As far as I’m concerned, the sitting posture doesn’t have to be rigid — in fact I’m against too rigid a posture. When I was trained in the early 1970s at ZCLA the sitting style was a very straight, erect, almost artificial pushing up through the spine that seemed rigid. It’s taken me more than thirty years to find a really relaxed and natural posture for myself that doesn’t create tension. Sitting is an art, and like any art it takes practice. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time.
What we want is to be straight and upright, but it should be more like the posture of a baby. When babies sit, they’re very comfortable and relaxed and yet their backs are naturally upright, maintaining the natural curvature of the spine.
If we take the posture either on a cushion or on a chair, we want to make sure that our base is solid. So if we’re on a cushion, we want to make sure that both our knees are touching the ground. I personally like the Burmese style the best, which is one foot just in front of the other, not resting on the other leg as in the quarter- or half-lotus, or the full lotus. I’ve done them all. I sat in the full lotus for more than ten years. I sat half-lotus and quarter-lotus for more than fifteen years. I’ve sat Burmese for the last twelve years. So I’ve tried them all, and I think the Burmese style is the least problematic for our knees and our ankles. However, if you don’t do it properly, it can create tension in the back, more so than the other sitting postures, so you really want to make sure that you’re sitting in a comfortable posture.
If you sit in a chair you want to make sure that both your feet are flat on the ground. If you’re short, you might need to place your feet on a cushion or a stool, and if you’re tall you might need to place a cushion on your chair. Your knees should be slightly lower than your hips, and your feet firmly on the ground about shoulder-width apart. That creates a pyramid or triangle effect for stability, which is really important.
Another thing that is hard to describe, but so important, is to settle the posture with a swaying motion of your torso and head. When you first take the posture, either on the cushion or in a chair, place your hands on your knees palms up, and sway from side to side. As you move your hips in one direction you sway the body, and then the head in the opposite direction, kind of like a snake, a cobra, moving, making larger then smaller arcs right up the spine, right up the neck, right up to the skull. This is a really wonderful exercise for the spine as well as for your posture. In fact, an M.D. who is an expert on back pain and an acupuncturist, and also was a Tai Chi instructor, told me that this swaying exercise is the best thing you can do for your spine, both when you begin to sit and then the reverse way when you finish the sitting.
Try to do this every time you sit. It really has helped my spine, and loosened up my neck. Sway from the base of the spine, move up the spine through the neck and head. After sitting, reverse the order by starting with the head and moving down the spine, going from small to larger arcs.
Then you want the head and neck to be upright, with your nose in line with your navel. You want your chin slightly lowered but not tucked in. Just slightly lowered, so your chin is not jutting out. Close your mouth with your tongue touching the front palate, and then swallow any air or saliva. That will keep you from salivating, and having to swallow.
As for your eyes — in the traditional Zen way they’re lowered at a 45-degree angle, and you just gaze out. That’s fine if it works for you, but some people find it very difficult. I think it’s fine to close your eyes in a relaxed fashion, and sit that way. The one drawback is that when you first begin sitting meditation you are more likely to get into daydreaming or fantasy if you sit with your eyes closed. So in Zen we say you shouldn’t sit with your eyes closed for ten or twenty years. I myself waited twenty years and then I started sitting more with my eyes closed. But I think some people find it much easier to quiet their mind if their eyes are closed.
You should be in an upright position, leaning neither to the left nor right, front nor back. If you compare this to the posture of Rodin’s Thinker, it’s the complete opposite. It’s a non-thinking posture, and since the body and the breath and the mind are one and connected (obviously if they’re one they’re connected), this posture helps the breath slow down, and the mind slow down. If you are in the right state of mind, in other words if you are in the Non-Seeking Non-Grasping Mind, that will help the breath slow down, and the posture will naturally stay upright. It’s just inevitable that the posture itself will start to elongate. If you breathe properly, that will affect the posture in a positive way, and the mind as well. They’re all interconnected.
Once you take the posture, take a few deep breaths. Breathe out slowly through the mouth, puckering your lips, then breathe in through the nose slowly, then breathe out again. Do that about three times, then close your mouth and just breathe naturally. After you take several breaths, place your hands in what we call the cosmic, or universal mudra, which is the right hand palm-upwards on the lap, the left hand palm-upwards resting on it, with the blades of your hands touching the lower abdomen, resting on your lap, or a couple of inches below the navel. The ends of your thumbs should be lightly touching. You’re not pressing them together into a kind of castle, or point. They’re just lightly touching each other, so the energies are all connected. Your thumbs should be at about the same level as your navel. You may want to put something on your lap to rest your hands in this position.
About genpo.roshi
Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi is a revolutionary in the tradition of the old Zen Masters who so embodied Buddhist teaching that they were able to revitalize and transform it for their own day and age. As Buddhism moved from India to China to Japan and other Asian cultures, it found unique expression in each culture that made its fundamental teachings resonate for a new time and place. Genpo Roshi is working to transmit the essence of the Buddha’s teachings in a way that is readily accessible to Westerners and relevant to our everyday life.The core of Genpo Roshi’s teaching is the unshakeable and contagious certainty that every one of us, regardless of our socio-economic, cultural or religious background, can instantly awaken to our true nature, like the great masters of old — like the historical Buddha himself, whose essential teaching was nothing less than this. This experience helps us shed anxiety and fear and learn to live more purposeful, compassionate and joyful lives. Roshi combines Zen tradition with the insights of such visionary western figures as Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, and Hal Stone, enabling virtually anyone to realize their true nature, a realization they can further deepen through meditation.Dennis Genpo Merzel comes from a long line of Rebbes. Born in Brooklyn NY, he grew up in Southern California where he was a high school champion swimmer and All-American water polo player. He earned a Masters degree in education from the University of Southern California and was a teacher and lifeguard before ordaining as a Zen monk under Zen Master Taizan Maezumi in 1973. Completing formal Koan study in 1979 he became Maezumi Roshi’s second Dharma Successor in 1980, the first being Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. He received Inka (final seal of approval as Zen Master) from Roshi Glassman in 1996, thereby becoming one of a small group of Westerners recognized as lineage holders in both the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions.In 1982 Genpo Sensei began teaching throughout Europe and founded the international group he named the Kanzeon (Love and Compassion) Sangha, centered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with affiliates in France, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, England, and Malta. He has eleven Dharma Successors: Catherine Genno Pages, John Shodo Flatt, Anton Tenkei Coppens, Malgosia Jiho Braunek, Daniel Doen Silberberg, Nico Sojun Tydeman, Nancy Genshin Gabrysch, Diane Musho Hamilton, Michael Mugaku Zimmerman, Richard Taido Christofferson, and Michel Genko Dubois. He has given Inka to seven Zen teachers: John Daido Loori, Catherine Genno Pages and Anton Tenkei Coppens, Jan Chozen Bays, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Nicolee Jikyo McMahon and Susan Myoyu Andersen. For ten years, until 2007, he was the President of the White Plum Asanga, the worldwide community comprising all the Dharma heirs of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, their successors, and the many groups they lead.Roshi’s publications include The Eye Never Sleeps, Beyond Sanity and Madness, 24/7 Dharma, and The Pah of The Human Being, and several DVDs. His latest book, Big Mind/Big Heart: Finding Your Way, published in the Fall of 2007, is also going to be published in translation in Holland, Spain, Germany, Russia and Poland. He is married to Stephanie Young Merzel, co-administrator of Kanzeon Zen Center International, and has two children, Tai Merzel, an aerospace engineer, and Nicole Merzel, a mathematics major at the University of Puget Sound. Website: www.bigmind.org
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