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.

A Really Tall Hollyhock

A 12-foot tall hollyhock is growing just outside my back door. And the miracle, to me, is that it's standing straight; it's not falling over. It has reached past the rooftop, headed for the sky. When i see it, i want to stand up straighter myself.

An erect posture is important for our meditation, whether we are standing or sitting. Since we, in our society, are accustomed to slouching--on the sofa, in an easy chair, even in our cars--we often don't have the back muscles to support an erect posture, which actually enables the rest of the body to relax. Think of the spine and shoulder blades as the hanger on which the flesh of the body rests.

Do a quick body scan, even while you are reading this, and notice where tiny tensions reside in your face, neck, shoulders, hands, back, gut, thighs, feet.

Now relax. Settle in. As your crown heads toward the sky, and your sitz-bones settle down toward the earth, relax.
Relax; don't collapse.
We maintain an alertness of posture and, thereby, an alertness of mind.
Feel the tranquility, the calmness, which is different than sleepiness, different from laziness, different than torpor.

Be inspired by a tall, really tall, hollyhock.