combined in the method are described in ordinary language. Intend
to be aware of your posture to perceive your physical position accurately. Concern with your imagination, memory or
discursive thinking while you remain seated still to benefit from the position
of your body, can result in becoming distracted by ideas or expectations, and
you might not perceive or control your position as well as you do ordinarily
when you’re not seated still.
4 A beneficial cross-legged position is comfortable and easy to
hold still. When
you’re seated in the most integrated cross-legged position that you can
maintain, your position will be comfortable and will be easy for you 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, the positions of your legs will
progress, in time, toward a more developed cross-legged position, allowing you
to be seated with -first one -then both of your ankles supported 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.
Intending to be the best person that you
can be and allowing your breathing to be free and thorough cause beneficial
motion and rest of energy in your body. Your health and
beneficial motion and rest of energy in your body support free and thorough
breathing.
You don’t need to learn or think about a
method to allow your breathing to be free and thorough.
You allow your breathing to be free and thorough naturally during many ordinary actions and experiences.
2 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 straighten your backbone as
well as you can with a small muscular effort and to maintain the best
cross-legged position that you can experience comfortably.
You
might be too tired to support your body upright. When you’re tired, you might need to exert
more muscular effort than usual to breathe, so your breathing won’t be free and
won’t become free while you remain seated upright to benefit from the position
of your body. When you’re so tired that
you need to exert more muscular effort than usual to breathe, then you should
rest before you remain seated upright to benefit from the position of your
body.
Allowing your breathing to be free is more
important than any other concern with your body when you remain seated upright
to benefit from the position of your body. It's more important
to allow your breathing to be free than to be seated upright or to remain
still.
3 Inhale and exhale as quickly or slowly as you want, when you allow
your breathing to be free and thorough. Don't try to change
the speed of your breathing to be faster or slower, while you’re placing your
body in a position to remain still or while you remain seated still to benefit
from the position of your body.
You
don’t need to enlarge the inhalations or exhalations of your breathing, to
allow your breathing to be free and thorough.
You don’t need to exert extra muscular
effort, nor any special kind of effort, to allow your breathing to be free and
thorough.
4 Your breathing will become free immediately when you allow your
breathing to be free and thorough. Allowing your breathing
to be free and thorough frees your breathing immediately and your breathing will
gradually become more thorough. Whenever you allow your breathing to be
free and thorough 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.
5 You might experience diminished energy or strength in some of the
muscles that adjoin your backbone, or there might be an excessive curve or
stiffness between some of the vertebrae of your backbone, so that the muscles
of your abdomen ordinarily exert additional effort to support the upper levels
of your body and your breathing is ordinarily not free.
When you allow your breathing to be free and thorough and straighten your
backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort and stand your
backbone upright and curved forward slightly, the muscles at the back of your
backbone exert more effort than they exert ordinarily to support the upper
levels of your body, and the muscles of your abdomen exert less effort than
they exert ordinarily to support the upper levels of your body. Then your
breathing can be more free and thorough than it is ordinarily. A method to
verify that the upright position of your backbone is beneficial by observing or
regulating your breathing is described in chapter 1 and described detail in
chapter 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 sometimes help to remedy confusion
or anxiety, and some causes or 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 for any longer than you need to remedy the difficulty
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.
6 You won’t accidentally exert too much muscular effort when you
maintain the position of your body upright as described here and allow your
breathing to be free and thorough. You can maintain the balance of muscular
effort and rest that you need to stand your backbone upright nearly
effortlessly by exerting muscular effort to exhale and allowing the following
inhalation of your breathing to be effortless as described in chapter 8.
7 Don’t hold your body still to make your breathing free.
Holding your body still can help your breathing to be free after you're
straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort and
you’re seated cross-legged in a position that's as near to a completely
developed cross-legged position as you can experience comfortably in your
present physical condition and standing your backbone upright and curved or
leaned forward slightly.
If you hold your body still before you’re
maintaining the concerns that combine to make the position of your body
beneficial, your position might not be beneficial and might become
uncomfortable or numb. Remaining
still in any natural and comfortable position might be beneficial as long as
you adjust your position enough to maintain your position natural and to
relieve discomfort.
