Sitting in a ten-day vipassana retreat in front of a large golden Buddha I noticed what wonderful posture the Buddha had and how stable his upright position was rendered.  The first few days were the usual staggered onset of agony in my body.  One part after another.  Usually shoulders, neck, shoulders, hips and then my right knee, a cacophony of old injuries and impossibly rigid thought forms trapped in tissues.   It was a foregone conclusion after day one that my morning routine would include abdominal and core training.  I would wake at 5 and then spend 20 minutes working my way through the fundamental mat pilates series.  It was a good idea.  I watched my practice get easier and easier with my core creating more stability for my back body.  We would sit for half an hour three times a day.  A practise, that at the end of the ten days, was easy for me and with the quieting down of my pain I was able to reach deeper and more interesting places of observation.   

I also witnessed much younger bodies than mine struggle and continue to struggle.  Pilates was always going to be the missing piece from physical practice, just as meditation was always destined to be the reason for practice.  If I had known this at the beginning of the journey I would have been more focused on these outcomes, but it’s been a fun ride through disciplines each with its nugget of gold.  

A fascinating observation that came from this time was the way. in which our personalities anchor into our somatic tissues.  this is something I’ve been aware of for years now, but the observation of deeper levels of calm is fascinating.  My ahunkara, ego or personality is so very rigid and at the moment it seems to anchor into my body from the base of my neck.  

It is in the initial set-up for meditation, the focus training as it were, that I allow my breath and intentions to be active.  I let the breath act as a regeneration point for the body as it wraps around the conscious inhale and exhale.  I let the sagittal and frontal planes of the body expand with the inhale and then let the natural support encouraged by the exhale build a scaffolding of alignment which the truck body can stacked upon.  A few big, obvious deep breaths can find the seat and build the spine into a supported well-constructed structure.  Once I am built, then I can meditate.  Once I have cultivated focus, then I can meditate. 

I’m not yet the Buddha with abs, but as my practices continue there is greater ease and ability to sit for longer periods of time and my body in general has a greater degree of stability and strength.  Meditation is by far the richest of all my practices as I dive repetitively into the nature of my being.  There is only the need to show up repeatedly and do as the Buddha instructed ‘Practice’.