Spiritual Exercises - Just Sitting

In this page, I try to impart how to do one particular form of spiritual exercise that I have found useful. I can't predict how it might work for you, however. Many such methods fail for some people; some could even have a negative effect. In general, I advise stopping an exercise right away if it leads to discomfort ("If it feels bad, don't do it"). And if nothing useful seems to be starting to happen after a reasonable time (people I have learned from have suggested allowing six weeks), maybe another technique would be better for you.

When I write about sitting as a spiritual exercise, you quite possibly think that I must be referring to someone in a yoga posture like this image:

Actually, I am referring to a much broader idea of sitting -- and in fact I can't myself assume the lotus or related positions. I have tried some elementary hatha-yoga, but I've never got close to the flexibility required to get my feet up on the opposing legs. If you have, and if you now feel comfortable enough in such a position that you can at the same time do other exercises such as meditating or breathing without being distracted by any physical strain, congratulations.

When I have wanted to sit in an Oriental manner, I've used instead a Zen posture, with my legs together, sitting back on the soles of my feet. I've done this with a cushion under my lower shins and ankles for comfort. This pose has qualities in common with a yoga sitting one: it can be done (in its pure form) with no furniture, needing only a clean surface or mat; it naturally draws the sitter into a vertical position, without slouching; and it has a long-established reputation of appropriateness both in itself, and for performing varied spiritual exercises.

I've done Zen sitting only for some chanting (it seems to optimize my breathing and the resonance of the sound I produce), and for the subject of this page, "just sitting." For other purposes, I almost invariably sit in an ordinary Western chair. This has its disadvantages. I find it takes attention to assume the position I keep mentioning in these pages, "... with the head, neck and spine relatively straight and vertical," in a chair. And I need a suitable chair; a soft one, a sofa, a recliner, or for that matter something excessively hard, won't do.

All of the above said, let's assume that you have some sitting posture to use. How, then, do you just sit? The answer is deceptively simple. You do, indeed, just sit. This could be said to be the simplest of all spiritual exercises, in that you aren't sitting in order to do something, you're sitting to sit.

Yet just sitting can be one of the exercises most difficult to master. There is nothing else to do, so your brain naturally makes up all manner of irrelevant things that you don't really want to do, but that you find difficult to avoid. But the simplicity of just sitting makes it even closer than other good exercises to the ideal of "doing just one thing." Thus it is a valuable exercise if you can perform it, and worth the extra devotion to putting aside distractions. When distractions of whatever nature come, put them gently and non-judgementally aside and, with equal gentleness, return to just sitting. This applies not only to the spiritually irrelevant, but in this case also to other spiritual activities you may find yourself recalling and sliding into.

The length of time for which you can truly just sit may be quite brief at first, but will hopefully lengthen towards the usual standard of about twenty minutes with practice. Feel free to make whatever physical adjustments you may need in order to avoid discomfort; this activity isn't about learning to sit in a painful position; it's about learning to sit, and just sit.

Return to "Spiritual Exercises" page to select another kind of exercise.