8 Don’t try to hold your breathing still while you remain seated still.
If you try to hold your breathing still your
position will become uncomfortable.
Your breathing might become still sometimes while you remain seated
still.
Your breathing becomes still naturally and harmlessly during many kinds
of ordinary experiences.
If your breathing becomes still while you
remain seated still, allow your breathing to be still until you naturally
breathe more actively again.
9 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 when you remain seated still. Some of those influences are described in
chapter 3.
Tight clothing or an elastic waistband, stretch fabric or any cloth
pressed in the fold of your knee interfere with the beneficial motion and rest
of energy in your body when you remain seated still. Elastic and stretch clothing exert constant
pressure on the surface of your body that confuses and frustrates the motion
and rest of energy in your body, and causes conflicting muscular tensions in
your abdomen that interfere with free and thorough breathing and straightening
your backbone when 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.
10 The support beneath your body should be firm when you remain seated
still to benefit from the position of your body. Supporting
your hips and the ends of your shins at your knees firmly, and standing your
backbone upright and curved forward slightly, supports your weight on three
firm bases of support sufficiently for you 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 continually
fluctuating pressure when they're condensed by the weight of your body. Your energy 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 cannot be free and your position
cannot 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.
11 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.
12 You can verify that the upright position of your body is beneficial
by relating the angle of the slight forward curve of your body to the
effortless inhalation of your breathing as described in chapter 1 and described
in detail in chapter 8. While you’re standing your backbone upright
and curved forward slightly, contract the muscles of your abdomen inward to
exhale. When you relax the muscles of your abdomen, the following inhalation of
your breathing can be effortless. If you’re not straightening your backbone as
well as you can, or if your body is not curved forward enough -or curved
forward too far, your inhalations won’t be effortless. When you become tired
your breathing will become difficult. Then you should rest.
When you’re seated upright in a beneficial position and you exert effort
to exhale and inhale effortlessly, your breathing can be more free and thorough
than you experience ordinarily. When you stand your backbone upright and
curved forward slightly, the muscles at the back of your body exert more effort
than they usually exert to support your body upright. This allows the muscles
of your abdomen and chest to exert less effort than they usually exert to
support the upper levels of your body. The comparative rest of the muscles of
your abdomen and chest allows your breathing to be more free and thorough than
you experience ordinarily.
Exerting effort to exhale and inhaling
effortlessly can be as free as breathing spontaneously.
Although exerting effort to exhale and inhaling effortlessly can help to verify
that the position of your backbone is beneficial, you don't need to be
concerned with your breathing any other way than to allow your breathing to be
free and thorough.
13 When your breathing is free and thorough you can stand your backbone
upright with a small muscular effort and hold a beneficial position nearly
effortlessly.
When the muscles that support your body upright become too tired to
support your position nearly effortlessly, you will need to exert additional
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 uncomfortable. If you cannot stand
your backbone upright nearly effortlessly or if your breathing is not nearly
effortless then any position that you hold still might become uncomfortable or
numb.
You
can practice simple yoga beneficially even when you’re able to continue 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 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 breathing
from tensions caused by stress and helps your breathing to become more
thorough.
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 begin to place your body in a
beneficial seated position.
Straightening your backbone is the third most
important concern of simple yoga. Although
you might intend to be your best or allow your
breathing to be free naturally before you straighten your backbone, you need to
maintain these concerns in the order of their importance to benefit reliably
from the position of your body while you remain seated still.
2 Straightening your backbone as well as you
can with a small muscular effort opens inner channels and allows energy to move
and rest beneficially in your body. Straightening your backbone as well as you can
with a small muscular effort improves the motion and rest of energy in the
spaces between the individual vertebrae of your backbone. The spaces between
the vertebrae expand minutely where the vertebrae were
pressed together excessively, separating each vertebrae minutely from the vertebrae above and below
it. This allows energy to flow more freely through the vertebrae and
vitalizes your backbone.
Being your best and
allowing your breathing to be free and straightening your backbone as well as
you can with a small muscular harmonize the motion and rest of the energy in
your body. When you’re additionally seated on three firm
bases of support and standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned
forward slightly, maintaining this position generates energy in your body.
