Wednesday, May 8, 2019

FLT: cross leg sitting, right leg over left or vice versa?




Question on sitting posture


So i have been sitting now regularly for about 3 and a half years, always in half lotus. I sit with my right foot on the left thigh and i'm very comfortable, however i can't do it the other way around. I'm wondering if this might lead to some sort of imbalance over longer time, especially because by family i have a quite rigid musculature even though i'm quite young. Are there any people with experiences of this kind on here and what did you do?
Thanks for any help

Here are my notes that I'm compiling into a book.


I've been sitting for over 3 decades, often intensively for over 6 hours per day. At the beginning of my path I could sit full lotus for about 5 minutes, most of the time I sat half lotus, or no lotus, with meditation cushion.



I stretch everyday (yoga, taiji, and common sense stretching) of hips and legs, and gradually improved flexibility. Now I sit 2 to 3 hours at a time in full lotus, no meditation cushion. All done gradually over time.



I do at least a few minutes of stretching/yoga before and after each sit.

I found that it's much more effective, rather than doing all the yoga and stretching in one session a day for 60min, instead do anywhere between one to 15 min. many many times throughout the day. So spending the same amount of daily time stretching cummulatively, but stagger out many micro sessions as needed. Because depending on your lifestyle and habits, your body is going to stiffen up throughout the day, always do things to melt the tension and not let it calcify. You don't drink all the water you need once per day, your body would just pee most of it out. So treat stretching with the same mentality.



And each sit I do, I alternate whether I use left leg over right or vice versa so I no longer have a strong or weak side, they're balanced.

I don't know that there is a 'correct direction' (left leg over right or vice versa) for cross leg seating. In the EBT (early buddhist texts) all that is mentioned is bending oneself into cross leg posture (pallankam abujhitva) and sitting with body straight (ujum kayam panidaya).




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