Padmasana: Lotus pose for meditation

Yoga practitioners and spiritual seekers of other mystical teachings of East are striving to master the Padmasana. In yoga this position is considered to be one of the most important. All the variety of other asanas serves to prepare the practitioner for a long stay in this meditative pose. The ancient yogic text the Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes the Lotus Pose: «Ordinary people cannot attain this pose, only a few wise ones on this earth can». It is in this pose that the great Masters of the past and enlightened Gurus of our days are most often depicted.

The Lotus pose is the “asana fr om a thousand diseases”. Maintining of this pose helps to change practitioner’s metabolism and improve brain function, which in turn restores the dynamic balance of the whole body.

Benefits of the Padmasana:

• The acupuncture meridians of the abdominal organs are compressed and stimulated, which improves the digestive process.
• There is a beneficial effect on the heart and circulatory system, as well as on the respiratory system, blood pressure decreases.
The Padmasana increases the blood supply to the pelvic floor, while the flow of blood to the legs is limited, due to this, all the pelvic and abdominal organs are toned.
• The nerve endings in the sacrum and coccyx are toned, which can be a help for sciatic nerve neuralgia.
• The innervation of the spine improves, excessive tension is removed from the corset muscles, and the flexibility of the spine develops.
• The symmetry of the body is built up. By practicing the padmasana, you can form a good posture and get rid of scoliosis.
• It is a good training for tight joints of the legs, reduces arthritic pain in these areas.
• The lotus position brings relaxation, accelerates thought processes, and improves memory.
• The benefits of the lotus pose are also undeniable for the psyche: the mind is purified, in turn it helps to activate the energies of goodness, to develop sanity and empathy for the living beings.

Mastering and practice of the Padmasana is crucial for getting advancement in other practices such as Pranayama, Mudras, Bandhas, Dharana and Dhyana.

• It has a calming effect on the mind, helps to turn it inward.
• Staying in Padmasana helps to get rid of laziness and drowsiness. Crossed legs and a straight back position help keeping inner calm and getting deeper mind focusing. 
• It is easier to control the mind focus, not to be manipulated and to prevent distructions (or different irrelevant thoughts).
• In this position, the lungs work at full amplitude, and breathing becomes rhythmic. It becomes easier to do expansion and contraction of the abdominal and respiratory areas, which in turn helps performing breathing practices. This is why the Lotus Position is the ideal position for Pranayama.
• Some practices, especially those involving the release of powerful energies that can even lift the body off the floor, should be practiced only in Padmasana, as it keeps the body in a stable position, preventing it from falling down.
• During the deepest stages of meditation, it helps to disidentify jogi’s mind mind from the body.
• Padmasana facilitates the elevation of Apana-vayu (, one of the energies in the body which is tend to go down limiting the ability to focus one’s mind, to increase). Its excessive outflow drags the consciousness downwards, leads to low manifestations of human psyche, to lowering of the level of intelligence. In outdtanding cases - to depression, apathy and other severe mental states.

The most important contraindication is the lack of prior experience in yoga practice, as well as:

• leg joints injuries;
• cardiovascular diseases;
• sciatica and infection in the sacral region;
• varicose veins.

Before you start practicing this asana, the first question to ask yourself is «Why do I want to do the Padmasana?» If it is to please your ego, to be demonstrative, than is a short-sighted motivation.

If the motivation is health-related, it's better, but that's not the purpose of yoga. Yes, certainly this asana is good for both women's and men's health. However, the body is a temporary tool in the search for the permanent, and health is just a pleasant bonus on the path of yoga.

The ultimate goal of the practice is to tame the animal nature, curb the mind and control the emotions.

• Standing positions to open the hip joints:

  • Anjanasana,
  • Ardha Chandrasana,
  • Virabhadrasana,
  • Vrikshasana,
  • Parshvakonasana,
  • Prasarita Padotanasana,
  • Uthitta Trikonasana.

