The Buddha taught that mindfulness should be established in all four basic bodily postures: sitting, standing, walking and lying down. So, what about using reclining as a basis for mindfulness?
Mindful reclining is useful for a number of reasons. Firstly, obviously we all do it every day; and when you’re sick, reclining can be for an extended period – so why not establish mindfulness in this posture?
An additional circumstance where reclining is quite essential is when bodily conditions (knees, back, etc.) make it difficult to sit (or walk) for long. Do we have to consider reclining as a cop-out, or for lazy people? Can we let go of the myth that true cultivation can only occur when one is in lotus posture, in radiant health and a serene environment?
Also reclining gives us an opportunity to soften will power, the ‘do it’ drive. Sometimes we do need to make a strong determination to resist habits and persevere in terms of Dhamma. But that’s one mode of effort and energy. It can get locked; like you’re pushing a door that sometimes needs to be steadily held on its hinge and allowed to slowly swing open. That takes a psychological effort of restraint, open listening and patient sensitivity. If instead the focus has become tight by default, it can feed into the controlling psychology, where a big ‘I am [doing this (not very well)]’ gets established. The wrong basis for effort.
To emphasize: mindful reclining is not a heedless slump. It can help to release some of the subliminal or non-subliminal tension of holding ourselves (and everything else) together. And held with mindfulness and careful attention, it can help you sustain a contemplative practice while relinquishing a considerable amount of will power: you can’t wilfully lie down with the idea that you’re going to achieve something. It also takes you into more subliminal mental states, where you’re not your daily working self. And both of these help to loosen up the sense of ‘I am.’
A motivation I’d like to encourage in reclining meditation is one of regeneration. Of course we sleep in order to regenerate. But sometimes people don’t rest very well, because even in sleep, the fundamental tension hasn’t been released. But through mindfully refreshing the receptive energy in the body, we learn how to undo stress that runs very deep.
Form 1: On your back
Preliminaries
Begin by using a form that places you on your back: reclining on the back with the feet flat on the floor and the legs bent so that the knees point to the ceiling. The reason for this is firstly because it keeps you more wakeful, and mind and heart need to be present and tuned into the exercise in order to open to its regenerative effects.
Secondly, if you have your legs out straight, the lumbar spine doesn't rest on the ground. Relaxing the spine is one of the principles of reclining meditation; this supports relaxation of many structural muscles, and that affects the mind.
Because the back can be quite stiff and stressed, I suggest some preliminary exercises to open the spine. The first of these is to put your hands behind your head (like you’re lying on the beach) and then, relaxing your neck completely, use your hands to draw the skull up, slowly, gently, so you can feel the neck vertebrae opening all the way into the area between the shoulder blades. When you get to the end of that stretch, take a few breaths. Then lower the head back onto the ground just like you’re laying a baby into a cradle; then release the fingers. This helps the top end of the spine and the neck muscles – and that affects the head which is often the GHQ and agent of action. We want to release the default tension in the head that comes with the ‘on the go’ sense.
Let the inhalation come in, at it’s own time and its own rate. An involuntary natural and progressive movement. It’s rather like sunrise; something lights up from the rest state to initiate a swelling movement. Call that 'something lighting up' the ‘fire’ element; be receptive to its life-bringing quality.
You exercise the other end of the spine like this: bring your knees up, wrap your hands around your knees and squeeze your knees towards your chest. Hold that for a while. It presses your lumbar region onto the floor; if you roll on that region a little, you give it a massage.
When you complete that, and having released the arch in the lumbar spine, come into the stable form with the knees pointing up. Then bring your legs apart and let your knees tip towards each other, so that when they meet, they form a supportive steeple. This arrangement will allow the legs to relax in that form.
Take a small rolled up towel (or similar) and slide it behind your neck (or, as in the illustration) so the neck can also feel supported. Then bring your hands over until your hands rest together on your torso, wherever you feel like resting them. This could be on your chest, or abdominal region. It gives a comfortable ‘held’ tone to the posture. You might also appreciate the ‘secluded/private’ feel that draping a blanket over your body offers.
Return to Nature
As you get settled in, simplify your body-image by sensing the body in terms of ‘elements’ – natural impressions. So, the impression of your back contacting the earth, call that firm groundedness, the ‘earth’ element. Earth element supports; you can rest everything on the earth. Focus on that and resonate with that theme as you let the earth carry your physical and even psychological weight. All your yesterdays and tomorrows and uncertainties: release your strategies and let the earth do the carrying.
Then the ‘space’ element. Imagine you have a canopy arcing over you, rising from the ground below your feet to the ground immediately above your head with the high point of the arc over the centre of the body. Within that ‘tent’ is your personal protected space. When you breathe in, you open into that sheltering space. Let your chest open, face relax. Then at the end of the inhalation, let the belly drop with the out-breath, relaxing deeply into the ground. Get the sense of sinking down into that support, relaxing the muscles and the nerves. Breathing out, returning to earth.
