How to Sit Longer in Meditation
Introduction
Many people are interested in learning how they can increase their sitting time. They ask:
Bhante, what kind of exercises can I do? What stretches can I do in order to sit longer?
Actually, the main reason you can’t sit for long periods is not because of the body. Instead, it’s because you don’t have concentration.
The problem is not the posture — the problem is the mind.
You need to focus on the quality of concentration, rather than how long you can sit. This is the most important thing. When you have concentration, you will naturally be able to sit longer and longer. To prove the point, how long can you sit in a chair meditating compared to how long you can sit in a chair watching a movie or doing your desk work? You can probably sit longer at a desk because you are focusing your mind.
Using Your Work Time to Train Sitting
Most people have a desk and a chair. They sit and do their work there. But that doesn’t prepare you for sitting on the floor. Yes, you can meditate in a chair, but if you want to sit on the ground, you need to practice that too.
The problem is if you only meditate once or twice per day, you only get a small amount of time for your legs to get used to sitting on the floor.
Here’s what I recommend:
- Use a meditation seat: an angled pillow with medium rubber foam, about a 30° incline.
- Pair it with a bed laptop desk (search bed laptop desk on Amazon or Daraz).
In this way, you can do your computer work or reading while sitting on your meditation seat. Instead of only getting 1 or 2 hours of practice that will naturally stretch your tendons for that particular posture, you can train your body the whole day while you do your work.
The desk used to cost about $13–15, but recently went up to $21 at this link here: Bed Laptop Desk on Amazon
Keep the Floor Sacred
When you sit on the floor, remember: don’t wear your shoes inside. If you cannot isolate the whole house, try to isolate a single room or a single area of a room where you do not wear shoes because you sit there. When you do this floor sitting practice, the floor becomes your furniture. And if you had a good mother or father, they probably told you:
don’t put your shoes on the furniture!
In Asia, almost nobody wears shoes inside the house. The same is done in the Aloha Land of Hawai‘i. Most people remove their shoes and most people have signs at the front door informing the guests. After doing this for a while, it will start to feel dirty to bring shoes into the house. I like to leave the outside world outside my kuṭi.
So keep your meditation space clean. It makes your space more sacred, whether you’re sitting on the floor for work or meditation.
Sitting vs. Concentration
Some people measure their concentration by how long they can sit. That’s not proper.
- Concentration is concentration.
- Sitting is sitting.
But if your body is in pain, it can disturb the mind and block your meditation practice. So train yourself to sit comfortably as suggested here. The easiest way to be comfortable on the floor is to combine your daily activities with a floor sitting posture, the same as you meditate. In this way, you can meditate longer without physical disturbances.
I hope this tip helps you. May you sit for a long time comfortably. And…
May you reach Nibbāna safely and quickly.
Summary Poem
On the floor I place my seat,
With a desk to make it complete.
Work and practice joined as one,
And so the training has just begun.
Video
Watch the five-minute video here:
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