On waking
IRT, the side, and slowly up
In bed, on the back. Cyclic Meditation's own order: from the toes to the face, tightening part by part, then the whole body at once: tighten, tighten, tighten. Then release, and go loose.
Then onto the left side, the head on the left arm. Then slowly up, and on the way up the legs, the buttocks and the belly tightened, the breath moving, until the head is clear. This is the sentence: when the room turns as you stand, this is also what you do.
No clock: each tightening ends when you let it go. There are no photographs of it yet; it is drawn in line.
Morning
Jaṅghā 2 · rising tightened from every squat
Feet together, arms out in front at shoulder height. Bend the knees slowly, to the thighs level with the ground or as far as is comfortable; heels and toes on the floor, knees together. Keep breathing while you hold.
Before you rise, tighten the buttocks and the belly; then rise slowly on an out-breath, as the module says, and stand still a moment once up. Every rise is practice of the moment the room turns.
Five times, the module's own count. If the grey comes, stay tightened and still; if it grows, sit down. There are no photographs of it yet; it is drawn in line.
Piṇḍalī-śakti-vikāsaka · rising from the squat
Feet together, fists clenched, the neck loose. Breathing in, squat down, arms out in front level with the ground, heels on the floor, knees together, as low as you can go.
In the module the breath is held on the way up, the arms describe a full circle, and at the end the fists meet before the chest; then a sharp breath out as the chest widens.
While standing still brings the grey, tighten the buttocks and the belly before you rise, and rise slowly with the breath moving instead of held. As many times as is comfortable. There are no photographs of it yet; it is in words.
By day
Water, and rising slowly
The module asks for plain water through the day. In the heat, more: heat takes away much of the tolerance of standing.
After sitting long on the ground, after the sun, or after a hot bath, rise the same way: the buttocks and the belly tightened first, then slowly.
When the room turns as you stand
The sentence · tighten and stay
Tighten the legs, the buttocks and the belly hard, and stay where you are, not moving, the breath going, until the room is still. You can clench the fists too.
Then let go, and stand a moment more before you walk. If the grey grows, sit or squat down: a man sitting on the ground does not fall.
If you rise in the night
Rising in the night
Up from sleep, out of a warm bed, in the dark: the same order as the morning. The side first, then slowly up, the legs, the buttocks and the belly tightened as you rise. A hand near the wall.
At home
The doctor, and when
If the dizziness stays past the first weeks off opium, with exhaustion, nausea and no appetite: a cortisol test. It is no reason for more practice.
A full faint, a fall, chest pain, a heart very fast or very slow, or dizziness even lying down: a doctor the same day.
If you take tablets for the pressure, tell the doctor that the room turns as you stand.
Why this order
In the first moments of standing anyone's pressure falls, and the effort of rising itself opens the vessels of the legs; opium and heat make the fall deeper. Tightening the legs, the buttocks and the belly as people stood made the fall smaller and the dizziness less; at the edge of a faint the tightening brought the pressure back, and those taught it fainted again less often. Strengthening the legs alone did not change the fall: what worked was tightening at the moment. So every rising, from the bed and from every squat, is practice of that moment.
Before you begin
Stay well within what is comfortable. If anything hurts, stop. This supports treatment and does not replace it; anybody on buprenorphine or methadone stays on it.
While opium is still being taken, keep every breath hold short.