A friend asked me recently about a problem she has when she does zazen. My friend sits zazen in the full-lotus or half-lotus posture, and places her hands on top of her upper foot. But she noticed that the weight of her hands on her foot makes her foot go numb after a while. She was wondering what to do. I asked Nishijima about it. He said the main point about our hands during zazen is that the upper part of our hands (our thumbs) should be in front of the navel. Some people do this by placing their hands on their upper foot when they are sitting. Other people do it by just holding their hands in front of the navel without placing them on their foot at all. He says it depends on each person's physical characteristics. He also said it's good to switch the upper and lower leg or just move our legs a bit if they go numb while we're doing zazen.