Experience Balanced Sitting

Sep 3, 2025
8 min read

Updated: Jun 30

Meditation Posture Alignment with Alexander Technique.

"The lightly poised head is synonymous with clarity of mind and an openness of spirit. The free neck is the key to the naturally vertical spine."

by, Paul Reps, Zen Poet & Author.

Dogen & F.M. Alexander on Zen Meditation Posture

By Diana Devitt-Dawson

To study Buddhism is

to study the self…. 1.

To study F.M. Alexander’s

principle is to study the

Use of the Self. 2.

It is in this context that a fruitful connection can be cultivated between the two teachings, one from the East, the other from the West. Questions often asked by meditators include: What is the role of the body in Dharma practice? What is the correct meditation posture? How can I cultivate an awareness of the body in meditation? And, how should I breathe? These are very important questions. However, they indicate duality, a separation of the physical and mental aspect of ourselves. In order to understand ourselves fully we need to recognise the intimacy, the inter-connectedness between our body and mind. We also need to know how best to work on ourselves as a whole, integrating the bodymind. In this way, such questions need not arise.

Zen Buddhism is often seen as just sitting meditation with no emphasis on the body. Yet, Dogen (1200 -1253), the founder of Soto Zen in Japan, says in his guidelines The Practice of Mediation:

Keep your back straight.

Don’t lean to the left or

right. Don’t tip forward or

bend back. Your ears

should be in line with your

shoulders. Keep your

tongue at the roof of your

mouth and close your lips.

Your eyes should be slightly

open, unfocused on the floor

at a forty-five degree angle.

Breathe through your nostreals.

3.The Alexander technique, (principle) is often seen as just ‘body-work’ that has no emphasis on the mind. Yet, Frederick Matthias Alexander (1855-1955) referred to his teaching as “a psychophysical re-education in the use of the self.” In his books

4. and teaching Alexander refrained from using words which imply a separation of body /mind, like ‘body-mechanics’ and ‘mental states.’ Instead, Alexander spoke of ‘the self’ as something ‘in use which functions and reacts.’ And, that our manner of use affects the way we function and react in daily life. Alexander,

The truth of the matter is

that the majority of people

fall into a mechanical habit

of thought as easily as they

fall into a mechanical habit of

the body (postures) which is

the immediate consequence.

The Alexander technique then is not simply a ‘technique’ concerned with posture nor is it a ‘movement re-education’. Rather, it is concerned with heightening one’s sensory awareness while teaching one how to self-work in order to be free from conditioned and acquired harmful habit of use (postural behaviour) and reaction. Prof. John Dewey referred to Alexander’s teaching as a way to “vital freedom.”

5. Alexander referred to his teaching as, “freedom IN thought and action.”

6. In the practice of Zen meditation Dogen reminds us to pay attention to the mind and not to get caught up on concepts and over-thinking which only prevents us from entering the “palace of wisdom” – the self.

Don’t follow the advice of

others; rather listen to the

voice within yourself. Your

body and mind will become

one, and you will realise

the unity of all things.

So how can we cultivate conscious awareness and awaken our senses so that we can directly experience life and trust the “voice within yourself” rather than getting caught up in thinking about life - like the centipede?

The centipede was quite

happy, until the toad in fun

said, “Prey, which leg comes

after which?”

And worked her mind to

such a pitch,

She lay distracted in the ditch,

Considering how to run

Scottish poet, 1876

How can we learn to awaken to our harmful, (habitual) body postures that cause pain, poor breathing and that hamper our meditation practice.

F.M. Alexander,

Our sensory appreciation

conditions conception, you

can’t know a thing by an

instrument (body) that is wrong.

On our ability to truly experience Alexander states,

1. That our sensory awareness,

(kinaesthetic sense) has

become “dulled” (due to

habitual poor posture and

is therefore ‘unreliable.’

2. That our manner of use has

become habitual and is

associated with an unreliable

sensory awareness.

3. That our manner of use affects the

way we function and react physically,

mentally and emotionally.

4. That a balanced head, neck and

back (torso) relationship is the

main factor in determining the

most efficient, use and functioning

of the whole body/mind complex.

Alexander on habit:

The truth is, that so far man

has failed to understand

fully what is required for

changing habit, if the change

is to be a fundamental one,

because he has not realised

that the establishment of a

particular habit in a person is

associated in that person with

a certain habitual manner of

using the self, and because

the organism works as an

integrated whole, change of

a particular habit, in a fundamental

sense, is impossible as long as this

habitual manner of use persists.

You can’t know what you

don’t know, if you keep on

doing what you do know.

So how can the Alexander (technique) sessions assist the practice of meditation?

Experiential (hands-on) lessons heighten one’s sensory (kinaesthetic) sense which allow one to experience a naturally balanced head, neck and back (torso) relationship and, a return to natural poise and balance. This can be experienced during sitting meditation in the Dojo, at OMZS Sydney, where Diana Devitt-Dawson, Alexander teacher silently goes around (behind meditators) and with highly specialised, delicate hands-on skill gently guides one’s head into an upright position that allows the back to gently lengthen while being free from tension. Such balance in sitting allows stillness, natural breathing, peacefulness and the ability to experienc each moment. The Alexander directions to think are,

Let the neck (and shoulders) be free,

To let the head balance upright on the neck,

To let the back lengthen and (soften) and widen.

