Savasana - the corpse

The hardest yoga pose

The corpse posture, savasana, is said to be the hardest yoga pose to fully accomplish.

But, well, anything is hard to fully accomplish!

Savasana should always be at the beginning and at the end of your physical (hatha) yoga sessions.

Undress and lie down on your back, with your arms beside you and your legs slightly apart - somewhere between 2 inches (5cm) and one foot (30cm) between your heels.

Take a few deep and slow breaths.

Your hands may rest on the floor palm up or palm down, whatever feels more comfortable and, most of all, effortless. Remember you are a corpse.

You also have to find the best position for your head by trial and error, sliding the back on the floor, so that it is closer or further away from the shoulders - but always looking up.

Now, close your eyes and feel.

Feel the touch of the floor on your body, feel gravity's pull down.

And... Relax.

This is easier said than done. As with everything, there are methods.

Begin feeling your right foot. Is it relaxed? Does it tilt naturally to the right side or are you unconsciously trying to keep it up? Let it go. Are there any points of stress on your right foot? Relax them. Are you curling up your big toe? Let it go.

Slowly move your attention - your mindfulness - up your right leg, until you reach the hip. Identify and relax all points of stress. When your right leg is totally relaxed, move to the left foot, leg and hip, slowly, the same way as before.

You get the idea.

Proceed slowly through the buttocks, the pelvis, the abdomen, the thorax, right hand, arm, and shoulder, left hand, arm, and shoulder, and the neck. The trickiest part is probably the head, especially the face. Depending on your head's pitch your jaw may fall a bit when you relax it. If you're very good at this, after relaxing the neck muscles, the jaw, and the tongue, you may even begin to snore! Stay awake.

After letting go all the stress in the facial muscles, take a fast tour of the whole body. It should feel completely relaxed. Corpse-like...

The Buddha advised to contemplate death (maranasati) with each in and out breath - and this is an easy and refreshing way to begin doing it.

Savasana is a good practice before formal sitting meditation because it allows for a smooth transition between the struggle of daily life and the peacefulness of meditation.

For the same reason, you should do it before your hatha yoga practice. Try this:

1. When you feel fully relaxed, spread your arms to the sides while inhaling; take three full breaths, then
2. Bring your hands to the chest in 'anjali' while exhaling; take three full breaths, then
3. Project your arms up while exhaling; take three full breaths, then
4. Stretch your arms back while inhaling; take three full breaths, then
5. Do the previous steps in reverse order until you are back in savasana.

Respiration might seem too complicated but in fact is simple: the general 'rule' is to inhale with expansive, outward, or upward movements and to exhale with contractile, inward, or downward, movements. In time, you'll find your own respiratory rhythm to accompany your asana practice.

Just remember two things: slow down and sustain. It is much better to sustain a pose for three breaths than to repeat it three times. This is not calisthenics. Eventually your 'yoga rhythm' will extend to your life.

Free books on Buddhism and Yoga

The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts (Dhammapada 354)

Painting of the Buddha's first discourse, turning the Dharmacakra.

Sanskrit Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra manuscript. Nalanda, Bihar, India. Circa 700-1100 CE.

Wikimedia Commons

One (...) should not go about as a trader in the Dhamma (Udana 6.2)

In our society we are used to paying for stuff. There is also a culture that if something is free it must be worthless.

The survival of Buddhism, on the other hand, has always been based on dana - donations.

We can call it donationware...

When I first became a Buddhist, in the 1970's, there was not much information available, except on books, few and expensive. With the Internet we began having access to free ebooks, mainly Theravada, the oldest branch of Buddhism, prevalent today in Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

In the Theravada tradition books are free, temple stays and retreats are free, and no one will ask you for payment. You should freely give, though. It's dana and a great feeling of helping to support those nice bald men in orange robes.

Other traditions don't take the above Udana and Dhammapada quotations to the letter, so it's harder to find free Vajrayana or Zen books, for example.

You know you can find anything online if you put yourself to it. Just remember that illegal downloads are a violation of the second moral precept - not taking anything which was not given to you. More on that later.

Even more than Buddhism, Yoga is big business in the West, so it's also difficult to find free resources online.

Here goes a limited list of trustworthy sites I visit, in alphabetical order. Feel free to add more in your comments.

