How to deal with body pain during meditation? I am doing vipassana meditation as taught by Goenka. I get numbness and tingling in my feet from nerve pressure while sitting cross legged. I put up with it for quite a long time and then the sensation becomes so unpleasant I have to move. 
Do I have to get to a point where I can put up with quite severe discomfort in order to progress in meditation or can I progress even though I have to move. At the moment my choice to move feels like a damage to my progress.
In principle, many contemplations that are part of satipatthana don't require our bodies to be still. In fact, a good portion of it are "24/7" practices to be developed whatever we are doing wherever we are.

On the other hand, all of these practices are immensely helped by concentration1  -- thus, the satipatthana sutta opens with concentration practice (calming of the breath). And some, I think, are particularly hard to do (that is, severely limited) without some degree of concentration. And concentration is hard (or seemly impossible) to develop in the presence of significant body discomfort.

Therefore, ideally, it's quite important to have a practice without discomfort. And here it's important to remember that, ultimately, the body form has little to do with the actual work: what is important is not the form, but if the posture (whatever it is) enables the practice.

There is the possibility that the pain from sitting in a certain posture is temporary and will not be an obstacle after a while. But there is the possibility that every sitting will be unbearable after a few minutes or a an hour or two (I meditate for over 15 years, and still can't sit cross legged for more than 30 minutes without discomfort, let alone ~2 hours -- which I've done twice in the past, enduring excruciating pain).

For this last case, if your sitting is of 20 minutes, 1 hour or 4+ hours, I think the best long term solution for practicing is to find out a posture where your body can be still and rest comfortably for the desired period while your mind is alert. Finding out a solution may involve trying out cushions and leg positions, exercises, or entirely different alternatives (e.g meditating laid down or in a chair).



1 a.k.a: tranquility, samatha, samadhi, jhana practice.