Without support for feet or hands, sit only on the buttocks. Suddenly, the centering.
- Prerequisite — six weeks of deliberate sensitization: The buttocks are normally the most insensitive part of the body (we sit on them constantly, they must be numb). This technique will not work on numb buttocks.
- Phase 1 — three weeks on the hand: Sit relaxed, close eyes, focus solely on the left (or right) hand; forget the entire rest of the body. The hand grows heavy; note every sensation, every jerk, every movement. Ten to fifteen minutes daily for three weeks. The hand becomes palpably alive — a ‘new hand.’ This builds the confidence that any body part can be re-sensitized.
- Phase 2 — three weeks on the buttocks: Close eyes; let your whole consciousness go only to the two buttocks — forget the rest. Feel them on the bedsheet; in the bathtub; pressed against a cold wall; touched buttock-to-buttock with your partner. The goal: bring them to the threshold where they begin to feel warmth, coldness, pressure — any sensation.
- The technique itself: Sit in padmasana, siddhasana, or any crossed-leg posture. No hand support anywhere. Eyes closed. Feel which buttock carries more weight. Deliberately shift to the other. Then back. Keep alternating, homing in, until both carry exactly equal weight and feel exactly the same.
- The pivot: The moment the weight balances perfectly — suddenly you are thrown to the navel center; body and buttocks are forgotten; you are centered inside. The iconic sitting Buddhas and Mahavirs in temples are doing precisely this balancing on the buttocks; the posture is functional, not ornamental.
- Centers do not matter; centering does: It can erupt at the heart, the head, the navel, or via the buttocks. The centering is the same event regardless of where the body serves as the trigger-point.
- [Q&A, Q3] Why sensitivity must be rebuilt deliberately: In childhood, sensitivity was bargained away for survival. The child, helpless and dependent, had to suppress sensation to satisfy parents and society. Suppression of genital exploration in particular — the body’s most sensitive zone — killed the root of bodily aliveness. Security habits in adulthood further seal the walls: insensitivity protects against being moved by the suffering around us.
- [Q&A, Q3] The cost of reopening and why it is worth it: Regaining sensitivity makes you vulnerable — you will feel the world’s suffering more acutely. But you cannot be selectively open: open = open to both the hell of this world and the divine beyond; closed = closed to both. A Buddha is filled with bliss for himself and with suffering for others. The bliss far outweighs the pain — but do not expect the process to be comfortable.