The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (260 page)

 
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(Skt., ‘not-conditioned’; P
li
asankhata
). The state in Buddhism of anything that is beyond conditioned existence—the opposite, therefore, of sa
sk
ta, the state in which all things are transient, coming into being, changing, and passing away.

 
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(Skt. ‘sitting’, ‘posture’). A posture assumed for the practice of
yoga
; the third ‘limb’ of
Patañjali's
‘eight-limbed’ (
a
ga
) or
r
ja
yoga.
sana keeps the body still, regulates physical processes, and so allows the yogin to concentrate his mind. In
Ha
ha-yoga
,
sana takes on central importance, and Ha
ha-yoga and
Tantric
texts describe and give lists of different
sanas. Perhaps the most famous is the ‘lotus posture’ (
padm
sana
) in which the yogin sits with the right foot placed on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh, soles facing upwards, with the hands placed between the thighs palms facing up. The eyes are directed to the tip of the nose and tongue placed at the root of the front teeth.