Sitting Asanas to Prepare for Padmasana:

• Malasana,
• Janu Sirshasana,
• Upavishta Konasana,
• Gomukhasana,
• Baddha Konasana,
• Agni stambhasana,
• Ardha Matsyendrasana,
• Siddhasana,
• Ardha Padmasana.

• Asanas for stretching back side of the legs:

  • Parshvattanasana,
  • Paschimotanasana,
  • Uttanasana,
  • Ardha Trikonasana.

• Relaxation Asanas:

  • Adho Mukha Shvanasana,
  • Marjariasana,
  • Balasana.

The readiness is checked in Ardha Padmasana: by the height of the knee above the floor, it should touch it. Or by sitting with legs stretched forward and turning the feet towards the floor: if they rest freely on the floor, you can start Padmasana.

The Lotus pose is considered mastered if you can put your legs in the right position without help of hands and and at the same time both knees touch the floor.

A beginning practitioner most often has a poor sense of the body: there is no sense of wholeness and no understanding of the interaction of all parts of the body.

To develop sensitivity and prevent injuries, it is important to observe three conditions::

1. Do not rush, be attentive to the state of the body. Move forward consistently and develop a simultaneous feeling of all parts of your body.
2. Track how the legs and body interact through the hip joint.
3. "Revitalize" or increase the mobility of the hip joints, carefully include them in the work. Achieve in practice the maximum possible interaction of all muscle groups located in the pelvic area.

Then there will be a natural progress in the practice and the maximum benefit from the Lotus Position.

If you are beginner, enter the Lotus pose through the Upavishta Konasana. If you are advanced practitioner, it is acceptable to enter from any position.

1. Sitting on the mat with your legs straightened, spread them at an angle of about 90 degrees. Toes are pointing vertically upwards.
2. Hands are stretched out in front of you on the floor, a slight tilt of the body forward, the stomach tends to the floor. The hips are turned outwards as much as possible, the muscles are absolutely relaxed. The legs are extended from the pelvis. The back is straight.
3. Grab the right foot so that the shin and foot are on the same line.
4. Bend the right leg at the knee and place the upturned foot in the fold of the left hip joint. Knee-to the floor.

   Attantion! While you are entering the asana, do not allow your body to tilt backwards. Your back position is suppoted to be fixed rigidly so it would not be moved during the folding of the left leg.

5. The left leg is bent, the foot is turned up and placed on the right hip.
6. Release the gluteal muscles with your hands so that the support falls on the sciatic bones. Straighten your back, lower your shoulders down, and direct the knees of both legs to the floor.
7. The feet are pulled up so close to the body that the heels are slightly pressing on the lower abdomen. The higher the feet are on the hips, the easier it is to put your knees on the floor.
8. Your hands rest on the lap.
9. The chin is slightly lowered, the head is not thrown back.
10. The Mula bandha is taut, which will help you to hold the pose and practice it more deeply.

Hold the asana for a comfortable time and after releasing it repeat the same on the other side. At the end of the practice, massage the joints with circular movements.

Recommendations for Progress in Practice

Asana is mastered when a person is able to remain in it for three hours without moving and without any discomfort. This is complete mastery of the posture, a state called “Asana Jaya” (“victory over the posture”).

Tips for mastering the Padmasana:

• You can sit in the Lotus not only during meditation and pranayama, but also while you are reading, writing, or doing office work. It is recommended that you take this position whenever possible.
• Advanced Padmasana Exercises:
• bending forward and backward, sideways, rotating the body around its axis, rotating left and right, lying on the stomach in the Padmasana;
• Kukkutasana;
• Baddha Padmasana;
• Padmasana in the Anantasana;
• Padmasana in the Sarvangasana.

Important points to avoid injury when learning Padmasana:

• Do not attempt this asana until your body is ready. Always start with warming up the joints of the legs, you can do it lying down.
• Practice in a calm, peaceful state.
• Be extremely attentive to your body. Do not allow strong tension in the knees. If the knee itself does not lie on the floor — you should not put pressure on it.
• If your knees don't touch the floor yet, and your back is rounded, put improvised means under your knees and pelvis: a pillow, blanket, bolster, brick.
• Gradually increase the time spent in the asana.

