Review: Mountain Seat Zafu by The Monastery Store

Posted: August 5, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Cushions, Mediation Product Reviews, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m not ashamed to admit it:  My seat is fickle.

At the beginning of the year I sang the virtues of Samadhi Cushions’ Buckwheat Pillbox Zafu. It had everything I thought I could possibly want in a cushion.  It keeps its shape and gives me the consistent height I need to stay comfortable while sitting for extended periods of time.  Truly it’s an admirable product, and I continue to recommend it highly. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a little room for improvement, or, more likely, I just have a sensitive tuchus.  After a while of sitting, the bruckwheat hulls can begin to feel hard like a stadium bleacher during your favorite team’s losing streak.

A simple pillbox design. The zippered accessis behind the handle.

“So, dear blogger, what is it that your tush needs?” you must be wanting to ask me while sitting at the edge of your own seat. Simple, friends, more cushioning.   The Monastery Store (associated with Zen Mountain Monastery) provides just that with the Mountain Seat Zafu.  The overall design is similar to the Samadhi Cushion previously reviewed in that it utilizes a non-pleated, pillbox design which give you height by keeping all the buckwheat hulls in one place.  More traditional pleated models allow for expansion when you sit, and as a result height is lost.  What the Mountain Seat adds is visco-elastic foam that distributes your weight more evenly and helps to eliminate pressure points. A disk of foam is placed on one side of the zafu, so you have to be sure to have that side up each time you use the cushion. I was originally worried that the foam might break down, but it’s lasted well through over six moths of rigorous sitting (an oxymoron?), and travels to and from various mediation centers.  Yes, I’m one of those people who brings their own cushion to meditation centers, but if you had this cushion, you might too. My one remaining concern is it feels like the foam disk could slip from its assigned spot and end up on the side of the zafu with repeated uses.  I’m not sure if there is anything used to keep the cushion where it should be.

Ultimately what you get is the softness of kapok and the firmness and support of buckwheat hulls, and for me, that’s close to perfect.  But perfection can cost a pretty penny. The medium sized cushion (7.5 inches high) costs $95 while the Samadhi Cushion without the foam disk will set you back only $49.  Is the foam worth an additional $46?  For me it is.  The comfort and stability of this zafu means that I shift around during meditation much less, and if I tried to jerry-rig something myself using a cushion and a pillow, I’d be fussing with it the whole session.  Anything that can give me less of an excuse to be fussy will help me sit more consistently, and that’s worth a lot to me.

I also purchased the Mountain Seat zabuton which has a layer of foam between two sheets of cotton batting. This zabuton is down right luxurious, but ultimately unnecessary for most people.  I know there are many of you with sensitive ankles, and for you this item may be a lifesaver.  I’ve noticed that cotton batter can become hard over years of pressure from sitting, and the foam core will certainly keep ankles and feet off the floor and cushioned over many years.

Both the zafu and zabuton are very well crafted and well proportioned.  The zafu has a strong, built in carrying handle and zippered access to allow you to add or remove hulls.  The Monastery Store also has other innovative cushion designs online,

The outline of the foam cushion is visible on the front side. This zafu is probably not a good candidate for straddling or knee sitting.

among many other products to support your practice.

Fussy tushes, unite!!!

Pros:

  • Foam cushion that can take some of the sting from long sitting session on buckwheat hulls alone
  • Strong and sturdy construction
  • Pillbox shape for stable sitting height over time
Cons:
  • Foam seems like it can slip from its location at the top of the cushion with repeated uses
  • Zipper is neatly tucked behind the handle, but this could cause difficulty when trying to replace the buckwheat hulls
  • Price – The additional cost of the foam may be not be worth it for some, especially when compared to similar offering from other manufacturers

Note:  I did not receive any promotional consideration for this review. If you are a vendor who would like a review, please feel free to contact me through the comments section.

News: Kaiser Hospital Adds a Meditation Room

Posted: February 7, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Meditation, News | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

In a very forward thinking move, a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Northern California had set aside room for a meditation space when the hospital was originally built in 1998, but they finally got it up and running recently.  The meditation room is intended for people of all faiths, or just to find some peace while experiencing the stress of one’s own or another’s illness.

Read the whole story, via Wildmind Blog.

Let me know if you know of any other hospitals with similar spaces.

Science News: Mindfulness Meditation Changes Brain’s Gray Matter, part 2

Posted: January 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Mindfulness, News, Science, The brain | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Even the New York Times has gotten in on the act.  Today they published an article titled How Meditation May Change the Brain on their Well Blog.  Hasn’t quite hit the main paper yet, but it’s still the Times.

And The Atlantic Monthly quotes the NYT’s report in their Cliché Watch Blog.  Erik Hayden, author of Meditation is Good for You — Not Sure Why, presents what appears to be an unnecessarily snarky spin on the story.  He characterizes meditation as “thinking about nothing” so that tells you where he’s coming from.  I have to admit I’m curious about what Mr. Hayden finds so cliché, but apparently it’s not sarcasm or cynicism.

Labeling Judgement, Judgement

Posted: January 25, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Meditation, Mindfulness, Personal Exprience | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I’ve been working with the noting technique recently. It’s comprised of simply stating internally what is being experienced; memories, sensing various stimuli, planning, discomfort, sadness, shame, judgement…etc. A common form of the instruction is to say the note to yourself twice, and during today’s meditation, this repetition struck home.

I was about halfway through my sit, and a the face of an acquaintance popped into my head. Without skipping a beat, my mind produced a negative judgement of the person, and I said “judgement” to myself silently. With the first mental utterance of the word came a painful self-condemnation for having the judgmental, and almost automatically I repeated “judgement” and realized the second one was for me, to let me off the hook for something that was only a thought.

That repetition helped me to see the judgement I was making about myself that was no more legitimate than the one I made about my acquaintance, but for that second or two I felt deserving of castigation. I was open to the work of judging myself, but not of the harder work of accepting myself, and letting go negative thoughts.  This pattern is perfectionism and the nearly constant shame of the nearly constant realization that I am not perfect.

I’ll continue to label my thoughts twice, the first time to let go of a thought and the second to let go of my self.