Sit Comfortably Upright and Be You

When we are doing meditation, the most important thing is to sit upright. 

Sit upright whether you’re sitting on a cushion or on a chair, or even if you’re lying down. When you’re not feeling well sometimes, you might lie down. Even when you’re lying down, try to keep your back straight and comfortable.

It’s important to be comfortable. The purpose of meditation is not to physically train you to become a Green Beret of the mind. You’re not killing anyone here. You’re not training like that. 

So, the posture of your body – the meditation posture – is important. At the same time, the important piece here is to be comfortable. Within that upright posture, find a comfortable spot.

Finding a comfortable spot doesn’t mean you have to sit on a La-Z-Boy, very sluggishly. You know, where you become the couch. 

You have to be you, in your body. Your comfortable spot, or comfortable sitting, should be supported well, with any cushion that you need. 

In Tibetan – we’ve had this history of meditation for many centuries – we refer to this meditation cushion as a “seat for meditative concentration.”

It’s a little cushion for our samadhi, or meditation concentration. In America, in the West, what’s known in the Zen tradition as zafu, or zabuton, is the same as what Tibetans call gomden: a meditation cushion, a samadhi support. So, you need good support. 

At the same time, when you sit in that upright position, you don’t have to look like a statue. You don’t have to look like a golden Buddha statue on a shrine. So, relax. Relaxing is very important. 

Also, we’re not doing a photo shoot. So you don’t have to look good. That’s very important to remember. Because we’re very self-conscious. As soon as you hear, OK, sit in meditation, you become self-conscious and think, Do I look OK? 

But meditation is not like a photo shoot. You don’t need to think about how you look. Feel the body, from the top of your head going all the way down into the earth. Down through the cushion or chair, through the floor, through the building, down into the earth. You’re touching the earth, basically. 

You’re comfortable. Your body is centered. Your posture should be centered. So, you need to feel that. You don’t need to feel how you look. Just feel your posture being comfortable. Feel your posture being upright. Uplifted. Uplifting.

Sometimes we think, This is a very weird posture. I’m not used to it.  But do you want to go back to what you’re used to? If so, then why are you meditating? Because by meditating, we’re trying to change our habits. When we want to transform our old habits, we bring those habits into the cushion and try to change and transform them. 

This article is based on a teaching given by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche at Nalanda West in Seattle, Washington, on April 5, 2026.