Buddhism

• A Buddhist Library, with many books of all traditions, not only Buddhist.
• Access to Insight, the colossal work of a Western monk, Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
• Buddhanet eBooks, the work of another Western monk, Ajahn Pannyavaro, contains ebooks on all Buddhist traditions.
• Ajahn Buddhadasa Indapanno (Buddhadasa Bhikkhu) at Suan Mokkh, the monastery he founded to welcome foreigners.
• Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro and other Thai forest tradition masters, at Ajahn Thanissaro's website, including his own work.
• Ajahn Maha Boowa Nanasampanno, who was a student of the founder of the Thai Forest Tradition, Ajahn Mun Buridatto, of whom he wrote a biography.
• Buddhist Publication Society, founded in 1957 in Sri Lanka, the BPS is perhaps the world's largest publisher of Buddhist texts, most of which are available for download.
• Dhammadownload, Burmese site, with books in English.
• Forest Sangha Books, from the Ajahn Chah tradition, ebooks in twelve languages.
• Internet Sacred Texts Archive, classical texts of all religions
• UrbanDhamma, Buddhist books and Dhamma talks in PDF plus audio and video downloads.
• Vipassana Research Institute, S. N. Goenka's living legacy, the largest non-monastic Buddhist meditation community.

Yoga

• Bandha Yoga, the anatomy of yoga postures.
• Centre for Yoga Studies, Paul Harvey's huge library of yoga texts.
• Holybooks.com, a search engine just for that! Free yoga books, and many other.
• Roger L. Cole's YOGeBooks.
• Sri Aurobindo's writings.
• Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj: his and many other books at the Divine Life Society he founded.
• Sri Ramanashram, books by and on Sri Ramana Maharshi.
• Swami Krishnananda Saraswati books; he was the successor to Swami Sivananda as head of the Divine Life Society.

Meditation 101

Meditation is the core Buddhist sadhana (daily practice).

Tosaporn Boonyarangkul - http://www.freeimages.com

If you are a Buddhist you meditate every day, even if just for a few minutes.

If you are not a Buddhist, meditate anyway!

If you are serious about life and the universe and everything, you try to make every waking moment a moment of meditation.

How do you meditate? Just watch what's going on inside you.

Of course, if you are a beginner, there are some details that can help.

Place and time

Try to meditate always at the same place, always at the same time. Make it a habit: it's sure better than eating, drinking, or smoking. As weeks, months, years go by, you'll find yourself yearning for these peaceful moments and missing them when you just can't get to it. If you can, reserve a place at home just for meditating. Most of us can't; just try to make it a happy, quiet place.

When you can, meditate outside, in the open. Sounds can be a little disturbing at first but, as Ajahn Chah said, “It is not that the noise is disturbing you. You are disturbing the noise.”

Ajahn Chah - https://forestsangha.org/ajahn-chah/dedication

Position

Try to meditate sitting on the floor. If you aren't flexible enough to sit on the floor, a bench is alright - even a chair, if you don't lean on the back. But give the floor a try.

There's no need to be uncomfortable: sit on a folded blanket, so that your joints don't press on the floor. Another thing that helps a lot is a pillow under your buttocks, just the buttocks, so that your crossed legs lean down. There are plenty meditation cushions for sale on the Internet but there's no reason to spend a lot of money; any ordinary pillow or cushion, open or folded, will do. In time, you'll find the setup that's 'just right' for you.

Then there's the posture itself - remember Patanjali's asana?

A good meditation posture is both stable and comfortable, but somehow stability and comfort are inversely proportional... at least at the beginning.

The stablest and most recommended posture is the lotus: simple to describe (place your left foot on your right thigh and your right foot on your left thigh) but difficult to sustain for long - or even to achieve for most of us.

Padmasana (the lotus posture)

Myself, I use the half lotus: bring your left foot close to you and then place your right foot on your left leg. The closer the feet are to you and to each other the better.

Ardha Padmasana (the half-lotus posture)

The simple cross-legged 'taylor position' is not recommended: it is unstable and leads to pain.

Then place your hands in a comfortable position. You may start by putting your right hand on top of your left hand, on your lap, near the body, with thumbs slightly touching. Or put your hands on your knees, palms up or down, as it feels more comfortable.

Try feeling as if you are a puppet pulled up by a string attached to the top of your head - and remember you're the puppeteer! The head's position is important; don't look down but also don't look straight ahead. Try pulling your chin a bit towards you until you feel it enhances the spine's verticality.

Relax your entire body. Let your mind wander around it, finding tense spots and relaxing them. The head is perhaps the trickiest. Tension tends to accumulate in muscles you didn't even know you had. We tend to clench our jaw when we want to 'concentrate'. Don't.

For how long should I meditate?

There isn't a simple answer to this question, especially on the upper limit. Anyway, decide for how long you are going to meditate - and stick to it!

