From Zen

Since I haven’t been able to stand I also haven’t been able to sit up straight. When I ask myself What is my practice?, the bottom line is zazen, Dogen’s “Dharma gate of repose and bliss”. But I can no longer “just sit” like I did every day for more than thirty years.

I started re-reading Will Johnson’s The Posture of Meditation, looking for clues to help me sit comfortably enough to start sitting practice again. I was struck by this sentence. 

When the sacral, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical regions of the spine are able to assume the slight curvature natural to them, the upper body becomes vertical and upright.

As I read the sentence I felt my body extending upwards automatically, easily. A definite step in the right direction.

Illustration from Understanding Spinal Anatomy: Regions of the Spine – Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, Sacral

Top illustration from How to Sit in Sitting Meditation