To allow natural breathing.

From the Buddhist point of view, greed, hatred and ignorance are obscurations to the enlightened way. These hindrances are also manifest in the body. Greed is often associated with a desire to grasp an end; hatred with tightness and ignorance with dullness. To help us be free from and prevent such hindrances we could learn to self-work by remembering the Alexander directions as, a means-whereby to experience and - Know Thyself

A monk asked Chang-Tzu:

“The Way is difficult there

Are many mountains and

rivers in between, I have no

carriage and no boat what

am I to do?”

Chang-Tzu replied,

“Not to be stiff-necked, not

to be hidebound is all the

carriage you need.”

8. And Dogen remind us, although we may search amongst many books for knowledge and listen to many other people’s words, that alone will not lead us to our own true self. “In your practice of meditation, you yourself are the mirror reflecting the solution to your own problems.”

Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck, founder of the Ordinary Mind Zern School, on the practice of meditation states, All practice can be summed as follows,

1. Observation of the mental process and,

2. Experiencing present bodily

sensations. No more and no less…

There are no ‘quick fixes.’

Our practice is our life and

we practise forever. 9.

F.M. Alexander reminds us, There is no such thing as a

a right position but there is

such a thing as a right direction.

Diana Devitt-Dawson is a health professional nurse educator, midwife and member of the Ordinary Mind Zen School, Sydney. See: zensydney.com Diana is x-Head of Training, Alexander Technique Institute in North Sydney where she now has a private practice. Diana has given talks and demonstrations the Alexander technique for meditation postures at Charlotte Joko Beck’s Ordinary Mind Zen Centre in San Diego, the OMZS Melbourne and offers same at OMZS, Sydney. This article was originally published in Dharma Vision, Buddhist Community Newsletter, Vol 5 No.5 April-May in 2004. This is the revised article in 2025. Bio: www.alexandertechniqueinstitute.com.au.

References

1. Dogen Kigen – Mystical Realist (1987), Kin H.J. University of Arizona Press.

2. The Use of the Self by F.M. Alexander. Orion Press UK (2001).

3. The Practice of Meditation by Dogen. Translated by Stephen Mitchell.

4. Alexander’s books, Man’s Supreme Inheritance, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, Use of the Self, The Universal Constant in Living.

5. John Dewey in Introduction to Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual by F.M. Alexander. Published by Mouritz, UK

6. Alexander in The Universal Constant in Living. Published my Mouritz, UK

7. The Lost Sixth Sense – A Medical Scientist Looks at the Alexander Technique by David Garlick, PhD., University of NSW (1999).

8. Chang-Tzu – The Inner Chapters, Translated by Graham R.A.C. UK (1989).

9. Charlotte JoKo Beck – Every Day Zen in Love and Work. (1989) C.J. Harper San Francisco.

10. Ordinary Wonder – Zen Life & Practice Charlotte Joko Beck. Edited by Brenda Beck Hess.

Alleviate Neck & Back Pain with Alexander Technique Postural Alignment

A Lying-Down Procedure

By Diana Devitt-Dawson

For further instruction experience Alexander lessons. Download PDF See: Full description on Download PDF

I would like to offer some advice and guidance (hands free) on a gentle, non-exercise that anyone can do, whenever and wherever, to enhance health, well-being and the ability to bring about gentle, upright meditation postures. It is a simple lying-down procedure that is usually taught by a teacher of the Alexander Technique during an experiential (hands-on) lesson. It cultivates mind/body co-ordination, balance and resilience. It helps heighten sensory awareness to the body, our breath and to the environment while we are seemingly doing nothing! In this peaceful, non-doing, lying-down position our backs lengthen, the torso softens and widens which in turn allows natural breathing. Muscles and joints become free of unnecessary tension. We have the ability to bring about this energised state by staying fully alert to each moment, eyes open, listening and experiencing our bodies and the movements of the breath as - we let all our senses awaken.

Lie on a firm surface on a soft mat or on a carpeted floor. Preferably not a bed.
Place several paperback books under your head to ensure it does not fall back and down into your neck. Check that your chin is not pointing up to the ceiling or tucked down into your neck.
Draw both knees up, feet apart on the mat (floor) about hip width or further.
Allow your hands to rest gently on the abdomen so the thumbs are resting on the last ribs, fingers resting near the diaphragm.
Allow your wrist to be free, to let the hands move with each inhalation and exhalation - experience each breath.
Ensure that your elbows and upper arms are spread out sideways (comfortably) away from your sides.
Keep your eyes open, stay alert and enjoy the experience of your back as it lengthens and softens into the floor. Think UP along your spine.
Lie quietly, cultivate awareness to your whole body from head to toe. Let all joints be free, your face, your neck and shoulders to hips and low back.
From time to time take a deeper breath than normal - note the expansion and relaxation of your chest. Do not try to 'abdominal breathe’ as that will cause tension.
Breathing is a back and whole body movement.
Lie quietly for 10-15 minutes only, then slowly roll over and get up mindfully.
Stand still for a minute or two, take a couple of deep breaths and then walk away, being upright - with each step.