When it comes to meditation, what pops up in your mind? Just google it through image search, and the screen will show lots of images of people meditating in the seated posture. Most people generally consider meditation as sitting meditation even though there are many other types of meditations.

Do you practice sitting meditation? Then what posture do you usually use for your sitting? I used to practice meditation in a full lotus posture. During an intensive retreat in Korea, I sat in the full lotus posture for an hour, with a left foot facing upwards and the next hour with my right foot upwards. Even though my knees and ankles started to hurt, I thought the pain was necessary for the gain from sitting meditation. One day, I twisted my ankle, so I had to walk with a limp and could not comfortably sit for meditation for several weeks. This happened because I firmly believed the full lotus posture was the best posture for sitting meditation.

Later in the USA, I encountered many meditation practitioners with various postures in sitting meditation. Many of them brought their own cushions for their practice such as thick and round, crescent-shaped, and big brick-like ones, and some of them used a chair. From that time, one question kept coming to my mind: what is the best posture for sitting meditation?

There are five main postures for sitting meditation: full lotus, half lotus, Burmese, on a stool, and on a chair. These five postures all look different. That is why the postures have different names. It is right as comparing the legs for the postures. However, if we change the focus from on the legs to on the torso, it is not that right.