The heart of Zen practice is zazen. Zazen is seated meditation, and the total concentration of mind and body. Zazen can be described to you with words, but the words are not zazen and you will not have experienced zazen. You can study, discuss, and read about zazen, but that is not zazen.

Instructions for Zen Meditation

In Zen there tends to be a paucity of instruction for meditation technique. Rather, the emphasis is on the posture. The practice is to sit and just sit! But of course, something else is always being added. Shunryu Suzuki encourages a very precise way of sitting that is dignified and stable. You would sit in the lotus or half-lotus posture with your back straight and your hands in your lap, left palm resting on your right palm with your thumbs touching and forming a bridge. This posture is dynamic and full of energy. In some Zen practices, you may be instructed to count your breaths, counting on each exhalation up to ten, and then back from ten to one.

Breathing

In beginning zazen, you will pay careful attention to the breath. Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose. Breathe from your diaphragm and feel it rise and fall with your breath. Let your breathing fall naturally, in and out, in and out. Now start to count your out breaths. Breathe in, breathe out, count “one.” Breathe in, breathe out, count “two.” Continue doing this until you get to ten and begin again. When you notice that you are no longer concentrating on the counting but instead your mind has started to wander to the future or the past, start counting at one again.

Acknowledge the thought and go back to the breath. In and out, one. In and out, two. Continue to do this until the bell rings. You will notice how hard it is to bring the mind back to the breath. The mind can be full of unruly monkeys jumping from tree to tree. Sitting practice helps you to train the monkeys, and eventually make them still.

Being Present

The practice of Zen is the practice of sitting. Just sitting with nothing else added. When nothing else is added, you experience your enlightened nature. But, most of the time the mind will be active with thoughts and images. It may get swept away by emotions and stories. Your job is not to get rid of thoughts but to come back. You are learning to be present in the moment.

Try to sit still. Do not move. This may seem impossible at first, but the more you move the more you will want to move. This will require working through discomfort and even pain. Zen is a hard path in this way because it has such a strong emphasis on form. You will learn a lot about yourself by doing so. Sometimes the physical pain can be quite powerful. Not all teachers are strict with posture and suggest moving rather than fighting through pain. But sometimes you'll be moving just out of habit. You will see how you wiggle around to get away from the moment. If you can, sit still as a mountain. Be a mountain.

Beginner's Mind

As with all forms of Buddhism, the aim of Zen practice is enlightenment. Zen assumes that you are already enlightened; enlightenment is not something you do or a destination you get to; it's already here. Zen is the here and now. This moment. This moment, just as it occurs; just as it is without adding anything to it. Zen is something you experience intuitively. It is not about your rational, intellectual thoughts. In fact, your rational, intellectual thoughts will only get in the way when it comes to Zen practice.

You have, throughout your life, constructed an idea of who you are. Zen is being in the moment without the “I” construct, the “me” you have created for yourself. Zen exists in the moment with no thought, no ego, bringing nothing to the table. You achieve this realization of emptiness through zazen.