Thou Shalt Not...

A few years ago, i gave my sweetie a sign to hang up in his den.
Thou shalt not whine.

He never did hang it up, and now he has given it back to me (how generous!) and hung it up in my little greenhouse with a slightly altered message:

Thou shalt not wilt.

Oh, dear. Yes, sometimes days go by, and i still don't water my houseplants. The potting soil dries out. The plants begin to wilt. Occasionally one perishes.

Especially at this time of year, when the sun shines full force through leafless trees, the plants in the greenhouse dry out and dry up fast.

In meditation, our posture sometimes wilts. Our backs are so accustomed to slouching in comfy chairs that we've lost our back muscles. When our posture wilts, we can easily drop into a snooze. Or we might notice back pain.

 We want our bodies to hang on the erect column of the spine. I sometimes think of my shoulder blades as a coat hanger, off of which the entire torso hangs, just as loose as a coat hanging on a coat hanger.

A wilted posture leads to head-bobbing meditation.
A relaxed and alert posture leads to happiness.