drsuess30 Posted: Mar 7 2008, 07:44 AM
Drsuess

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Does anyone experience physical discomfort when meditating?

Like when I meditate, I get to the point where I feel as if my spritual body wants to get up and go but I get this sensation of a "numbing/tingling pain" in my legs. The sensation forces me out of my meditative state and I have to shake the feeling out of my legs.

Also, when meditating with my Djinn, I felt the scent of my candle, that I was burning, fill my throat and lungs with like a scented smoke like feeling. I came out of my meidatative state in a coughing fit in order to clear it.

Does that happen to anyone else?

QUOTE
If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good!
Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991)

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alex Posted: Mar 7 2008, 09:39 AM
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Try a different position for your meditation. There is no rule that says you MUST be in a certain position. I do a lot of meditations laying down, as I can't sit for long without a chair back.

Some candles are strongly scented. Depending upon the strength of the candle and the size of the area you are in, it may really be intense. If you're sensitive to scents, it may cause you problems.

Oil burners work well. But the secret is to put a teaspoon of water in the top, and add just a drop or two of oil. It doesn't have to be a strong scent for your spirits
to be aware of and attracted.

Bright Blessings,
Alex
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Angel Paradise Posted: Mar 8 2008, 08:12 AM
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Dear drsuess30,

Yes, i do have sensation of a "numbing/tingling pain" in my legs during meditation sometimes.

I probably think that is my blood circulation is poor that cause the pain in my legs.

but i still felt peaceful, calming feeling during the meditation,...

I do agreed with Alex to try different position for your meditation.

Angel Paradise


All the life come to me with ease, joy and glory...


With Loves and lights

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cat dancing Posted: Mar 8 2008, 05:21 PM
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Yes, I think changing your position will help. If you have a recliner type chair, that can sometimes be helpful, though you'd have to guard against falling asleep. The mind can be tricky in trying to distract when you are not a seasoned meditator. From a wandering mind, to itches, twitching muscles and any number of transient aches and pains, it can sometimes be frustrating. But it is just the mind rebeling against the discipline. Do what is necessary to find a good position for a sustained period of meditation and persevere. Gently bring your mind back to your breathing and after several sessions, I think you'll find it gets easier.

As far as the scent of the candles, perhaps you were meditating too close to the scented candles? Maybe try tea light candles that you have blessed instead during your meditations if you are sensitive to scented candles.

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Caiyros Posted: Mar 14 2008, 10:59 PM
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Comfort is key! Years ago, I did the full lotus position for any and all forms of meditating. I discovered that my meditations were very good - I was really doing a great job meditating on personal acute physical pain, especially in a zendo where we would sit on a cushion for about 40 minutes, then get up and walk in a circle for 40 minutes, then back to the cushion, on and on from 8 am to noon and from 1 pm until 6 pm, day after day. I couldn't get up. Monks had to haul me off the floor and carry my like a wounded soldier with my arms around their necks. My mind was obseessed with pain and being artificially crippled. Then I got where I didn't care about anything but the pain, then I got to where I didn't care at all. And then after a week, my roshi, Mu-on MAureen Stuart, said to me, "would you like a chair?", and the absolute beauty of all and everything, hit me like being punched in the head.

Since then, I have meditated in a comfortable wicker chair or on a raised futon with back against a pillow and the pillow is against the wall.

Ram Das wrote of his mediitations in a zendo in (I believe) his book "Grist For The Mill" and it is hilarious. Once we were laughing about what idiotic jackasses we were to take ourselves so seriously, and maybe we would be better off to just think of ourselves as "a bunch of sh*theads who take themselves so seriously tht we try to hard and refuse to stop" Like being lost in the desert and saying to one another:

"I just know there is an air-conditioned hamburger stand over the next sand dune."

"Yeah, I think I remember that guide book we lost saying something about that..."

And trudging on like faithful soldiers! What a howl of laughter.

Experiment with comfort that allows you to stay awake. Whatever that is it will work just fine.

ALso note, a lot of the old famous guys of all meditative disciplines who used some of these sitting techniques like the full lotus position wound up with arthritic legs.....

Caiyros


As Best I Can, I Try to Walk in the Same Footsteps as Cicero and On the Same Path as Baudelaire, and Love the Mystery of Where It Shall Lead Me, Then, Now, & Later...