While I am relatively new to neo-paganism, I am no stranger to meditative disciplines. I’ve come to realize that, though there is a great deal of information available about various mental techniques of different styles of meditation, I’ve have found practically nothing about the physical aspects. In twenty years of practicing Zen, I’ve gathered a lot of information that is useful for any sitting style of meditation, which I would like to share. Done properly, one can sit still in meditation easily for half an hour or more with no physical discomfort. When done improperly, the alignment of the back can be thrown out of wack, causing pain and possibly even injury.

The essence of proper sitting posture is balance. The goal is to balance the body in such a way that the muscles can relax. When your sitting posture is off balance, muscles have to be tensed to hold the posture, which quickly becomes distracting, painful, and possibly damaging. All sitting postures involve sitting with the spine straight. There are two natural curves in the spine: one at the neck and shoulders, and one in the lower back. These must both be pulled fairly straight. This kind of upright posture is best exemplified by a small baby just able to sit up for the first time. The back is in a properly relaxed state because the baby’s muscles are too weak to hold itself any other way.

The curve of the neck is straightened by tucking the chin in. It helps to imagine a string attached to the very top of the back of the head, directly above the spine, gently pulling up. The mouth should be fully closed, teeth touching, tongue touching the top of the pallette, with breathing through the nose.

The lower curve is a bit trickier and is very individual. Generally, you should use a small pillow or rolled up towel placed at the back edge of your seat so that you are just barely sitting on it, and it is supporting the tailbone This allows the pelvis to rotate slightly. This rotation is such that the belly is pulled lower and buttocks upward, but it’s a very slight movement. You should be able to sit without your back resting on anything, yet be able to completely relax your back.

Once you have the basic posture, take a deep breath, and rock back and forth, then side to side, gradually reducing the amount of rocking until you come to a stop in the center. This allows you to find the proper center of balance, with the vertebrae stacked on top of each other like toy blocks. Once you find the right balance, let the breath out forcibly, allowing your body to settle into place.

In the proper posture, it should be easy to breathe deeply. Pull the air in deeply, allowing your belly to expand forward, filling your torso with your breath from bottom to top. Then exhale, feeling the breath empty from top to bottom. Your breath should be so slow and steady, that you cannot hear or feel it entering and exiting your nose.

When sitting on the floor with a pillow, fold your legs in whatever way is comfortable. Ideally, the knees should be touching the ground to give a firm base. The legs can be folded into the ‘lotus,’ ‘half lotus’ or ‘burmese’ positions. The only important thing to keep in mind is to switch which leg is forward or on top on some regular basis. Otherwise, there is an uneven torque put on the lower back causing possible lower back problems.

There are many ways to hold your hands and arms. The most important point is that they are placed in a way that does not pull on the shoulders or pull your body out of balance. Palms down on the thighs or palms up in the lap, thumbs touching, are two popular styles.

Whether your eyes should be open or closed depends on the nature of the meditation you are engaging in. In Zen meditation, in which one is developing awareness of one’s mind and surroundings, the eyes should be open. With meditation that employs visualization techniques or other means of visiting alternate realities, the eyes are probably better closed. Admittedly, there is debate on this point and some meditation practitioners even in Zen do close their eyes. My opinion, based on my own experience and researching the teachings of various masters, is that it is better to have the eyes open. The eyes are only slightly open, though, and your gaze directed to a point on a wall or the floor that is at the right distance so the eyes can focus without strain. That point is normally about 18″ to two feet away.

One last caveat about sitting meditation: don’t sit for more than about 45 minutes in a row. Even in Zen traditions where long sitting periods are normal, practitioners do not normally go longer than about 45 minutes at a time. Practitioners may get up after 45 minutes and conduct some kind of moving meditation, such as slow walking, for about 15 minutes between 45 minute sitting periods, thus going on for several hours in a row but not sitting for too long at a stretch. Remember: it’s all about being comfortable and relaxed. If anything hurts, you need to adjust something about what you are doing.