Discussing the Posture of Meditation with Will Johnson (Video/Audio)

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts The Posture of Meditation: Breathing through the Whole Body with Will Johnson, November 14–16, 2014

In the practice of meditation, what you do with your body is every bit as important as what you do with your mind.  Will Johnson help student to explore the conditions of body that naturally deepen meditation and to learn to establish the three primary somatic principles shown to support our posture: alignment (establishing the upright spine), relaxation (surrendering the weight of the body to the pull of gravity), and resilience (the understanding that everything in the body moves subtly in resilient response to the force of breath).  Building on this foundation, we’re naturally led to “breathe through the whole body, ” as suggested in the Buddha’s teachings.  By embodying these simple principles, we can bring far more ease, grace, and release into our sitting practice.  Body awakens.  Mind slows down.  Heart comes open.

Watch our interview below, or scroll down to stream/download the audio.

If you’d like to download the audio file, CLICK HERE and find the “Download” button. Otherwise, you can stream the audio below.

https://soundcloud.com/shambhalamc/discussing-the-posture-of-meditation-with-will-johnson

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Will Johnson, an early student of Ida Rolf, has written extensively about the role of the body in spiritual practices. He is the author of The Posture of Meditation, The Spiritual Practices of Rumi, and, most recently, Breathing through the Whole Body. Merging his interests in spiritual practice and Western approaches to the body, in 1995 he founded The Institute for Embodiment Training, a school in British Columbia that views the body as the doorway to spiritual opening rather than the obstacle to it.