No matter which of these you choose it is absolutely necessary that both of your knees are in contact with the floor, and that you can keep your back straight without straining. If you can’t sit effortlessly in any of these positions it is better to start with sitting in a chair, and to work on improving your flexibility over time if you’d like to sit on the floor. The instability and discomfort that comes from sitting with elevated knees and a rounded back will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to make progress with calmin and concentratin your mind.

Regardless of whether you sit on a chair or on the floor your hips must be high enough above your knees so that your pelvis can tilt freely, which will allow you to straighten your back without effort. The exact height varies according to one’s flexibility, but people often end up not elevated enough, which makes it so that tight muscles and connective tissues pulls on the back and rounds it. To use your back muscles to force yourself upright will just tire them out and make your back ache. Instead you can try pillows and chairs in different heights, or adding extra pillows to a chair. On a chair it’s better to sit freely than to lean back against the back rest, but if this is uncomfortable you can also prop yourself up with a pillow behind your back to make yourself more vertical.

Place your right hand in your lap with the palm facing upwards, and place your left hand on top of the right in the same way. Let the tips of your thumbs touch each other lightly, so that your hands together form a flat oval. This ancient shape and placement of the hands is called the cosmic mudra. It helps in various ways to center and focus the mind, but the most obvious is the direct feedback you receive from the connection between the tips of your thumbs. If you press them against each other so that they lift up, you are being a bit too ardent and tense, and if you let them drift apart you have lost focus and concentration. A light touch, as if you’re holding something small and fragile between them, is just right.

Lean forward until you feel your pelvis tilting and your buttocks being pressed backwards, then slowly return back up to vertical. Your head should rest comfortably on top of your neck, with your nose in line with your navel. The goal is for your vertebrae to stack on top of each other in their natural resting curve, so that you can sit relaxes and loose from the waist up without slouching forward nor straining to remain upright.

Bend you body over to the right, then to the left, seven-eight times, first in big arcs, then gradually smaller, until you come to rest in a natural equilbrium in the middle. Keep your mouth closed and lay your tongue against the roof of your mouth with the tip touching the back of the teeth. This will stop your mouth from producing saliva. Keep your eyes open with your gaze unfocused and directed down towards the floor in front of you at about a 45 degree angle. This way of gazing lets your mind relax, without you falling into the dull dream state that comes when you close your eyes completely. Be careful not to let you head fall forward.

Because the body and the mind is one, what you do with one will reflect in the other. The sitting posture is the foundation of the training, and by teaching the body to sit still, relaxed and upright, without too much effort and without collapsing, you teach the mind to do the same.

The breath

Fill your lungs with a deep breath, hold it for a moment, and let it go. Then breathe as usual, through your nose, without trying to change or affect your natural breath.

Now you are ready to concentrate your mind. Zen has different ways of doing this, but the easiest for beginners is to count the breath. The value of this exercise lies in the counting replacing the ongoing inner dialogue. This will lead to your stream of thoughts beginning to calm down, and to a single-pointed focus gradually developing.

Count both inhales and exhales. Breathe in and concentrate on the number one, breathe out and concentrate on the number two, and so on. When you reach the number ten you go back to one again and start over. Whenever you lose count you go back to one again.

The thoughts

Thoughts will dart around in your mind, but these are not a hindrance for your meditation in of themselves. It is a common misconception, even among people who have meditated for many years, that the goal is to bring consciousness to a complete stop. This is not what zen meditation is about. No matter how intently you focus on your breath you will still see what’s in front of you since your eyes are open, and you will still hear the sounds around you since your ears are not plugged. In the same way, thoughts will float around in your mind since you’re not unconscious. These thoughts are not a hindrance or a problem for your meditation, unless you let them carry you away, or you get caught in trying to push them away or get rid of them.

Don’t consider any of your sensory impressions or feelings as a hindrance for meditation, and don’t allow yourself to follow after them either. This is very important. To “follow after” them means that, in regards to your seeing, you focus on a detail of what’s in front of you; in regards to your hearing, that you attach to a specific sound around you; or in regards to your thoughts, that you get absorbed in one of them. When you notice that you have gotten caught by something, just let go of whatever you’re looking at, listening to or thinking about, and return to your breath. Your thoughts are like clouds in the sky. Sometimes it’ll be overcast, sometimes light clouds, and sometimes no clouds, but the sky above is always unaffected. Let your thoughts come and go as they want, don’t let yourself get swallowed up by them, and don’t try to keep them at bay, just concentrate all your energy on counting your breath.