Zen and the Ergonomics of Seating

There may be as many ways to sit as there are cultures, and much of the world prefers to sit on the ground. “Ergonomic seating” brings a chair to mind for most people, suggesting ergonomics has bypassed floor sitting. Not so. Research in the specialty thrives in both the East and the West. In Japan ergonomics may answer how Zen Buddhists meditate.

Ergonomist Rani Lueder, CPE, President of Humanics Ergonomics in California, has made a study of cross-cultural seating. “Particularly in Asia, Africa (and) India … sizable portions of the population sit on the ground,” she told The Ergonomics Report