Long term physical health problems, leg and knee, caused by Burmese meditation styles

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote: ↑Sat Apr 08, 2023 11:32 am
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta wrote:“How, monks, does a monk dwell contemplating feelings? Here, monk, a monk, when feeling a pleasant feeling he knows, ‘I feel a pleasant feeling.’ When feeling a painful feeling he knows, ‘I feel a painful feeling.’ When feeling a neutral feeling he knows, ‘I feel a neutral feeling.’ When feeling a pleasant sensual feeling he knows, ‘I feel a pleasant sensual feeling.’ When feeling a pleasant non-sensual feeling he knows, ‘I feel a pleasant non-sensual feeling.’ When feeling an unpleasant sensual feeling he knows, ‘I feel an unpleasant sensual feeling.’ When feeling an unpleasant non-sensual feeling he knows, ‘I feel an unpleasant non-sensual feeling.’ When feeling a neutral sensual feeling he knows, ‘I feel a neutral sensual feeling.’ When feeling a neutral non-sensual feeling he knows, ‘I feel a neutral non-sensual feeling.’”

In Vipassanā Meditation Guidelines, Chanmyay Sayādaw said:
Pain is the friend of the meditator. Do not evade it. It can lead you to nibbāna.
Pain does not have to inform you of its coming. It may not disappear, but if it does, you may cry over it, for your friend has gone away.
Pain is observed not to make it go away, but to realise its true nature.
Pain is the key to the door of nibbāna.
When concentration is good, pain is not a problem. It is a natural process. If you observe it attentively, the mind will be absorbed in it, and discover its true nature.
When pain comes, note it directly. Ignore it only if it becomes overpoweringly persistent. It can be overcome by deep concentration brought about by continuous mindfulness.
If intense pain arises during walking meditation, stop occasionally and take note of it.
Be patient with anything and everything that stimulates your mind.
Patience leads to nibbāna— impatience leads to hell.

Frank responds:

Re: How should meditator react when physical pain raise during meditation?
Post by frank k » Mon Apr 10, 2023 6:24 am
Burmese meditation style mind over body approaches to handling pain causes unnecessary injuries in the long term (years, decades).
Yes, it can build up mental toughness, but you still need a sufficiently healthy physical body structure to fully develop all four jhānas.
Without a healthy enough body, you'll have energy blockages that jam up your jhana battery and it won't fully charge, and worse, for many people they'll develop not only physical problems but mental problems, psychosis as well.
The best way is to develop a daily healthy balanced regimen of cardiovascular excercises, gentle, slow jogging or jump roping for example, lots of dynamic and proportionally less static stretching only when body is heated up, some calisthenics, to break up your sitting meditation and give your knees, legs a chance to heal and recuperate.
See AN 3.16. The Buddha says alternate between walking and sitting meditation. No times (duration of session) are suggested, but use trial and error, common sense, and listen to your body.

I've seen tons of pa auk and mahasi style meditators with serious knee and leg problems. forcing yourself to sit 2 or 3 hours through leg pain, results in damaged nerves. I see those meditators stumbling and tripping for no reason.
And I experienced the same damage. Some deadened nerves in the legs, not to the point where I lost my balance and tripped all the time like them, but I could see it was headed in that direction.
And once the nerves start dying, you feel less pain and then you can sit even longer sessions, until you get hit with a more serious physical health problem from the compound damage over years.
I couldn't sit cross leg for over a year while I was recovering from the damage of that, and I've seen many of the same problems in Pa Auk and Mahasis style meditators who do long sits. Even the "jhāna" (Vism. redefined jhāna) masters.

Be smart, learn to exercise and stretch regularly every day, in between sits.
Some specific exercise to help sitting meditators here:
https://lucid24.org/misc/qigor/index.html
especially see the shake and bake, and full lotus turtle sections.

-frank