Does Siddhasana cause health problems?

[Magnanimous]

I don't want to do lotus pose because it fucks up your knees. I just sit in a chair.

But Om Swami recommends going cross-legged. Any reason to keep sitting in a chair instead of training siddhasana?

[Leo Gura]

Beware of conformity.

Why are you copying him?

[Magnanimous]

Because he said in his book from his 10,000+ hours of experience sitting cross legged is best for meditation, then sitting in chair.

What are your two cents?

[Leo Gura]

Hindus sit cross-legged because they are too poor for chairs.

[cetus]

7 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Hindus sit cross-legged because they are too poor for chairs.

 Jeez! Lol

[Magnanimous]

51 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Hindus sit cross-legged because they are too poor for chairs.

"They also wipe their ass with their hand." - Leo Gura

[Ajay0]

57 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

"They also wipe their ass with their hand." - Leo Gura

This is true. 

The method of using toilet paper first came up in China in the sixth century ad, and was used extensively by mass production by the fourteenth century in China.

This concept was copied by the west in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1857, the Joseph Gayetty introduced the first packaged commercial toilet paper in the US and toilet paper was popularised in europe in the twentieth century.

[Ajay0]

5 hours ago, Magnanimous said:

I don't want to do lotus pose because it fucks up your knees. I just sit in a chair.

But Om Swami recommends going cross-legged. Any reason to keep sitting in a chair instead of training siddhasana?

I use a combination of lotus poses as well as sitting in chair due to the comfort involved.

But I found that sitting in lotus position or padmasana/siddhasana helped in calming and centering my mind faster than sitting in a chair. So I use a chair or lotus position as per my needs, which is comfort or faster calming of the mind.

These days I use mainly sukhasana or ardha padmasana as they are the most comfortable poses for lotus position with similar results.

I have elaborated more in this post of mine.

 

Edited October 5 by Ajay0

[The Blind Sage]

@Magnanimous I once tore my adductor playing sports and couldn't sit cross legged for a few months.

During this time I was sitting in a chair to perform my kriyas, it was clear as daylight that arda-siddhasana changed the energy flow in a way that deeply supported the kriya

When I healed and went back to sitting in arda-siddhasana the potency went noticeably up once again. It's not conformity lol. But what works for me may not work for you, try it out and see for yourself instead of listening to Om Swami/Leo/me. The issue tho is that most people wont actually be able to try it out, they're not capable of sitting in that posture from years/decades of fucked up living habits. Even if they can get into the posture it'll defeat the purpose because they wont be at ease sitting in it, itll become a barrier instead of a support.

Your hips need 3 thing to sit comfortably in Siddhasana/Arda-Siddhasana:

1. Flexion (almost no one got issue with this)

2. External rotation

• Biggest barrier issue for most people, include a weekly external hip rotation mobility routine if you're serious about the posture
• Your nervous system won't give you access to deep external rotation positions  if you lack strength & control in that position. So don't just stretch, build strength & control in lengthened positions, only then will you gain that range permanently. Youtube has plenty of high quality info
• It'll take time, be patient

3. Abduction

• Usually an issue, tight adductors (i.e groin) will prevent abduction
• But pretty straightforward to lengthen