A previous survey of zafu prices found the average online price to hover around $47. This is a lot of money, so I wanted to find out how much it costs if you make your own zafu. Sadly I don’t have that kind of time. Fortunately I have a friend who wanted to make her own zafu. I sent her these zafu making instructions, and asked her to keep track of the cost and time spent making it. She went out and bought $11 of fabric from Joann, which was twice the necessary amount. I went out and bought three pounds of kapok ($20), enough for more than two zafus. My friend took out her sewing machine and while watching Star Wars, sewed together the cushion (about two and a half hours). She packed in the stuffing this past weekend. So I’d say a reasonable estimate is $16 for making this zafu from scratch. Compared with the $47 you’d pay for a meditation cushion online, that means these zafu sellers are making an outrageous profit! If you feel crafty enough, I’d say that you should go make your own meditation cushion. You save money and you walk away with a greater sense of accomplishment!
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I always found the cushions from my couch pretty suitable, but then I bought those at Pottery Barn for not-so-cheap prices. :p
If you factor in the time to make and stuff the zafu the $30 difference between the cost of the materials and the retail price of the zafu doesn’t seem that much to me. 2.5 hours of my time is certainly worth more to me than $30.
Drat, I was hoping no one would catch me on that! But thank you for pointing that out, because this is indeed an important point. If I were running my friend like a business, then I’d actually have to pay out at least $40 to abide by California minimum wage laws, including labor and transport, plus the cost of gas for fetching the materials, which adds another $5. Outrageous!
You can actually sew and stuff this meditation cushion in 30 minutes from the moment you measure the fabric. (Just don’t watch an epic trilogy while you do this.) But truth is we’re not really doing this for the money.
We love crafts. I alone spend endless weeks knitting scarves, hats and socks (with expensive yarn) that I could buy at a retail outlet for less money than a restaurant dinner. If I ever sew my own meditation cushion, I will probably do it by hand, which will probably take a week. Nevertheless, I do it because I enjoy it and then breathe a slight sigh of relief that I saved $30 (or more) in my bank account.
I certainly don’t think meditation cushion makers are trying to rob the Buddhist public. Surely they’re just trying to make a decent margin. The high prices might be justified by low sales and a made-to-order scheme, but I can’t say because I don’t know their business structure. The nature of the price distribution suggests that the zafu competition isn’t exactly searing. I suspect a $50 cushion makes a good profit, but it surely isn’t buying a trip to the Bahamas.
Still, there’s nothing wrong with comparison shopping or haggling for the best price. This isn’t to say I’m trying to knock the bottom out of the zafu market. But at least now you know where your money’s (not) going.
[...] Make your own zafu [...]
If you are too busy to make a zafu, you are too busy to meditate. Try thinking of making a zafu as a meditation in itself and use the first couple of times you would have spent meditating on making the cushion.
“You should know that there is one who is not busy.”
Namaste
Linda, Thanks for the judgment! Much appreciated!
[...] Make your own zafu [...]
It’s a rainy day here and I have the day off. I’m looking forward to the cutting, folding and sewing of the very sensual fabric I picked out. While my time, like everyone else’s is valuable, I feel good about knowing I made this myself and I know that the materials are all environmentally friendly. It’s just a nice something to do.
Namaste.
Wiggy
I was wondering where you bought the kapok. I received a zafu case as a gift and am trying to find inexpensive stuffing. Thank you.
I got the kapok at Lincoln Fabrics in Los Angeles. I was recommended to it by Kusala Bhikshu, who’d shopped there for kapok 20 years earlier. For any other city, I would call up every fabric store and ask about kapok.
Be careful handling kapok. I strongly suggest getting a face mask for handling it both at the store and when stuffing your cushion. An alternative may be to order buckwheat husks (hulls?) online. I’m actually more of a buckwheat person myself, but it’s all up to your tush.