If you've never meditated before, start with five minutes. An alarm clock is useful, so that you don't have to keep opening your eyes to check the time. There are a few good free smartphone apps for this purpose. I use the free app Insight Timer for Android and there is also a version for iOS.

Don't hurry to increase your meditating time. We are all different, but try keeping the same time for a week, and then increasing it five minutes. Aim for maybe 20 - 30 minutes per session. If you meditate for 20 minutes per day, after one year you'll have meditated five full days!

Now, what is this all about?

Dim the lights if you can, sit, and make your posture as comfortable as possible. You should not move a muscle till the end. The only exception is to straighten your back if it begins to slouch.

Now, gently close your eyes, and pay attention to your breath. That's just it. Do not try to shorten or lengthen the breath: this is not pranayama - which we will look into later. The Buddha defined forty meditation subjects but anapanasati (mindfulness of in- and out-breath) is still a favorite after 2500 years.

When you find yourself dozing off, open your eyes or take a few deep breaths.

When you find your mind is miles away, immersed in your family, job, preparations for dinner, whatever, as soon as you notice it, gently go back to watching the breath. Gently, in a sense that you don't need to be mad at yourself. It happens. A lot. To everyone of us who has not yet attained nibbana (nirvana).

And then there's pain. You are not used to being completely immobile and pain is your body asking for attention. So, pay attention to it. Let your mind go to the exact spot where it hurts and watch it hurt for a few moments. You may be surprised to see that, most of the times, pain will go away by itself.

You may also be surprised to know that this is the single most important lesson we learn by meditating: suffering, like all things, arises, stays, and then goes away.

OK, some times pain simply won't go away. We are not masochists. It's time to - mindfully, slowly - adjust your position and then go back to watching the breath.

That's all there is to meditation.

For now...

Buddhism and Yoga

Buddhism and Yoga

Tibetan yogi (naljorpa) https://www.pinterest.pt/pin/316870523761191828/

Of course Buddhism and Yoga share a lot.
Buddhist practitioners are called yogis in several traditions, such as the Burmese Theravada and the Tibetan Vajrayana.
Some scholars even argue that the epitome yoga treatise - Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, possibly of the 4th century CE - borrows a lot from the Buddhist tradition.

Patanjali - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3225694

My feelings have been, for a long time now, that the Buddhist approach to meditation is unsurpassable in its directness to enlightenment. But...

... But if your body isn't minimally fit, meditation is impossible!
Let's see what Patanjali has to say about this.

He defines Yoga in the second verse of the Yoga Sutras:
 - Yoga chitta vritti nirodha - Yoga is the stilling of mind's waves. Meditation.

Patanjali's Yoga is also called Ashtanga Yoga, the eight-limbed yoga. Limbs are:

1. Yama - Abstinences
2. Nyama - Observances
3. Asana - Posture
4. Pranayama - Breath control
5. Pratyahara - Withdrawal of the senses
6. Dharana - Concentration
7. Dhyana - Meditation
8. Samadhi - Absorption

You may recognize Samadhi from the Buddha Dhamma: it's part of the path to enlightenment, together with Sila, morals (Yama and Nyama in yoga,) and Panna, wisdom.

Actually, if you look carefully into it - and practice a lot - you'll see that the Buddhist Samadhi encompasses yoga's Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi.

I'll return to meditation later, often. For now, let's look briefly at the physical limbs of Yoga: Asana, Pranayama, and Pratyahara.

Asana is a 'yoga posture'. The lotus sitting posture is called padmasana, and the headstand shirshasana. What is sometimes forgotten is that in the Yoga Sutras the word 'asana' means exclusively 'the correct sitting posture to meditate': no downward-facing dog, no turtle, no bow - yes lotus! But those and other 'cultural' poses will be very helpful for getting physical balance as well as other kinds of development.

Pranayama is the exact opposite of what the Buddhist Theravada tradition recommends for meditation - just watching the breath without any attempt to control it. But, as we'll see later, a few rounds of pranayama, prior to meditation, can be very helpful.

Pratyahara is, of course, essential in any meditation technique. You won't be able to meditate if your mind keeps being attracted by the senses, in all senses.

Actually, what today is called Hatha Yoga, the physical yoga, dates back 'only' to the 11th century CE and has roots in a much older, parallel, tantric tradition. And that's ok.

If, to prepare physically for meditation you run a marathon or lift weights, you may get a nice body but won't be able to meditate.

'Do yoga' instead!

Suryanamaskar - http://srisadgurunarsimha.com

Naked body, naked mind

As you saw in the first post 'naga' means, among other things, 'naked'.

