n the late 80’s, I completed a 9-month training in Swedish massage and then took the exam to become a licensed massage therapist with a specialty in sports massage. After finishing the massage course, I began taking a weekly yoga class and a weekly tai chi class. As you can guess, all this focus on yoga, Tai Chi and the hands-on massage training reinforced my own body awareness significantly and my understanding of human body mechanics.
My massage practice grew slowly. In my spare time I began making one of a kind, loose fitting Japanese cotton jackets called happi coats that made use of my ability to use a sewing machine. I came up with the name Sun & Moon Originals and used it as a logo label to sew into the happi coats. I made them out of beautiful drapery weight fabrics and sold them through small local craft stores. In Japan happi coats are worn by shopkeepers and house servants as a uniform over street clothes. Mine were fancier, often having a silk lining, but still cut on the same classic lines and were meant to be worn as something showy, suitable for around the house or going out in public. I cut out and stitched each one on an industrial sewing machine bought for the purpose. The economic recession of 1989-90 forced the closure of many of the craft stores that sold my work, and I was forced to shelve my little enterprise.
The Search
I felt encouraged to start doing daily sitting meditation, but realized I didn’t own a proper meditation cushion. Rolling up my bed pillow to sit on when I occasionally meditated didn’t really cut it on an everyday basis. At a local thrift store I spotted a red velvet couch cushion shaped like a wedge section of an orange or grapefruit. It was stuffed with chopped foam, but seemed to offer better support than a bed pillow and it would stay just like it was and not need to be fussed with when I pulled it out the next time. It was cheap enough and certain to be an improvement over what I now had. I took it to the checkout. I would still use the folded blanket to serve as padding below the cushion on the hardwood floor. Problem solved………… not quite.
My “new” meditation cushion allowed me to place my feet and legs on the floor in front of me and then pull my folded legs up closer to my upright torso. I could spread my thighs wide to each side with space for my knees to lie down on the blanket, that is, if I was flexible enough, which I was not. Both knees were floating up off the floor several inches. Those muscles and tendons at the tops of each thigh (yes, the ones that got so amazingly sore from the weekend mediation workshop) were now enlisted to hold the weight of my knees in midair. Like many people, the muscles and tendons surrounding my hip joints, aka the hip rotators, were too tight when sitting cross-legged to permit my knees to enjoy the support of contact with the pad covered floor. It’s quite tiring to hold heavy limbs aloft for any length of time, especially when you are trying to relax, minimize muscular effort and use the body’s bone structure to do that work of sitting upright.