Prime Time - Jane Fonda [147]
As I said earlier in this book, it took me a long time to develop a meditation practice. But I just kept at it—quite regularly—and eventually found it easier to relax into mindfulness, learning to not identify with the thoughts that came to my overly busy mind. I am still very much a beginner in meditation practice, and there are weeks when I do not make time to meditate; but, as for many people I know, the practice has helped me expand as a person and heal where I was broken. I find it hard to put words to the ways in which this is so. I simply live how it is so.
While the benefits of meditation are usually talked about in abstract terms—the psyche, the soul, the mind—there are definite physical benefits to it as well. Claire Myers Owens, in “Meditation as a Solution to the Problems of Aging,” writes, “Scientific experiments conducted in various laboratories, using yogi and advanced Western meditators as subjects, reveal [that]…in the deep relaxation of meditation the heart rate decreases and apparently the muscles of the walls of the blood vessels relax. This allows blood to flow more abundantly to all organs including the brain.”2
Here, then, is Elizabeth Lesser’s guide to meditation. When you read “I,” this is Elizabeth talking. She begins with an overview of how to do it:
1. SEAT: It is best to sit on a firm pillow on the floor or on a firm-seated chair. If you use a chair, sit forward so that your back does not touch the back of the chair.
2. LEGS: If you sit on a pillow, cross your legs comfortably in front of you, with your knees resting on the floor if they can. Be sure your circulation is not cut off. If you sit in a chair, put your feet flat on the floor, knees and feet hip-width apart. Invite the groundedness of the earth into your body and mind. Let your whole body experience the strength of your stable connection with the earth. Relax into the firmness of this stability.
3. TORSO: Keep your back comfortably straight, your chest open, and your shoulders relaxed. Zen teacher Philip Kapleau writes, “If you are accustomed to letting the chest sink, it does require a conscious effort to keep it up in the beginning. When it becomes natural to walk and sit with the chest open, you begin to realize the many benefits of this ideal posture. The lungs are given additional space in which to expand, thus filling and stretching the air sacs. This in turn permits a greater intake of oxygen and washes the bloodstream, which carries away fatigue accumulated in the body.”
A straight back and soft shoulders is a natural position. It does not have to feel forced or painful. In fact, after time, meditation breeds a sense of overall comfort. But often when we start to meditate, assuming a straight back makes us suddenly aware of discomfort in the body. This is why many people who meditate also practice yoga, or another form of physical exercise that strengthens and stretches the body. One of the best ways to maintain a straight back and open chest in meditation is to repeat silently a phrase whenever you feel physical pain. For example, if you feel yourself tensing your shoulders as you hold your back straight during meditation, you can inwardly whisper to yourself, “soften, soften,” or “open, open.”
4. HANDS: Sometimes, when meditation gets very quiet, our concentration coagulates in the hands. It sounds strange, but you may experience this yourself. It’s not uncommon, as your exhalations dissolve outward, to feel as if all that is left of your body is your hands. Therefore, it is good to position your hands in a way that is both grounding and meaningful. You will notice in statues from a variety of religious traditions that the deities or saints hold their hands in intentional ways. These hand positions are called mudras in the Tantric Buddhist tradition—physical gestures that help evoke certain states