Lotus Position

[LonesomeYogurt]

I've recently been trying to get into the lotus position, and things are going well. My knees or hips don't seem to hurt at all.

Two problems have, however, come up. I'm bad at describing so helpful image time:

Obviously not me.

In spot number 1, I feel a really painful pressure on my thigh's skin from the foot being pressed down into it by the crossing leg. It feels like it's scraping my skin together and the friction is very painful. Is there a reason I have so much pressure placed on that foot, and can I possibly alleviate it by doing something with my hips or knees?

The second problem is that my foot labeled 2 can get fairly deep into my hip region but it will slide down if I completely relax. Am I supposed to keep a light tension on it to make it stay in place, or am I doing something wrong? I might take a picture of my actual posture to explain - I'll try and cut my crotch out from the shot for decency's sake!

Thanks for any advice on the problems I'm having. Any general helpful tips as well would be welcome.

[manas]

Hi LonesomeY,

I wish you well with the endeavour. I use half-lotus and find it comfortable, and conducive enough for samadhi cultivation. But with my knee issues, full-lotus sustained over a few hours could leave me crippled. I still try to ease in to it from time to time, but my body tells me to stop at once.

I just wanted to advise you to get some guidance from a properly trained yoga instructor, to ensure that you are taking proper care of your knees. You only get one set per lifetime, take care!

manas

[daverupa]

Get hands-on advice or roll the dice with respect to your knees.

[Goofaholix]

The question I'd ask is why bother, parallel posture is perfectly fine and more manageable for long retreats.

For spot number 1 it sounds much like my experience, which is I guess why few of us perfect the posture, other than keeping up the stretching exersizes I'm not sure what the remedy is.

For spot 2 this was also my experience, it's because you are wearing trousers wheras lotus position was designed by people who wear sarongs. If you sit wearing a sarong then it's skin on skin and the foot locks into place, after a while though it will start to feel like spot 1.

[LonesomeYogurt]

I only want to try it out because I have the weakest back in the world and even half-lotus won't keep me from slouching. The little bit of full lotus I can manage has totally felt great so I want to explore it at least a little. Thanks for teh suggestions!

[tiltbillings]

I only want to try it out because I have the weakest back in the world and even half-lotus won't keep me from slouching. The little bit of full lotus I can manage has totally felt great so I want to explore it at least a little. Thanks for teh suggestions!

You might want to try sitting on a very small cushion to get you butt up in a few inches (trial and error to figure what works best), but before that, you may want to do stretching before you assume the posture, and before that you might want to soak yourself in a hot bath for awhile to loosen things ups. The pressure you are feeling is because you are still not loose enough to effectively assume the posture.


This might help:

http://www.yoganatomy.com/2011/07/simpl ... ure-video/

[Sylvester]

I find the Burmese posture/tailor posture most comfortable.

The early texts only recommend nisīdati pallaṅkaṃ (to sit cross-legged) but it does not prescribe how the pallaṅka should be executed.