From: liu-edward@CS.YALE.EDU (Edward Liu)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Meaning?
Date: 6 Apr 92 14:06:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr6.180639.26546
Distribution: rec
Organization: Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems

In article <1992Apr4.214555.28668@u.washington.edu>  
ngqtuan@milton.u.washington.edu (Tuan Nguyen) writes:
>  Last night, when we were in the sitting position doing sort of like
>meditation before MA class, it suddenly occured to me that I don't know why we
>are doing what we usually do.  I mean we have to sit down on our feet & rest
>our hands on the knees with palm facing up, back straight ..., is there any
>purpose on this position?  Why don't we just stand up to do it? or why do we
>have to face the palms up with the thumb slightly touch the middle finger? ...
>  I would appreciate for any light upon this.
> 
> 
> T.

   One answer that I have for the question comes out of a seminar I took in Zen
Buddhism.  In Zen, the idea of a division between mind and body, one of the
most important philosophical questions in western philosophy, is ridiculous.
To Zen practicioners, there is NO distinction between your mind and your body.
If you accept this, then you can conclude that if your body is stable, your
mind will be stable and vice versa.  So, if you are sitting in a very stable
position, then meditation becomes that much more effective -- your body's own
stability is aiding your mind's stability.

   The next thing that my seminar professor pointed out is that triangular
structures are the most stable -- for example, look at the way some tables
reinforce the table leg:

	-------
	|  /
	| / <---- It's a triangle! :-).
	|/ 
	|

   (Note: I don't *quite* buy into this.)  So, if you sit with your base being
a triangle, you are more stable that way.  The way he demonstrated sitting for
Zen meditation involved sitting on a cushion and sitting in cross-legged,
half-lotus, or full-lotus positions.  If you look at these methods, the full
lotus (if done properly :-) forces your knees to the floor, forming two of the
three points of a triangle, with your butt/cushion forming the third.  The
other two are slightly less stable, but still form that all-important triangle.

   What I found when sitting on my knees (in seiza in Japanese), is that you
are still forming that triangle on the ground, only without a cushion.  Your
*FEET* are what are forming the cushion, and if you sit the way the Japanese
males do in seiza (knees about two fist-widths apart), you're forming a
triangle on the floor with your knees and feet.  Stable position, stable body,
stable mind.

   In contrast, standing up gives you exactly one point of connection to the
ground -- very easy to be knocked over.  Standing legs apart gives you at most
two points, which means getting pushed from the front gets you knocked over.
Sitting in seiza means that you don't get knocked over easily from the front or
the sides or anything.

   Now, this says nothing about what seiza does to your knees...:-).  Hope this
helps!

-- Ed
-- 
|  Edward C. Liu              "Not by wrath does one kill,        |
|  liu-edward@cs.yale.edu       but by laughter..."               |
|  P.O. Box 6007 Yale Station    -- F. Nietzsche,                 |
|  New Haven, CT  06520              _Thus Spoke Zarathustra      |