I just spent at least an hour on the web searching for the right picture for our Online Meditation Course. Currently we have an image of someone sitting in lotus. That picture made someone wonder if she had to sit in yoga posture to meditate. The answer is absolutely not! You can have deep, relaxing meditations and even very profound experiences sitting comfortably in a chair (or on the floor or a bed or sometimes even lying down...). Seemed like it would help to find an image that sends that message. Searching the web, I hoped to find a picture with someone just sitting comfortably meditating. I went to all my favorite photo sites and it seemed like every single image of a person meditating was always in lotus, or at least cross-legged, and often with the hands held in some sort of special way. While different postures and hand positions do have different effects, they are not really important for most aspiring meditators. Many people can't even sit cross-legged comfortably for any length of time, and even fewer can sit in lotus.
As for what we recommend about posture -- usually meditation is best sitting up with the spine fairly erect. I say "fairly" because the most important thing is to be comfortable. When you are comfortable, you can relax completely. Sitting up fairly straight helps the mind to be alert. If you lie down (which you can do for some kinds of meditations) your mind will not be as alert and you may tend to fall asleep. Most meditation styles are not suited to the lying down position, although many guided meditations will be. But if you can't sit up for some reason, better to meditate lying down than not at all.
We hear from people who are using our podcast meditations in all sorts of ways -- sitting, lying down, walking, exercising, gazing at a lake -- and people are getting benefits and having profound experiences in all these ways. Ultimately posture is up to you and will depend on what you are using the meditations for and how you are using them. So often when I hear from someone about their experiences, I remember that these meditations are your meditations. It's your journey and your process and your truth that counts.
We do recommend sitting up to meditate for our Online Course. The course is a more structured, systematic process aimed at helping people learn to meditate on their own. The sitting posture helps facilitate mastering the fundamentals of meditation. But it is not necessary to be able to assume a pretzel like position to do it. Like our podcast meditations, ease and naturalness are essential. After all, meditation is all about being natural and being at ease!