Being your best and allowing your breathing to be free and straightening your backbone as
well as you can with a small muscular effort improve your awareness immediately
to some degree.
3 You don’t need to learn or think about a method to straighten your
backbone because straightening your backbone is natural and nearly effortless.
You don’t need to be 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 remain seated still.
You
don’t need to distribute your weight on three bases of support or stand your
backbone upright to straighten your backbone.
Straightening
your backbone does not depend on exerting effort in the muscles that
support the weight of your body. Many of the muscles
that support the weight of your body don't exert more effort when you
straighten your backbone
You can place your body in a beneficial
position to remain seated still more easily while you’re straightening your
backbone. You don’t need
to improve the position of any other part of your body before you straighten
your backbone as well as you can.
4 Your backbone should remain flexible and you should be able to move
any other part of your body that you want to move 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 hold the position
of your body still to straighten your backbone. Holding the
position of your body still is a concern that should follow
being already seated 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 maintaining the supporting concerns of simple yoga.
Don’t hold your body rigidly while you remain seated still to benefit
from the position of your body. Don't suppose that you can exert excessive
muscular effort
to straighten your backbone at the beginning of a session
of remaining seated still and that the excessive effort
will diminish and your body will become less rigid later while you remain still.
If you hold your body rigidly while you
remain seated still your body will become more rigid.
You’ll accumulate uncomfortable
tensions in the muscles that support your body
upright and you’ll tire soon. Then you’ll need to move to feel
comfortable, or you'll need to rest completely to relieve the uncomfortable tensions.
5 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, waist and shoulders, neck and head.
Any
level of your backbone might straighten spontaneously before the other levels.
Don’t concern your attention with improving the straightness of any
particular level of your backbone when you straighten your backbone as well as
you can with a small muscular effort to benefit from the position of your body. Concern with improving the
straightness of any 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.
Straightening your backbone as well as you
can with a small muscular effort straightens your entire backbone sufficiently
and corrects excessive curves of your backbone naturally and nearly
effortlessly.
6 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 suspended. Imagining lifting your backbone
or being suspended does not help
to straighten your backbone, nor help to improve your position when
you’re seated and standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward
slightly. Imagining lifting your backbone or being 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.
7 You need to exert muscular effort to straighten your backbone as
well as you can. Don't imagine that you'll be able to remain seated still in a
beneficial position of your body
without needing to exert muscular effort to support the weight of the upper levels of your body.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort as described here involves the same kinds of muscular effort and control
of your body that you experience ordinarily.
If
you don’t straighten your backbone as well as you can you might not exert
enough muscular effort to support your position upright beneficially.
Your backbone might not
straighten naturally or spontaneously when you don’t intend to straighten it. Don’t imagine that your backbone will straighten
when you don’t intend to straighten it, or 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 and thorough if you don’t straighten
your backbone as well as you can.
8 You need only 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 is a common mistake and reason for not continuing to
practice yoga.
Don’t try to generate force or to 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.
9 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
potential 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.
10 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.
You might be too tired to be seated upright
to benefit from the position of your body because you have not rested enough. The harmful effects of
tight or elastic clothing and the problems of stimulus and insufficient rest
are described in Chapter 3.
11 Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort
is beneficial immediately and in the experiences that follow.
Intending to be the best person that you can be and allowing your breathing to be free and thorough and straightening
your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular effort are mutually
supporting.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort helps your breathing to be free and to become more thorough.
Your
backbone becomes minutely straighter, more flexible and vital, and your neck
and head become more upright, supple and free from tensions.
Straightening your backbone as well as you can with a small muscular
effort helps to support your posterior and the ends of your shins at your knees
in firm and comfortable positions to remain seated still.
Support
your posterior (hips and the ends of your thighs at your hips) seated firmly
and support the ends of your shins at 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 you can support your posterior and the ends of
your shins at your knees firmly and comfortably.
Chapter 2 describes these events in detail in a beginner’s cross-legged
position and Chapter 4 describes these events in detail in a developing
cross-legged position. Chapter 6 describes these events when you’re seated on a
chair with your feet supported on the floor like when you’re standing. Chapter
7 describes those events when you support your posterior firmly in a kneeling
position.
