The Dharma Bums meditation stool, was initially shown to me by Cape Town Meditation teacher Jennifer Woodhull who is Acharya (teacher) with the Shambhala School.

I will attempt to bring into focus its origin from the story she relayed to me at a weekend retreat in South Africa 2013 and how I wish to develop its presence. She had been using one of the folding prayer stools for many years and had been waiting for the appropriate person to show it to so that it could be reproduced. I was the fortunate chosen person.

The meditation stool itself is similar in function to the common  small bench  used for sitting meditation practice , the seat being at a slight angle so that it supports the coccyx  and helps to keep the spine erect, while one sits in a kneeling position with ones legs folded under the seat , feet facing  backwards with the soles upwards. The Dharma Bums stool is different from conventional models in that it ingeniously folds into a small portable block.

In the late 70’s Chogyum Trungpa, a high ranking Tibetan teacher, invited Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to hold a series of teachings on writing poetry in Boulders Colorado, Jennifer Woodhull was present at these sessions. It was during that period she was given the meditation stools that I have reproduced.

I made a series of ten in SA Pine Shutter Ply (the original was in a fir timber, patinad and soft edged by time and use) some were given as gifts, the rest sold and one I brought with me to Canada. At a sitting at Shambhala Toronto it generated interest and I was commissioned to make another two, this set me on a course of events that led to the meeting of a group of Meditative Carpenters. In particular James Z of Innovations Designs how gave me some suggestions on how to improve the design.

The name is Dharma Bums is an obvious pun making a connection between sitting practice and beatnik saint Jack Kerouac’s novel of the same title, the novel is the story of a free spirited seeker exploring meditation in remote places, I wish to capture the same spirit of travelling and conscious self-discovery in the portability of this meditation aid .

“I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ’em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures …”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

I have been studying a small book by Austin Kleon, Show Your Work-10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered (Workman Publishing New York, 2014), and on his suggestion I will document the process of designing and making an improved proto type of the Dharma Bums Meditation Bench, may any arising goodness be for the benefit of sentient beings