Chair vs. Lotus or Padmasana

I personally use both cross legged and chair sitting during long meditative sessions that run for hours.

I taught yoga for years, and began my meditation career in various cross-legged positions. But I don’t think it is a good position for learning to cultivate earth energy. Of course, at the time I did not have standing and moving practices to balance it out, as Fajin has noted.

Once you’ve achieved the internal abilty to grasp and cook the yin-yang currents of earth chi, the physical position becomes quite secondary. The inner process of cultivation cancontinue in lying, sitting, standing or walking – IF you can stay conscious in each, and have stabilized your process. Each is better for focusing on different cultivation processes.

Most westerners have longer legs than orientals and this may present a structural problem for westerners.
Most westerners are also extremely ungrounded, and thus I favor chair position for teaching. Also ground temperature may be cold, draining the chi; chair offers easier balance that way.

The chair sitting position is known as the Emperor Position, and you will see it in many Taoist paintings – see covers of master Ni’s translation of Tao Te Ching. You are ruler (energetically) of heaven and earth.

The lotus position I find does bypass the meridians of the legs and leaves them less grounded. The idea is to ground the feet (k-1) into heaven. But that is based on the notion that heaven is only above. Once you open up to the aspect of Heaven inside earth, lotus loses its exclusive abilty to do that.

Its all ultimately about where you Inner Self is sitting…..

Smiling while standing on my head (though looks to others like a frown)
Michael