Chapter 1 is the only
chapter in this text that describes how to place and maintain each main concern
combined with the other main concerns of simple yoga.
This section describes some details about
supporting your posterior and the ends of your shins at your knees and is
concerned primarily with the lower levels of your body.
2 You don’t need to think about how your weight is supported or
distributed 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 firmly 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 with your legs, hips and backbone supported firmly, then remain seated in that
position and allow your breathing to be free and thorough. 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 firmly
in a 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 (hips and the ends of your thighs
at your hips) and the ends of your shins at your knees are supported firmly and
comfortably. Your feet and ankles should not support any
of the weight of your body or legs when you’re seated in a cross-legged
position to benefit from the physical position. Your feet and ankles should be
gathered together as near to your abdomen as you can support them firmly and
comfortably.
Your posterior and your knees are located relatively equally far apart. The seated position of your posterior and the
crossed position of your legs create a pyramid shape of the combined position
of your legs, hips and backbone.
Supporting your posterior elevated higher than your knees, and standing
your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward slightly –
Cause the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the 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 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 thighs at your knees press downward on the upper sides of your
feet and ankles beneath them.
The downward pressure of your weight moves
forward from being supported beneath your posterior to being supported more
beneath the ends of your shins at 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.
5 When you’re seated on a chair with your feet supported on the floor
like when you’re standing, relatively few of the muscles beneath your thighs
and posterior and at the back of your body exert effort 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 relatively 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 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 improves when you stand your backbone
upright and curved or leaned forward slightly.
Standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward slightly -
Causes the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the back of
your body to exert more effort than they exert ordinarily to support your
position upright, -
And
allows the muscles at the upper sides of your 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 thighs at your knees press downward -so that the ends of your
shins at your knees press down firmly on the upper sides of your ankles and
feet beneath them.
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 rotating
forward minutely feels more comfortable than your ankles and feet felt
previously, and assures you that your position is developing and does not cause
any distraction.
You
experience all the events described here while you remain seated still in the
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.
These events continue during the following sessions of yoga. You can fold your legs a small distance more
inward and support your ankles and feet a small distance nearer to your abdomen.
In time, you can lift one –then both of your ankles with your hands and support
your partly upturned feet firmly and comfortably with only small downward
pressure, progressively higher on the shin of your opposite leg beneath them
and nearer to your abdomen. Those stages of progress of the physical position
are described in Chapter 4.
7 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 at the -front
of your body to exert more effort than they exert ordinarily to support your
position upright, and that causes 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
excessive tensions in the muscles at the -upper sides of your thighs and at the
-front of your body that are caused by leaning backward, cause the muscles at
the upper sides of your thighs to exert effort or stretch and pull your thighs
upward, so that the ends of your shins at your knees won’t press downward on
the upper side of the ankle and foot of your opposite leg beneath them.
The ends of your shins at your knees are -suspended above your ankles and feet
by muscular effort or stretching of the muscles at the front of your body and
the upper sides of your thighs, even when you might be able to support the ends
of your shins at your knees on the upper sides of your ankles and feet beneath
them if you did not lean backward.
Pressure from the weight of your crossed legs that are suspended rigidly
above your ankles and feet presses your ankles and feet downward on the mat
supporting them. Supporting
the weight of your crossed legs by exerting effort –or stretching the muscles
at the front of your body and the upper sides of your thighs, presses the inner
sides of your ankles and feet together and pulls the outer sides of your ankles
and feet apart. Those pressures and separations of the joints of your ankles
and feet cause discomfort and injury.
When the ends of your shins at your knees -are not supported on the
upper sides of your ankles and feet beneath them when you’re seated
cross-legged, then the weight of the upper levels of your body is not supported
by the muscles at the back and sides of your body, so the position that you
hold upright is not strong and tends to fall to the side. Your backbone
develops a curve toward one side and possibly another curve toward the other
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.
Your crossed legs tighten uncontrollably and your thighs pull your legs
upward. Leaning your body backward when
you’re supporting most of your weight beneath your posterior causes
excessive pressure that forces the lowest vertebrae upward. The joints of your
hips and knees twist unnaturally and your hips and backbone become numb.
