"I am solid as the mountain, I am firm as the earth, I am free".
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Tadasana (tada - mountain or palm tree, asana - seat)
"The Sanskrit root of tad is tat, referring to "That," referring to the Eternal, which is unnamable and unmovable"
- Mukunda Stiles, "Structural Yoga Therapy"
Samasthiti (sama - equilibrium, sthiti - standing upright)

The ancient yogis are often depicted standing in Tadasana because Tadasana is the basis for all the asanas.  Standing still, evenly balanced on our our two feet, we learn how to ground ourselves, how to use our breath and how to lengthen our spine.  By understanding how to do Tadasana properly, we are better prepared to meet the challenges of other postures.  Because for most us standing upright is a natural daily occurrence requiring little effort and attention, we tend to do it mechanically, with no thought as to whether we are doing it right or not.  Few of us have been taught how to stand correctly and are unaware of having postural issues.  Few of us realise the harmful impact that poor posture can have on our body systems. 

Because we rarely question the way we stand, the habitual imbalances we develop throughout the years imprint themselves further and further into a physical pattern and result in a dull outlook on life.  If for a child learning to stand on his/her own two feet represents an achievement, for an adult it can also be profoundly meaningful.

Generally, beginners do not consider Tadasana to be a challenging posture.  Unlike headstand for instance - which, by the way, is Tadasana on one’s head, plank posture or Chaturanga Dandasana, other variations of Tadasana, Tadasana itself is perceived as a simple and familiar posture.  However, we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by appearances.  Even Tadasana done on one’s back will highlight postural imbalances.  This is why, as we advance in yoga, we come to realise that Tadasana is probably the hardest posture and that grasping all its subtleties will involve a lot of "un-doing" and "un-learning". "The more you undo, the more you are and the more things come to you" - Vanda Scaravelli.  Without striving it just happens.  Tadasana teaches us to breathe, to release and to lengthen.  "You don't need another yoga pose.  You need to relish Tadasana" - Rodney Yee.

We build our own picture of the world with what we know in an effort to make sense of it and to control it somehow.  It is profoundly unsettling to discover that what we have always perceived to be doing correctly - as standing upright - is in fact incorrect and revealing of obvious harmful patterns of mental, emotional, physical/physiological tension and stress.

What would happen if we allowed ourselves to drop our mechanical, automatic attitude to create an internal focus and an awareness of alignment?  Can we imagine how it must feel to stand upright, properly aligned and perfectly poised half-way between heaven and earth, steady (sthira), at ease (sukha), and with just the right balance of effort (abyasa) and surrender (vairagya)?

Can we allow ourselves to go back to the beginning and adopt the fresh look of the child discovering and learning to stand for the first time?  Can we let yoga weave its magic, refining our perceptions from the gross to the subtle? 

Each time we step onto our mat and stand into Tadasana, we nurture the qualities of the mountain within us - inner strength, stillness, quietness, stability, presence and peacefulness and we cultivate its broad vision (broad-mindedness).   In Tadasana, we become the mountain.  "We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains" - Li Po.  Each time we step off our mat, we remember the teachings of the mountain and we carry them into our every day life.

When we are in mountain pose, we develop the ability to weather the inevitable highs and lows of daily living.  This silent, solid and awesome giant awakes in us very powerful feelings and many seek it in their search for enlightenment.  "The allegory of a physical mountain for a spiritual one that stands between each soul and its goal is an easy and natural one to make"- R. M. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

In Tadasana, we also acknowledge the valuable qualities of the palm tree.  Palms have a very deep root system, a buttress trunk, a low centre of gravity and are extremely resistant to winds. 

Feet joined together by an invisible seam, we connect with mother earth, sending out infinitely long roots through the soles of our feet to reach and encircle the centre of the earth.  We ground ourselves through our feet and we become one with the earth.  As we root ourselves firmly into the earth to deepen the connection, we experience an ascending rebounding force which creates a current of energy moving up through our legs, pelvis, trunk, neck and head.  This upward lift which is felt through the crown of the head brings us closer to heaven and is an expression of our spiritual nature.  In Tadasana, we are reminded that “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience”. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The experience of Tadasana gives us a feeling of incredible lightness - physical and mental - as if we could fly away, together with a sense of strong anchoring.  In Tadasana, we feel peace, joy and immense gratitude.
“Upon the tops of mountains, the air being subtle and pure, we respire with greater freedom, our bodies are more active, our minds more serene, our pleasures much more moderate.  Our meditations acquire a degree of sublimity from the grandeur of the objects around us.“
- J.J. Rousseau - “La Nouvelle Heloise”, 1760