How to Meditate in a Rocking-Chair

"Many years ago I came across a book which advocated using a rocking-chair for meditation. I do not think that the book was Buddhist, and the title escapes my memory. In fact, I do not remember much about the book nor even the type of meditation that it proposed. It was just this one idea, 'rocking-chair meditation' that stuck in my mind.
Probably one of the reasons why the idea stayed with me was that one of my first teachers had left me a rocking-chair in her will. I still have it and I do use it for meditation. Usually I just sit in it. There is something about rocking-chairs which helps the mind to become naturally still. The only effort you have to use is the slight movement of rocking. Even this soon becomes completely natural and effortless and the mind can drift with the rhythm.

My rocking-chair is placed in front of a beautiful Tibetan thanka of Chenrezig, one of the forms of Avalokiteshvara. The combination of gentle rocking and the warmth and beauty of the painting combine to bring me to a state of deep meditation without any of the usual barriers. This does not always work but when it does it is something quite beautiful and unique.

The rhythm of a rocking-chair is suitable for reciting a mantra or short prayer. After a while it becomes perfectly natural and you do not have to give it any thought. Because of the painting of Chenrezig, I use the Mani Mantra or sometimes the Nembutsu, but you can use any mantra or prayer that has meaning for you. One of the most important elements of mantra that is often overlooked is rhythm and the use of the rocking-chair brings out this aspect. Rhythm becomes more than just an activity of the mind, as the gentle movement of the chair involves the whole body. This adds a new and different dimension to the meditation and is so pleasurable that it seems to ask for further practice.

Even without the mantra, the gentle rhythm of the chair is a great help to the meditative state of mind. Dogen, the founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, encouraged his disciples to 'just sit' in zazen, without any effort to do anything else.

An old man used to sit for hours in his rocking-chair on the veranda of his house. His young nephew asked him one day what he did there. "Sometimes" he said, "I sits and thinks - and sometimes I just sits."

Meditation in a rocking-chair is a bit like both. You might ask, "What has this to do with Buddhism ?" The answer is probably nothing, but it does have a lot to do with Dharma. Dharma is the discovery of the naturalness of life and there are few better vehicles to do this than a good rock on an old, reliable chair. It feels like a chariot that carries its user to realms that are at the same time beyond this world and right here and now. Mindfulness is natural in a rocking-chair but at the same time the rhythm and comfortable feeling combine to transport us beyond our usual consciousness.

If part of Western Buddhism is to discover the Dharma in our everyday lives, then I am sure that rocking-chairs will have a role in the future. A good rocking-chair is so ordinary and yet it reminds us of an extraordinary state of mind which, if not already enlightened, is certainly on the way."

"You Don't Have To Sit On The Floor: Bringing the insights and tools of Buddhism into everyday life."
Jim Pym (2001)