The positions of your legs, hips and backbone
are not mutually supporting or agile and don’t improve.
The muscles that support your position upright don’t exert effort and rest
while you remain seated still. You cannot maintain your position upright with a
small muscular effort and your breathing is not free.
8 Don’t support your foot excessively high on the shin or thigh of your
opposite leg to experience the most developed cross-legged position that you
can.
You need to know that 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 remain seated
still to benefit from the position of your body.
Don’t take longer than one or two minutes to place your body in a
position to remain seated still. Chapter 4 describes the hazards of taking
longer than one or two minutes to place your body in a position to remain
seated still to benefit from the position of your body.
9 All of the concerns for maintaining a
beneficial seated 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
become able to stand your backbone upright and curved forward slightly more
easily, and each improved position will be more comfortable and vital than the
preceding position. You'll
experience more rest in the muscles that support your position upright and your
energy will be renewed. You'll be able to remain still and alert more easily
and 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
position might be, when you practice simple yoga as well as you can you
experience all the benefits.
Stand your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward
slightly
and 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 slightly 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.
Chapter 8 describes in detail how to verify that the upright position of
your backbone is beneficial and how to align your shoulders, arms, hands and
head with the position of your backbone as well as you can.
This section begins by describing some features of the natural structure
of your backbone that contribute to understanding the importance of supporting
your posterior (hips and the ends of your thighs at your hips) and the ends of
both of your shins at your knees firmly, and standing your backbone upright and
curved or leaned forward slightly.
Then some common conditions of weakness in the muscles that support your
backbone, and excessive curves and stiffness between some of the vertebrae, and
how maintaining a beneficial position of your backbone can help to remedy those
conditions are described.
Minute beneficial relaxations occur in the
positions of your backbone, shoulders, arms, neck and head while you continue
to hold the position of your body still nearly effortlessly.
2 To
understand and control your experience of standing your backbone upright and
curved or leaned forward slightly, it can be helpful to appreciate or actually
feel the weight of all the levels of your body pressing downward that you
experience naturally all of the time. Standing your backbone upright
and curved forward slightly occurs within the condition of your
weight pressing downward on the support beneath
your body that you experience naturally all of the time.
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 backbone (spine) including the lowest levels and
the levels adjoining your hips and upward to your waist, the levels between
your 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 back at some levels,
and might also curve to the side a very little bit at one or more levels.
The
lower and upper surfaces of each vertebrae are relatively flat and
socket-shaped where the 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
most thick and strong are connected to your hips.
Your entire backbone is supported by your hips. Both of your hips support all of
the weight of your body above the level of your hips.
All
of the weight of your body above the level of your hips is supported by your
backbone.
Each vertebrae above the level of your hips supports all of the weight
of your body above it. The weight of your body presses down constantly at all
the levels of your position.
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 are influenced by and influence
the positions and motions of your legs, hips, shoulders, arms, hands and head.
3 A description of the activity… of your backbone…
When you support your posterior (hips and the
ends of your thighs at your hips) firmly, and support the ends of your shins at
your knees firmly, 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, then -
Standing your backbone upright and curved or leaned forward slightly, –
Causes the muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the back of
all the levels of your backbone to exert effort –or stretch to support your
body upright, and -
Allows the muscles of your abdomen and chest to rest more than
they usually rest when you’re supporting your body upright.
The
ends of your thighs at your knees press downward, and –
The
muscles of the upper sides of your thighs and shins rest.
The
ends of your shins at your ankles rotate minutely, the upper side forward,
lower side backward, and –
Your ankles press downward less on the
support beneath them. The positions of your legs and hips become
more firm and comfortable.
Small tensions stretch some muscles and ligaments of your backbone
beneficially, and allow other muscles and ligaments of your backbone to rest,
and your backbone becomes more flexible and vital.
You can perceive and control the improved
position of your body more easily and precisely than you were able when you began
to be seated still, and you can remain seated upright and still for a longer
time than you can ordinarily.
4 Experiencing energy, effort, tiring and rest in the muscles that support
your body upright when you remain seated still is described in chapter 3. Chapter 3 features energy and effort. This
section features tiring and rest.
