Main concerns of simple yoga (5)

 

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.

 

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