«If full attention is paid to the process of practicing asana, technical errors would be detected and corrected by themselves, because the body will sense what to do and how to do it to get the desired result».

Saraswati Sri Swami Sivananda

It is difficult for Westerners to master the Padmasana because the body is “spoiled” by lack of physical activity, unhealthy diet and the benefits of civilization: chairs, comfortable cars, soft furniture. From the point of view of yoga, the second obstacle after the rigidity of joints is apana-vayu - energy in the legs, which tightens the muscles and joints. In order to eliminate it, it is necessary to practise yoga comprehensively, developing the whole body, including the prescriptions of Yama-Niyama.

The pain happens due to “mind spots” accumulated in the subtle body.

Mastering the Padmasana depends not so much on stretching, but on the purity of the energy channels. This asana will be stable only if a person understands the energy in their body.

The only way to deal with pain in this asana is to be patient within reason.

If during the Padmasana practice there is a pain in:

• Thighs — the karma associated with the world of hungry spirits is being worked out: greed, avarice, excessive attachments.
• Knees — karma related to the animal world is burning out: ignorance, stupidity, inertia, lustfulness.
• Feet — the karma of the hellish worlds is being worked out: anger, malice, violence, murder.

Nutrition and Stimulants

Food of animal origin and intoxicating substances change human energy, make it “heavy” or “coarse”, the downward energy of Apana-vayu becomes stronger. Wh ere the energy is located (at lower centers), the consciousness is presented, that is why a person feels an aggression, fear, lust, grudge, resentment and disappointment, regret and hatred, nostalgia for the past.

By consuming such products, a person levels their potential abilities, which animals do not have, and misses the chance to open higher states of consciousness.

Any yoga practitioner will sooner or later have to adopt a vegetarian diet and give up stimulants, which is a prerequisite for achieving single-mindedness of attention, purity of thought and spiritual evolution. Meat and stimulants reduce sensitivity, without which advancement in awareness is impossible.

Mass Media Influence

Energy bodies (subtle) of a person are formed from what they watch and listen to.

In Padmasana a practitioner strives to work with energy, to raise his consciousness to higher energy centers. But modern mass media, such as television, internet, radio, social networks and others, hinder this, as the information one consumes from such sources is most often connected with events and persons who do not work with their energies, but show destructive patterns of behavior. As folk wisdom says: “Those who sleep with dogs will rise with fleas”. In yoga terms what one concentrates on is what they will get.

Previous Lifestyle

Living in society, a person is constantly involved in energy exchange with people around him, whether he wants it or not, but adopts the qualities of those with whom he regularly communicates.

By connecting with people who strive to live consciously, environmentally, ethically, spiritually, we soak with their properties.

The same thing happens during interaction with people whose life's purpose is to satisfy their passions. Such communication will inevitably lead to the strengthening of Apana-vayu.

Yoga and Ayurveda state that a person's negative karma accumulates in the subtle energy body, starting at feet, gradually rising to the top of the head.

From the point of view of Tibetan masters, performing Padmasana, blocks the energy channels of the legs leading to the lower worlds: hell, the world of animals and the world of prets(hungry spirits). This allows practitioner to transform negative karma by raising their apana-vayu.

The rasing apana-vayu burns out the limitations of the mind, which is why practitiner feels a literally a burning pain during the practice of Padmasana.

Yoga master Pilot Baba said: «Pain occurs when the unfolding Apana-vayu tries to come out of the feet, but because of the narrow nadis, it gets stuck and causes this wild pain. Apana energy is trying to break through these places.

The practice of tapas through extreme patience in Padmasana resets or burns accumulated karma related to the lower worlds».

People in society, rooted with their desires at the bottom of daily cares, in the mud of everyday life, in the web of the material world. If you have the intention to make your inner world purer, take the example of the lotus flower and practice the Padmasana to rise above the gloom of animal passions, to rise from the sticky mud, becoming white and untainted, be an example and inspire others.

Regular practice and rule: «Do to others what you want to do to yourself" is a great help to all of us».
Om!