There are 4 primary ways of sitting zazen, lotus, burmese, seiza, and chair. The classic sitting position is called full lotus. This position requires a certain degree of flexibility in the hips and legs. In this position, you cross your legs, just like how you would sit cross legged, except you put each foot on the opposite thigh. This makes this particular position very stable and solid. If you aren't flexible enough to sit in the standard full lotus position, you can instead sit in the half-lotus position. In this position, only one foot in up on the thigh. This is still a very stable position to sit in. Despite being a stable sitting position, you may feel awkward sitting like that. If that is the case, then I'd recommend finding a different sitting position.
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The second, position is called the Burmese position. The burmese position is probably the easiest and simplest position to sit in. In this position, the legs are flat on the ground, not crossed over each other, but bent so that the foot of one leg is tucked between the thigh and calf of the leg that is in front. This is a good position to try out if you're not very flexible. For both this and the lotus positions, it is recommended that you sit on a zafu, though you can instead sit on a folded blanket if that is more comfortable. The primary purpose of the zafu is to help make meditating comfortable and help to encourage maintaining a straight posture.
The third seiza position, named so because you sit in seiza, a traditional Japanese sitting position where you sit in an upright kneeling position. The seiza position can be done several ways, but the only difference between the different ways is the object which you use to aid you in your meditation. You can sit seiza with a zafu placed between your buttocks and legs, without a zafu, using your feet as a naturally cushion, and even using a rectangular stool, tucking you feet under the seat.
The fourth zazen position is called the chair position. Yea, that's right, the chair position. It's name says it all. Basically you do zazen while sitting in a chair. If you want, you can use a zafu the help cushion your buttocks, or if your chair is curved, a zafu can help ensure you maintain a straight posture.
So knowing that I would be writing a blog post about the different zazen position, I decided to try meditate in a different position today. I had decided to sit in the seiza position, where you put a zafu between your buttocks and feet. Now let me tell, I'm never doing that again. Sitting in seiza was excruciating. Not only did my feet fall asleep sooner than when I sit in full lotus, but before my feet even fell asleep, the pain from hyperextending my feet was killing me. I was extremely distracted and my concentration wasn't on the meditation, but on suppressing my pain. But honestly, if you find sitting in seiza more comfortable than sitting in let's say lotus, then by all means sit in seiza. I can't emphasize this enough, the first step to successfully being able to meditate is to pick a position that is comfortable and fits your preference.
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