Course XIX - Teaching 12: Ascetic Postures

Here you shall find in detail main postures used in meditation and concentration.
For meditation, you should use the “mental seated posture” described above, but with your arms freely hanging from your shoulders at each side of the body. Now bend your elbows, and leave the upper area of the arm in the same position, until leading your arms to the level of the heart. There, not leaning your forearms or arms on the chest, join the fingertips –stretched and half-open– of the one hand to other fingertips of the other hand.
For concentration, also you start from the “mental seated posture”. Incline your spine a little forward, but do not bend it, and keep it naturally upright so that your hands, with stretched arms, may lean on your knees. Join all fingers of each hand together, except the thumb that in contact with the forefinger must form an “O” closed up on the inner side of the knee. In order to make your concentration easier, you may keep your chin a little backward.