The Naga Babas are well known all over India, their naked bodies covered in ash from the sacred fires, most of the time alone except when there is one of the great Khumb Mela festivals.

Naga babas at Khumb Mela in Haridwar, 2010.

https://www.pinterest.pt/pin/551128073122317762/

The Buddha was not fond of the physical body. He taught that it was a strong source of attachement and hence of suffering. The monastic rules (Vinaya) specify that monks must never be naked, not even when alone. Of the forty meditation subjects He defined, one is on the loathsomeness of the body (patikkulamanasikara), as an antidote for sensual passion.

"He said: 'Nakedness is unbecoming, unsuitable, improper, unworthy of an ascetic, not allowable and not to be done'. He objected to it on two grounds. The first was because like all austerities or surface changes, nudity does not lead to significant inner change. He said: 'Not nakedness nor matted hair, not mud nor fasting, not lying on the ground, being unwashed or squatting on the heels will purify one who has not passed beyond doubt'. He also objected to nudity because it contravened the norms of polite society for no good reason." [From 'Nudity' in the Guide To Buddhism A To Z]

As we can see, the Buddha's arguments agaist nudity are mostly cultural and so, while they made sense in 500 BC India, they can be reverted in today's Western society.

First, being accustomed to a life of comfort, any discomfort is a worthwhile subject for meditation and hence inner change. Then, our society has fewer and fewer norms against nudity, to a point where almost no one is shocked by the sight of a naked body.

Clothes are a form of societal discrimination by enforcing consumerism. I don't like clothes, so I try to be naked whenever possible.

And, of course, I try to practice naked whenever possible.

Yoga asanas (postures) are best practiced naked. Without the bindings of clothes, movements are more free and I can focus on the exact sets of muscles and sinews that are being stretched or contracted.

The pranayama (breath control) techniques that I practice are strongly heat-inducing; even in winter I perspire profusely. By the way, it's pranayama, in part, that allows Tibetan yogis to practice naked in the Himalayas.

Meditation is also best practiced naked: legs lock best and your body is in direct contact with the environment.

If you look for a patron Saint of naked Buddhist yoga you'll find him in Tibet: Jetsun Kabum, Milarepa - who, by the way, was not a monk.

Rechungpa meets Milarepa - http://www.rinpoche.com/mp1.html

I am a Theravada Buddhist in my heart but my attitude towards the body sympathizes with Tibetan Vajrayana... The different flavors of Buddism (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Zen, and much more) are not that different, after all, as you can read in Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions, by H. H. the XIV Dalai Lama. Highly recommended.

Mind you: all this talk about nakedness has nothing to do with sex! See the 'Brahmachari' in my name? It means one who has vowed total sexual abstinence.

Does this mean that I am 'against' sex? Heck, no! It just is distracting, for the time being, in my spiritual life.

NagaBuddha?

Buddha protected by Naga, by กสิณธร ราชโอรส - Wikimedia Commons

I've been a Buddhist for forty years now. A Theravada Buddhist, actually.
What does this mean?

It means that I believe the Buddha, some twenty-five centuries ago, was enlightened by His own effort.

It means that I believe in the Four Noble Truths He discovered and proclaimed

1. That life is full of suffering (Dukkha)
2. That the cause of suffering is attachement (Samudaya)
3. That there is an end to suffering (Nirodha)
4. That there is a path to that end (Magga) - which has three concomitant aspects: morals (Sila), meditation (Samadhi) and wisdom (Panna)

It also means that I believe in the three characteristics of all composed things

1. That they are impermanent (Anicca)
2. That they are impregnated with suffering (Dukkha)
3. That they do not have an independent, permanent self (Anatta)

That's it.

From these nine nouns you can deduce all of the Buddhist scriptures - several hundred volumes of all traditions. Cool, isn't it?

---//---

Now, about the Serpent - Naga.
Muccalinda was the king of serpents and he protected the Buddha from a storm, right after His enlightenment.

But the word 'naga' has other meanings, namely 'naked' as in 'Naga Babas', the wandering sadhus of India and Nepal - not Buddhist, mind you, but mostly Shaiva (devotees of Shiva) and Vaishnava (devotees of Vishnu).

Sadhu in Kolkhata, By Milei Vencel  - Wikimedia Commons

I have been recently in the largest Muslim country of the world, Indonesia, in an island whose people are mostly Hindu, Bali. I was certainly surprised to see Buddharupas (images of the Buddha) everywhere.

I asked my Balinese friend if there are many Buddhists in Bali. His answer?

 - Buddha, Hindu, same.