Art of Mindfulness Foundation
(AMFF)
Gautam, Harvard College student
The instructor stressed the importance of not moving during the first sign of discomfort. I fully agree with that. In my practice, I've noticed that moving disrupts the concentration that l've built up over the course of the sit. Among all the times where I reached a state of absorption, every single one of those times, I had sat for a long period without moving. In a way, movement of the body is the manifestation of an intention to get rid of the soreness of sitting. This is exactly the habit we don't want to reinforce.
However, there is a balance to be achieved because we obviously don't want to permanently injure ourselves as self-torture is not the right way either. I think there's a happy medium where we can adjust very slowly and mindfully, out of compassion for the body. This is tricky because we must discern if the voice of aversion is just using this as an excuse to not patiently endure.