Lately, I've been sitting on a chair. I have an office chair in my home office, and I sit with my legs apart in a V shape (about the same angle as when I sit on a cushion), and my legs are bent downwards: my feet rest on the ground on the balls of my feet and my toes, with my heels off the floor. I find that this lets me sit comfortable, without the pain in my arthritic knees, but also with much less pain in my back and neck.

Now I know that Nishijima thinks that sitting on a chair is very wrong, but I think that Jundo has said that it's ok if you can't sit on a cushion. (I think that Brad, on the other hand, feels it is evil.)

This led me to reflect on something: the obsession with sitting in the lotus position is, in part, because the Japanese didn't have chairs (and only recently adopted them). They were used to sitting on the floor, so it was easy for them. I don't know about India in the time of the Buddha, but I'm guessing that it's the same: they sat on the floor or on cushions.

So can't we just use the context in which we live and sit in a way that's comfortable?

Kirk