You
naturally experience tiring in the muscles that support your body while you
remain seated still. Fatigue accumulates in the muscles
that support your body after some time has passed...
Excessive tiring in the muscles that support your body is cautioned in
this text as distracting and harmful. Chapter X describes… of excessive tiring…
Excessive tiring of even a beneficial position of your body 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 also 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.
5 The benefit of standing…
Standing your backbone upright and curved or
leaned forward slightly can help to straighten your backbone. When you’re standing your backbone upright
and curved forward slightly and you become tired after some time has passed, to
resist the tendency to fall forward farther you’ll exert effort –or stretch the
muscles and ligaments at the back of all the levels of your backbone. That will
help to pull back an excessive forward curve there might be in your backbone,
and will straighten an excessive curve there might be toward one side.
6 If your habitual postures of walking, standing or sitting don’t
engage the muscles beneath your thighs and hips and at the back of your body to
exert enough effort to support your body upright, then some of the muscles that
support your body might become weak or dormant, and an excessive curve and
stiffness might develop or worsen between some of the vertebrae of your
backbone even though you exercise a lot. The energy and strength of some
of the muscles
that support your body might diminish so severely that they don’t exert any effort
or contract, not even when you do everything that you can
to cause those muscles to exert effort. Some of the muscles that support your body might be
dormant, inert. The space and flexibility between some of
the vertebrae of your backbone might diminish and an excessive curve might develop between some
vertebrae so acutely that you cannot straighten the excessive curve at that
level of your backbone, not even when you do everything that you can to
straighten the curve. The vertebrae at that level of your backbone might be
stiff, rigid. Those conditions might be
a result of some of the muscles that
support your body not
regularly exerting enough effort to support you. Or effects of injury or illness. Or
experiences that might accompany natural aging. Then
even ordinary walking, standing and sitting might
cause the muscles
that support your body to become tired or tense.
When some of the muscles that support your body upright are weak or
dormant, or when there’s an excessive curve or stiffness between some of the
vertebrae of your backbone, you might be able to stand your backbone upright
and curved forward slightly for only several cycles of inhaling and exhaling
your breathing, or only several minutes, before you need to move and rest from
being seated upright. When
you can stand your backbone upright and curved forward nearly effortlessly, you might
support your body in a beneficial position for as long as ten or
twenty minutes before you need to move and rest from being seated upright.
When you maintain a beneficial position of your
body seated upright, for at least several minutes nearly every day for several
weeks or months, in time the muscles that support your body might become
stronger and your backbone might become more flexible and straighter.
You don't need to wait until you become
more flexible or stronger to experience the benefits of
yoga. Whenever you practice simple yoga as well as you can, you experience all
the benefits.
7 When you’re seated in a beneficial cross-legged position, supporting
your posterior and the ends of your shins at your knees firmly, -
The
first experiences of tiring and rest that help to maintain a beneficial
position of your body begin when you stand your backbone upright and curved or
leaned forward slightly.
The
muscles beneath your thighs and posterior and at the back of all the levels of
your backbone exert effort –or stretch to support your body upright, allowing
the muscles of your abdomen and chest to rest more than they usually rest when
you’re supporting your body upright;
The ends of your thighs at your knees press
downward, and the ends of your shins at your ankles rotate minutely, the upper
side forward, lower side backward.
8 The tiring and rest that occur after some time has passed also help
to improve the position of your body.
When the muscles that support your backbone upright tire those muscles
will rest, and alternative sets of muscles will exert effort to support your
backbone upright until they tire, then the muscles that rested will exert
effort to support your backbone upright again.
When the muscles that support your backbone upright tire so much
that they cannot support your backbone upright any longer, those muscles will
rest and parts of the position of your backbone loosen and fall downward
minutely;
Small tensions stretch some muscles and ligaments of your backbone
beneficially, and allow other muscles and ligaments of your backbone to rest,
and your backbone becomes more flexible and vital.
You can perceive and control the improved
position of your body more easily and precisely than you were able when you
began to be seated still, and you can remain seated upright and still for a
longer time than you can ordinarily.
This section is being
written.