Hi Bluesky,
I am going to throw out some assorted things relative to your question:
1) It was found, and still is found, that say, monks who devote themselves to just the spiritual piece of all this, develop physical problems later in life.
2) All methods of meditation that I am aware of, start with an alignment and focus. An alignment can be both physical, like tucking the chin, or a visualization, that empowers a positive feeling that has a positive effect on the physical body. When you sit to meditate, your physical body and mind, are two big parts that can interupt or limit, your pursuit of emptiness, or time in the emptiness.
3) I have the best meditation sessions, preceeded by active qi gong. My body is warm and open, and I am able to remain motionless in a lotus position longer.
4) SFQ is a type of qigong. It has a piece of medical qigong, and spiritual. It starts with healing the body, along with introducing a meditation practice. It moves from healing the body, to more focus on the spiritual piece, as far as a self practice goes. There are two meditations in level I. Small Universe, and Self Concentration. Small Universe stems from Taoist source. Taoists, practiced longevity. It is excellent for that. It can have a sustained focus, or, you can use it as a stepping stone to emptiness. "Possible" considerations are losing the tape, and slowing down the breathing, losing the external guide.. Sometimes, you can even discover a higher level of that meditation as a continued focus. We are all different with this. Some people are really like the guided meditation with Master Lin, some have to lose the tape, or CD, and try their own pace, keeping Master Lin's presence, or whatever. The other benefit to this meditation, is that it also, can clear and heal the body.
Self concentration, is about as paired down and simple an alignment and initial focus as there is. You do this physical alignment and visualization, then you are free to do whatever you want. Like just BEING. If you come down out of that, you can subtley 'align' again, regarding the spine, smile, or visualization. These simple things scoot you on your way. If you want to lose the tape, and make it less guided , other than you setting up the alignment and focus, that's fine.
4) The lotus position allows one to sit in the emptiness, the longest. I feel it as greatly empowering, clearifying or intensifying, anything I am doing, in my meditations. Getting into a lotus, for me, involved physical clearing. That is a process I still feel going on. Small universe helps that, as does active qigong exercise. When I refer to a practice of lotus sitting, I include all the sitting position steps up to that, starting with a chair, and having the goal of lotus sitting. The body counts in this progression.
5) As you progress, you spend more time in meditation, and do maintainance on the physical piece. At least, that is a possibility in this pracitce. If you take a dip and get sick, or injured, or sense a decline in your phyical body, you give a bigger spin to clearing that up.
Perhaps self concentration is closest to your current interest. Try the above suggestions with it. Don't discount the body and physical health in all this. You have one. It can limit your experience of BEING, in a meditation practice, if it is not taken care of.
love,
gallen
