Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Variations include easy pose (Sukhasana), half lotus, bound lotus, and psychic union pose. Advanced variations of several other asanas including yoga headstand have the legs in lotus or half lotus. The pose can be uncomfortable for people not used to sitting on the floor, and attempts to force the legs into position can injure the knees. [2]
Meditative postures or meditation seats are the body positions or asanas, usually sitting but also sometimes standing or reclining, used to facilitate meditation. Best known in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions are the lotus and kneeling positions; other options include sitting on a chair, with the spine upright.
A single asana is listed for each main pose, whether or not there are variations. Thus for Sirsasana (Yoga headstand), only one pose is illustrated, although the pose can be varied by moving the legs apart sideways or front-and-back, by lowering one leg to the floor, by folding the legs into lotus posture, by turning the hips to one side, by placing the hands differently on the ground, and so on.
In Theravada Buddhism this was much less the case, and figures of the historical Buddha remain the most common main images in temples and shrines to the present. Early images were most often of Buddha standing, but seated meditating postures, essentially the lotus position of yoga , came to predominate.
Practitioners of the Rinzai school sit facing each other with their backs to the wall, while those of the Sōtō school sit facing the wall or a curtain. [8] Before taking one's seat, and after rising at the end of a period of zazen, a Zen practitioner performs a gassho bow to their seat, and a second bow to fellow practitioners. [ 9 ]
Then one imagines the deity arising (often out of bright seed syllables resting on a moon disc or a lotus) and repeats the deity's mantra (which can be done orally or mentally). [12] During deity yoga, one may also perform various mudras (hand seals) depending on the type of sadhana (practice) on is doing.
Mostly these show scenes from the life or earlier lives of the Buddha, but there are other secular scenes. [ 13 ] The pose is found for religious figures from Kushan art (1st to 4th century CE) from Gandhara and Mathura , [ 14 ] although at this period it is rare, with a larger number of seated Buddha images, many with crossed legs, a pose that ...
Sitaprajñāpāramitā - A white skinned goddess with Akṣobhya Buddha on her crown. She sits in the Vajraparyankasana pose on a white lotus, and carries a red lotus in one hand and a scripture in the other. Pītaprajñāpāramitā - A yellow skinned goddess with Akṣobhya Buddha on her crown. She makes the Vyākhyānamudrā gesture with both ...