I'll never forget a long lecture I heard from the Zen meditation teacher about the proper way to sit on meditation cushions.  It was as if he had a science for exactly how to position your legs.  What kind of cushion you needed, whether you need something underneath your meditation cushion, where to position the cushion in the meditation room.  Whether you should wrap yourself in a meditation shawl or not. All very meticulously laid out.

While I know I wasn't the only one in the room who noticed that the teacher was sitting on a regular wooden chair, I think I might've been the only person who commented about it later. The teacher had no meditation supplies or props, no meditation statues or meditation products of any sort, in fact.

I was told that he had health problems, and wasn't able to sit on a meditation cushion without great pain, but the only thing that allow him to meditate while sitting on a regular chair was the decades of practice he had already endured.

At the time, that explanation made sense or, more accurately, I was willing to take that answer is being true.

But since the Buddha's last words were ostensibly, "Don't believe anything because it's in a great book or comes from a great meditation teacher, but put it to the test yourself,"  I decided to put to the test.

I set aside my zafu and zabutan, I folded up my Japanese kneeling bench.  I tossed the rectangular foam block that I got at a Shambala Training Center into the corner…  and I planted myself firmly on a $69 OfficeMax desk chair.

And guess what.  No difference.

Actually that's not true.  I was more comfortable in the office chair than I was sitting in any of the half dozen cross legged variations I had tried to put myself in when I was on the meditation cushion. And his comfort made it easier to find that simple balance between effort and relaxation.  Between attention and letting go.

I had no idea that office furniture stores were selling meditation supplies.

Every now and then I still sit on meditation cushions.  There is something kind of elegant and enjoyable about it, but I love the freedom of knowing that I can experience deep meditation in a cubicle without having to escape to some special meditation room with magic meditation supplies.

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