Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Choedak offers a 21-minute detailed meditation instruction on posture and its role in calm abiding practice, focusing on how correct spinal alignment channels subtle energy through the body’s central channel and nadis. He explains the mechanics of keeping the back straight to allow water element circulation, preventing numbness and mental sluggishness, then moves to neck and head alignment, emphasising a natural half-open gaze that reflects inner peace rather than visual focus. He concludes with extended teaching on breath awareness as the gateway to air element mastery, describing each inhalation as an opportunity to receive universal goodness and each exhalation as a chance to release negativity, illness, and mental obstacles. The instruction is practical and embodied, designed for meditators ready to work directly with energy channels and breathing integration.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 TtT.mp3
UUID: 864efa67-033c-4e8f-8fb4-969a80bc688b
Teacher: Choedak
Collection: Calm Abiding (Choedak)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~3,446
Back allows even the downward flowing element to flow upwards. Even downwards flowing elements or liquid in the body flows upwards, you know, flows out. This is very subtle elements. We’re not talking about gross liquid we have drunk. It doesn’t mean that it will come out through your nostrils.
And we don’t want to see that happen. See? So there’s a great sense of, I would say, separation, clarification of elements. There are certain subtle elements arising upwards. This is what I mean by ascending energy.
You’ve got to imagine and visualize yourself being inside of the lowest backbone and slowly trying to ascend through each of the spinal column. There’s twenty-one or so, if not more. And just making one by one, it’s ascending so much so that it comes right on the back of your neck, right in the back of your neck. You’ve got to really visualize. You’ve got to be inside your spinal column to realize that you are straightening your back.
This is not forceful physical like a chiropractor or osteopath will let you do, but just mentally. Mentally, try to do this posture. Try to do this posture. Slowly you ascend your back, and this allows the whole ascending energy that we were talking about. The central channel runs between your navel and as far as your crown.
So in order to correct and center that, and it centers that. Because most important essence of all the water element in our body is the white and red element in our body. White and red element in our body. And their flow is right now very much regulated by the pattern of the body that it goes through changes. Yeah?
Meditators can improve or modify the pattern of the bodily cycle if their meditation is very good, particularly the correct back posture and understanding of this will induce improvement of the bodily cycle so that you’re not always tired at the particular hour that you need to go to bed, for instance. Good back posture can alleviate lethargic state of mind and can make the body become much less tiring. Because if the body gets less tired, then it will need less sleep and it will become less attached to comfort as well. So it actually conditions all the necessary conducive things for the mind and body to be able to practice very well. So keeping the back straight allows the water element to flow freely because some people when they meditate they feel some places of the body that the circulation is not going.
So they need to concentrate a lot on the back, straightness of the back and that will naturally induce the easy flow of the elements and circulation in the rest of the body. Even you may be feeling a little numb or numb in your toes or something, but you never feel act more rigidly when you feel them. You may have twitched a little bit, those toes, while the numbness is just very, very minor. It is just in a very developing state. You might even be able to alleviate all numbness, you know, by having that by feeling that sense of circulation that you allow to occur in spite of your, you know, strict physical posture.
But deep in the mind, you’re moving more than you would do in moving body. Mentally, you’re moving more to cause the circulation in various parts of the body, so no part of the body is left numb or there’s no circulation at all. It is because if your back isn’t straight, your water element, you know, water element is the fluid that actually washes everything, you know. Water element is that it washes everything and that flows from one place to another and becomes like a communicator. Communicator.
Now, there’s a lot of misunderstanding between your rest of the body and the toe which has gone numb. The rest of the body is really resenting the fact that toes have gone numb. So there’s no good relationship between the numb part of the body and non-numb part of the body. So in order to improve the relationship, there must be because nadi, you know, the circulatory veins in the body are called nadi. Nadi means river.
You could let the river flow from one part of the body to another so that nothing is clogged in one particular part of the body. So keeping your back straight, therefore, allows the circulatory, the circulation of the body flow much easily. So all the nadis, meaning river canals, like river channels, where the river flows, your whole energy will flow. Why should one certain part of the body have no circulation at all? That’s because we are rigid, firmly rigid of the physical.
Particularly, we are not appreciative of the meaning of the straightness of the back and what it should do to induce the circulation in the body. So that even you have a little bit of numbness, you have that because just the river washes away everything. Likewise, your ability to appreciate and rejuvenate the water element, circulatory element in your body, therefore, does not let any numbness to stay long in one place because you are able to dislocate them. You’re able to dislocate means you’re able to distribute to other parts of the body before it becomes too tense. Now, so therefore, sense of consciousness, bodily consciousness increases dramatically if your back is very straight because you’re more alert.
You’re so alert that when the small numbness is developing, you are actually able to dislocate that right in the early stage. So you don’t have to feel the stress when it gets really numb. You’re not sure whether you’re going to move at all or not, you know. So that is the purpose of the straightness of the back. It actually harmonizes your water element, the circulatory element in the body.
