Practice note · 16 October 2026
Jaw, tongue and face: the small details that decide a sitting
Before the attention ever reaches the nostrils, the sitting has already been decided by something smaller: whether the face is held or released. The course gives this its own line in the setup, and it is the line most people skim past.
In the guided sittings from the middle of the course the order of setting up is always the same. Sit in half-lotus, in full lotus, or on a chair, on a firm or half-firm surface. Close the eyes. Settle and calm down. Straighten the back, shifting the hips slightly back and bringing the chest a little forward, so that the weight falls where it should and the posture holds itself.
Then, before anything else: the jaw, and the tongue. Only after that does the attention go under the nostrils, to the point below the upper lip, and stay there.
Release the jaw. Open it very slightly, so that the teeth are not pressed against one another. The lips can stay closed; it is not a matter of sitting with the mouth open. The point is only that nothing in the jaw is holding.
This is worth checking more than once in a sitting. A jaw lets go, and ten minutes later, when a difficult stretch arrives, it has quietly closed again. Noticing it and releasing it again is not an interruption of the practice. It is the practice, applied to the one place where tension gathers fastest.
For the tongue, two positions are given, and either is correct. Rest the tongue relaxed at the upper palate, with the tip touching the upper teeth. Or simply leave it low, with the tip touching the lower teeth.
Choose one before the sitting begins and leave it there. The tongue is a small muscle that will go on adjusting itself all sitting if you let it become a question, and a question is exactly what you do not want at the front of the mouth while the attention is working under the nostrils.
In my working notes for the later parts I put the jaw slightly differently from the recorded instruction: the teeth may touch, as long as there is no pressure in them at all. That is a difference of a millimetre, and it does not matter which of the two you follow.
What matters is the same in both: nothing clenched. Do not grip the teeth. Keep the lips soft. Keep the whole face released, and, over the long run, keep giving it attention — this is one of the few places where a small, boring instruction repays years of practice.
The face is where the mind's state shows first and where it is held longest. A mind that is straining to concentrate tightens around the eyes and the jaw within a minute, and the tightening then feeds back: the body reports effort, the mind believes it is working hard, and the breath stops being observed and starts being managed.
Releasing the face breaks that loop from the outside, which is far easier than breaking it from the inside. It also makes the difference between a sitting that leaves you tired and one that does not.
The whole setup takes under a minute and is worth doing in the same sequence every time.
- Seat: half-lotus, lotus or a chair, on a firm surface.
- Back straight, hips slightly back, chest slightly forward.
- Jaw released, teeth not pressed together, lips soft.
- Tongue at the upper palate or resting low — one of the two, chosen and left alone.
- Attention under the nostrils, at the point below the upper lip.
- Stillness held from there on, with the face checked and released whenever tension is noticed.
Releasing the jaw mid-sitting is not a breach of stillness.
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Related
- Ānāpānasati: the breath practice everything starts from
- Part 1 · Ānāpānasati Essentials
- Guided sittings
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