By Bob Zeglovitch
In Soto Zen meditation, we place considerable emphasis on the details of posture. Think of this as helpful rather than fussy! In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Suzuki Roshi commented: “These forms are not the means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture is itself to have the right state of mind. There is no need to obtain some special state of mind.”
Playing close attention to your posture helps you to not be lost “in your head.” Zen meditation is not “what you think” (in more ways than one!). Instead, it is an integrated expression of body/mind. Suzuki Roshi captures this as follows: “Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one. We usually think that if something is not one, it is more than one; if it is singular, it is plural. But in actual experience, our life is not only plural, but also singular.”
Where you sit—whether on a chair or in the various ways that one can sit on a meditation cushion or bench—does not matter. What is important is the proper alignment of your body. If you are not well-aligned, extra effort will be required to maintain your seated posture. You will be fighting against gravity and tension and holding will arise. This will cause pain and discomfort in the body as well as agitation in the mind. Here are some basic keys to proper alignment in your sitting posture:
The pelvis should be elevated higher than the knees. This enables the pelvis to tilt forward slightly, which in turn places the upper body so that it can rest directly above or even a bit in front of the sitting bones of the pelvis. If you are on a chair, you may have to put some kind of pillow or cushion on the seat in order to elevate your pelvis. If you are on a cushion this will be natural, although you may need to experiment with the height of your cushion to find the right angle for your body and to have your knees resting on the flat cushion (zabuton).
If you are on a chair, avoid sitting with your back resting against the back of the chair if you are able. Instead, come forward on the seat of the chair a bit and allow your spine to be supported by your upright posture. If you need some support, try putting a small pillow or bolster at your lower back and then keep the rest of your back off the chair back. If your feet do not reach the floor, rest them on a cushion or small bench that is the right height.
Locate your sits bones at the base of your pelvis. You may want to reach down and find them with your hands. Feel yourself planted firmly on your cushion or chair on your sits bones. This is your foundation.
Sit upright, without leaning right or left or forward or backward. Let your spine settle into its natural S-curve. Find this upright and straight position by rocking your body left and right, and forward and backward, in gradually smaller movements, until you land at your center point.
Arrange your body so that your pelvis, belly and lower back, chest and upper back, neck and head are stacked vertically, like a set of building blocks. Imagine that your head is suspended from the ceiling by a string that is connected to the top of your skull. Tilt your chin down just a bit to elongate the spine at the back of your neck. Pay particular attention to resting your head at the top of your neck so that it is not tilting forward or backward. Your head weighs about 12 pounds—but if it is tilted forward it can add up to 30 pounds of abnormal leverage on the cervical spine. This can pull the entire spine out of alignment, and can also result in a significant reduction in vital lung capacity.
Relax your shoulders, imagining that the back of your shoulder blades are dropping into your back pockets. Lift and open your chest a bit, without straining.
Each time you take your seat to meditate, attend to these basic principles of alignment deliberately and with care. You are taking your seat and sitting in a dignified posture, like the Buddha. During your meditation, you can remain aware of your alignment and make subtle corrections from time to time as appropriate. Over time, you will begin to notice that your body and your mind are, as Suzuki Roshi observed, not two and yet not one.
Additional Resources:
I cannot recommend highly enough a slim volume called The Posture of Meditation: A Practical Manual for Meditators of All Traditions, by Will Johnson. I wish I had discovered this book decades ago. Johnson is an experienced meditator with training in various Buddhist traditions and a practitioner of Rolfing, so he is intimately familiar with the structure of the human body. The next couple of blog posts will be drawn from his work.
For a wonderful discussion of how just sitting, or zazen, is different from other forms of meditation because it emphasizes the holistic body/mind instead of a psychological process that seems to occur in the head, see the article “Zazen is Not the Same as Meditation” by Rev. Issho Fujita. Reverend Fujita was the Resident Teacher of the Pioneer Valley Zendo in western Massachusetts for many years. I’ve also included an excerpt from the article on the Readings page of the Just Show Up website.