As you feel your embodied presence swelling, you realise how fluid bodily form is. This fluidity is the ‘water’ element, that which dissolves, moves through and softens all boundaries. Let go into that tidal flow.
The last element becomes apparent when the inhalation completes itself. There is a micro-pause and then the sense of descending air, a breeze moving down from space and back to the earth.
Spend some time getting into the feel of these embodied impressions, allowing your impression of your body to be of a form that is part of Nature, and which changes in a regular, calm and repeated way. (It’s probably a more valid and useful impression than the normal personal or socially-imprinted one!) Body is a form in Nature, not a personal possession. Nature brought it here. Nature’s doing it. Nature is breathing through it. So there’s a release of psychological weight and ‘do it’ signals.
Then contemplate the energies, mental impressions and memories that move through when, by reclining, you shift the energy body down a few gears. Experiences that would be buried when you’re in a higher active mode may start to come to the surface. And you come into a more primary (even uterine) state of being. Energies and moods may be flurrying or irregular, so keep resonating with the safety of being carried in this tidal flow of breathing. Keep your focus wide and spacious. You may want to add a simple refrain or mantra. As always, let things arise and cease.
Moving to upright
When it’s time to return to upright, bring up the suggestion that this form is capable of autonomy and can separate itself from the earth. It can move; movement is a sign of autonomy. But don’t do anything right now; just get the sense that energy can move through and organise movement. Fire element again. This is like the sun coming up at dawn; the sun doesn’t rush. We just bring in the message ‘this form can move.’
See which parts of your body would like to move. You might rotate your ankles or wrists; but keep your head relaxed – that’s not needed now. The first point is to establish the sense of body as a single unit through the slight twisting and turning in your back. As that flexion gives you the sense of the body as a single entity, begin to activate your fingers, hands and legs. With your knees being upright, if you gently tip them over, that will cause a rolling with no effort. When they touch the ground, strengthen in the legs, and use your arms to push you up. Don’t pull your head up, keep it relaxed.
When you get upright, roll your neck around and let that movement roll your head. Then open your eyes for orientation, stretch and come into the sitting position.
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Form 2: On your (right) side
With reclining, the posture needs to be formal, to keep you wakeful. When reclining on one side (on the right is apparently less stressful for the heart), you focus on the long axis of the form. Arrange the body into an approximately straight line to avoid going foetal. Place a cushion under your arm and rest your head in the palm of your right hand. Let your left arm extend down your left flank, or relaxed across your chest. Then sweep a focus on the long line of the body from the soles of your feet, up through your body and into your head.
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Your feet should be lined up, one on top of the other; that allows your attention to connect to the slight pressure that occurs with contact. As that gets clearer, lightly stretch the toes and soles. Soles of the feet are sensitive, so you can feel a slightly tingly energy there. (It may help to imagine somebody is going to be tickling your feet.) As you follow the flow of breathing, open the soles so the energy of the breathing meets the energy in them. Over time, you can sense this energy coming into the ankles, and it’s possible to sense its tidal flow extending a little at a time from the soles of the feet, up the spine and into the head.
This flow might not trace an unbroken line. It’s more like a railway line with tunnels. The sensitive areas are probably in the lower abdomen and behind the heart; they’re like a series of signposts along the way. The line might get clearer. Anyway, sweep down the body into the soles of the feet, and then with one end of your attention in the soles of your feet stretch and flex it to cover the entire body.
Extend your attention into your right hand, the one cradling your head. As with the soles of the feet, if it is open, and as attention fills it, it will tingle. So spread your attention from the contact between your hand and head into a widening region of the head. Relax the brow and around the eyes, and forehead, where the skin is thin and sensitive, and relax the muscles there that activate with thinking.
Extend that receptive scan around to the temple, where the skin is also thin, and there’s a pulse. Now you might be able to sense the top of your head, the scalp. Here your receptivity should be like listening with the top of your head to the space above it. Don’t force this. As you sustain an extended top-to-toe awareness, it’s as if, between those two poles, your body is suspended like a bead on a thread.
If you can’t sense that yet, don’t think about it, and don’t adopt a tight focus. Just feel that regular tide of breathing, that rhythmic expansion and subsiding through as much of the entire body as is open and available. Breathing in, breathing out, mindful of what is there.
And notice what isn’t ….The day isn’t there. The name isn’t there. History isn’t there. Noticing when those are absent, you feel fuller, but more spacious and less obstructed. How much do you need of time and circumstance? Can you take a break? Touch into this fundamental life energy and open to receive it as it moves through.
May this be well. Gratitude.
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The theme of reclining meditation, is ‘I’ve done enough.’ In that awake state of rest your system has time to rebuild, because it’s not doing any work. Then your receptive nourishing energy it can refresh places that are strained or stressed; and that rebuilds your heart, so your mind is contented.
This process should be given 20-40 minutes; then open your eyes, gently turning the head to and fro so that the visual is connected to the home base of touch. As you return to everyday perspectives, attend and inquire into any impulses or mental tones that arise. May all be well.