And not only that, keeping the spine straight allows, how does this circulation of the body is encouraged, the straightness of the back, the straightness of the back allows the straightness of the veins. Straightness of the veins enables the energy, regenerative fluid flowing in the nadis to flow unobstructively. Then unobstructed flow makes it more communicative, more communicative between different parts of the body to another. And that, therefore, that ability to communicate sharply and swiftly causes your mental clarity, causes your mental clarity. Because if you don’t have the clarity of mind, you could not do them.
You could not induce them. So the full straightness straightens the back, straightens the vein, straightens the flow, and then straightens the mind really means awake. Aware mind that is aware. So these four straight these four things are encouraged by keeping the back straight and therefore encouraged by empowering the circulatory energy, water element in the body. And the water element of the body when a person who has this ability has experienced the quality of water, what is the quality of water?
That it can wash all stains. So in the meditation, you don’t really get stuck. Oh, I’m getting numb. I can’t meditate. You don’t stay with this thing feeling that I can’t meditate.
I’ve got this pain. You are actually doing something about that numbness there and then. You’re not waiting it to disappear. You’re doing something about it by visualizing that the numbness in the body is slowly moving. You’re actually just, you know, you’re changing location.
You’re relocating that in different parts of the body, all over the body maybe. It’s better that your all over body is numb than just one part numb. So almost that you become very embracing even to the whole idea is you embrace and accept the numbness rather than rejecting. The more you reject, the more the numbness will increase actually, and it will intensify at one place even. So it is less likely to spread sparingly and become manageable, but it becomes very, very localized and very unmanageable so the rest of the body is completely upset about it.
So in order that this doesn’t happen, the straightness of the back and feeling the quality of water, that is to wash away the stains of pain or stains of numbness that you feel there and then. Now, that is keeping your spine straight. Now, next is you need to the neck, which is the main part of your rest the next part of the most important is that the neck should be slightly bending forward so that the back of the neck and your crown, that the top of your vertebra and your back of the neck is straight in line, so bending slightly to the front as you feel the single hair on top of your crown is pulling you up. So the ascending energy we talked about that came through your each of the vertebra is corresponding to the energy that pulls you up. This has a sense of your body is sitting up, whole posture.
If people were to when people are looking at us, they’re looking at us as a tangible form. They’re not looking at the space around us. Just imagine that think of the reverse. Think the space we are sitting in is the space, so the space, the space around us is solid. Think of that. Think of that.
That will give you a picture of a pyramid of your body sitting up straight, you know. Say, there’s space within the body, and all around is only solid things. You know? So all the energy with which you sit, you know, ascending energy with which you sit your back, in the front, your side, you know, there’s always this there’s a triangle shape. Shape of the triangle is there.
Many, many shapes of triangles, you know, mysteriously are there in this posture. And that itself really corresponds and communicates greatly in the greater universe. That is all aiming for the highest top. You know? Highest top, you know?
Top is very difficult. People like to be on the top, but top is very, very perilous. Very precarious. It’s the most unsafe place to stand. So to keep your spine straight and back straight, we mentioned, is try to, you know, feel the synchrony of the gravity of your concentration is not just on the place you’re sitting, but as well as the top of your body that is holding it together.
Now this induces this whole idea of air element. Air element has much deeper meaning. It actually relates with most of the rest of the postures than just this one. So keeping your top straight, and as if you feel your whole body is air, and all the energy around it just supports it. So you don’t really feel that you need cushions around you, or you need walls to lean on. But you have all around you.
You are supported by the whole universe all the time. And be and feel that way when you’re sitting. So you’re not only sitting on the floor, you’re supported from the right, from the left, from the front, from the back, and from the top. All that sense of gravity is very, very important. Try to make yourself the center of the universe.
And we are. Because there is no universe otherwise. It’s good to feel the gravity, you know, gravity. And that sense of whole energy. Because when we die, the universe dies too, you know.
That shows that we are the center of gravity. Because no dying person will think the rest of the world is staying back. Everything disappears. Everything disappears first, actually. Everything disappears first, and then oneself disappears.
Seldom do beings realize this. Now, sitting in this posture, understanding and remembering the meanings as I explained, what we encourage you to do during the next session after the break is actually what we encourage you to do is to keep maximum attention to your bodily posture, the posture in which you sit in meditation, the posture in which you sit in meditation, and try to really achieve the expression of the meanings of the harmony of each of the elements that I talked about. The air element particularly is significant with the breathing, breathing exercise. Yeah? Breathing exercise.
When you’re sitting up straight, once you achieve all the postures, work your posture from the bottom upwards. From the down, come upwards. Don’t work your posture from top down. I don’t think it can be done anyway. Work your posture from the feet upwards and then when it gets close to the nose and eyes, it gets finer and finer, really fine, really fine.
You know, your eyes have to be half open and half open is really, really gaze has to be happy and contented. That’s very important. You know, that you’re not trying to look at anything visually. You’re simply trying to express the inner sense of seeing and awareness and contentment that you are experiencing. That gratitude of everything that you feel.
