Did Buddha Attain Enlightenment Sitting On A Chair?

My guess is no. The chair is the antithesis of enlightenment. I am sure many of you have seen the stages of man, devolving into a couch, and there is more truth in this than we know, at least that is what I believe.

What happens when we sit on a chair, for prolonged periods of time, on a regular basis? Our bodies start to forget how to hold us up, we lose strength and we slouch so that our back muscles become longer and our abdominals contract. We are using our hip flexors to keep our legs in the sitting position, which contracts them unnaturally and feeds into tightness in the lower back. As an aside we start chest breathing, which is a topic for another day, but it certainly is not a contributor to good health.

Sitting on the floor, is what kids do most of the time, though perhaps less these days if they fixated by the computer. Of course they are still naturally flexible, but how much of this has to do with sitting in an instinctual way?

Getting back to the floor aint easy, but its worth it to regain some strength and flexibility. One of the reasons yoga asana is important is that it creates ease in the body for sitting in meditation for long periods of time. Go ahead, try it, I dare you. Sit cross legged, dont slouch and tilt your pelvis forward to engage the core muscles deep in the lower abdomen, to hold you up rather having your upper back muscles hold you up, which I guarantee will become tired pretty quickly if you havent been sitting on the floor much.

I think one of the greatest advertisements for sitting on the floor are mature citizens of India and other Asian countries. Traditionally a mostly chairless society, those senior citizens have an upright posture and therefore potentially greater range of motion and flexibility, which leads to greater quality of life. More ease, less disease.

I tell all of my classes, and my private clients, who by the way have found their way to private classes because of flexibility issues to sit on the floor. One thing I notice when I am sitting on the floor is that my body naturally wants to stretch itself. I also move around a lot more, rather than sitting rigidly as I would if I were sitting in a chair or a couch. Moving around more is not only preferable but NATURAL.

Start by sitting for five minutes, you may find it a challenge, move to the couch for back support and try and stay on the floor, see if you can increase the time you sit unassisted a minute or two each day, remember to use your pelvic floor muscles and tilt the pelvis forward for support. Its an investment in your future. The payoff? Better quality of life into your later years.

Next week, learning how to breathe again.