That sense of gratitude that allows the mind to not express, you know, that worrisome look, that uncertain look. You know? And all of those uncertain and worrisome looks just disappear, you know, when you’re able to gaze correctly. You know? Because gaze and eyes of Buddha images are very powerful.
Most gaze tells the story of what goes on in the mind of the person. You know? So meditators must work their way up from the lower part of the body to achieve the correct gaze of the eyes. So that there’s no tension in the eyes. That you’re asked to look at anything, but you feel completely naturalized.
Yeah? Completely naturalized in the way of seeing things. Without having to look at any particular things, you completely act as you have found it. That kind of sense is very important when we talk about the gaze of eyes. It’s not a particular sort of gaze we can measure, but you’ve got to really feel appropriate, happy, to be in the way you are.
And that completely says the eyes are relaxed, peaceful, completely one with peace. One with peace with oneself has a completely different, you know, different gaze in the eyes. You know? The gaze is powerful. People can hurt by giving a long gaze, a long gaze.
They say, he looked at me like this or that. You know? And some gaze are very kind. Some gaze are very inviting. Some gaze are very frightening, you know, some gaze are very, very comfortable, completely contented.
So the gaze of the gaze of the Buddha eye, you know, should be one that’s the whole idea of saying keep your eyes half open is try to achieve this gaze, you know. And you’ve got to qualify within your mind. You can’t really do anything with eyes to sort of achieve the happiness. You know, it’s the state of mind with which people can look in the eyes. You know, people can tell, now as iridologists tell, what’s wrong with their eyes.
Sure they can tell, why not? Because if a person is looking the kind of gaze they look, of course it will make sure their eyes is a little bit affected by that. Of course, when they look in the eyes, they can tell what kind of things are influenced by what kind of mind it has been looking through. It has the same lenses, it’s got the same things that everybody has, but some indicate illness, others don’t because of that. So it’s very important to achieve the gaze of complete harmony with oneself.
Then, you cannot really get fine tuning of your gaze of eyes unless you’re really good at the breathing. Unless you can really concentrate your mind on the breath. You become so noticing of the breath. It’s an object. It’s just as equally a viable thing that exists.
You know? So much so that without it, life doesn’t exist. You know? Anything could not exist, but life would exist. But without the breath, the life itself doesn’t exist.
So one who’s completely in tune in watching every inflow, incoming breath, every outgoing breath, once they become very tuned to this, then the whole sort of mind is in harmony with the element air. Air is motility. Air is mobility. It just causes movement. Movement because it comes in, it brings something positive.
You know? It goes out. It even makes those negativities and weariness and tiredness we felt inside is no longer stationary. It makes to move it out of us. You know?
It takes get rid of from ourselves. So each exhalation is amazing power, amazing opportunity to utilize the mobility quality of air energy, isn’t it? It enables us to disperse things that we don’t want to have. It enables to bring wonderful things out there to become part of us, that we are never lacking in any good quality because you know so well that each inhalation is an opportunity. It’s the basic rights of living.
People talk of human rights, but I don’t think we really take the rights of just basic living. If we don’t breathe kindly, every inhalation every inhalation. If one breathes every inhalation with this positive attitude, you know, because then you’re truly using the air element air element. The fact that we can move from one room to another, do things, this is because of the air element. But this is a gross air element.
But one who is breathing in and not thinking of all the positive qualities coming with it is really not able to use or mobilize air element in oneself. Air element, people who could not use air element actually instead wrongly use air element, and they breathe in all the negativities more so, you know, and therefore, they get completely mind goes pretty, you know, difficult to rule. A lot of lung disease. People go, I have lung. Lung is a better word for air.
You know, people really a lot of negative thinkers, thinking negative things, always negativize everything. Then they have a lot of negative air because they’re not only I think those people will seldom breathe out the negativities, but even inhalation, they breathe in negativities. Of course, that will dramatically harm one’s well-being. So, some diseases in the body are very, very much to do with air diseases because it is one’s unskillfulness of mobilizing the air element. Now, therefore, who is able to watch the rounds of breath very skillfully, that each inhalation is an opportunity to invite and receive with gratitude everything that is good in the whole universe.
And so, one breathes that in, because the air becomes just as noticeable as anything else, you know. And then each exhalation becomes an opportunity to dispose or discharge anything that we may have unskillfully kept in our mind or body, unwellness in the body, or unhappiness in the mind, complaints in the mind, resentment in the mind, we take that as an opportunity to release. It’s very nice to know that where is, you know, sometimes you have hoarded all your garbage for a couple of weeks, months, and you’ve moved into town and you don’t know where it is. Where is the garbage? Don’t know where it is.
If somebody shows where it is, it’s so nice. So nice to know where you can take the unwanted things. Now, here this opportunity exists. Every exhalation is one opportunity to dispose the unwanted feeling, unskillful thoughts, unskillful, you know, feelings that we may have. So that kind of sensitivity, when we become so sensitive that meditation, we become completely occupied, I would say engaged, that is where the air element is completely aroused because it is encouraging mobility.