Zen in Ten: What is Zazen?

It's what you already are.

1. Zen practitioners most often refer to meditation using the Japanese word zazen: za means “sitting” and the zen means “meditation.” Sometimes the word shikantaza is also used, which means “just sitting.”

2. Za contains the characters hito which means “person” and tsuchi which means “ground/earth” or “balance.”

3. The character hito shows two people, not one, and when this is combined with the tsuchi ideogram of a scale,¹ then the meaning of za becomes more profound: To experience harmony with others, we need to first experience it within ourselves. Sitting on the ground provides balance and stability.² Metaphorically, this is also resting on the ground of being—Buddha Nature, Ultimate Reality, or Big Self.

4. Zen comprises the characters shimesu, meaning to “show” or “reveal,” and tan, which means “one or single.”

5. “So the fundamental implication of zen is to show the oneness or to reveal ourselves as the unity of everything. In fact that is what we are. Through zazen we are not gaining anything, but we are revealing our natural state, which is the true balance.”³

6. One of Dōgen Zenji’s most innovative and seminal teachings is that practice and enlightenment are not two. He refers to this as “practice-realization”: The zazen which I am talking about is not learning (step-by-step) meditation. It is simply the dharma-gate of peace and joy. It is the practice-enlightenment of the ultimate way.” ⁴

7. Although zazen means “seated meditation,” we can pay close attention, cultivate concentration, and relax while walking, standing, or lying down. Meditation is a mental posture and the phrase “zazen mind” refers to collecting body-mind in the present moment amid activity.

8. The goal of zazen is NOT to stop the mind from thinking. This is the function of mind as a sense organ. Thoughts are the objects of mind. Our practice is to just let thoughts arise and fade away without becoming fascinated or identified with these mental phenomena.

9. Zazen helps cultivate a faculty of mind called attention, which is present in human consciousness. Zazen is the container in which we practice paying attention to what’s arising without judgment or comment.

10. “To understand reality as a direct experience is the reason we practice zazen, and the reason we study Buddhism. Through the study of Buddhism, you will understand your human nature, your intellectual faculty, and the truth present in your human activity.”⁵

1. The Ten Directions (Fall/Winter 1992), qtd. in: https://tricycle.org/magazine/principles-zazen/

2. The Ten Directions (Fall/Winter 1992), qtd. in: https://tricycle.org/magazine/principles-zazen/

3. The Ten Directions (Fall/Winter 1992), qtd. in: https://tricycle.org/magazine/principles-zazen/

4. Dōgen, Eihei. “Fukan-zazengi (The Way of Zazen Recommended to Everyone).” Translated by Shōhaku Okumura.

5. Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. New York & Tokyo, Weatherhill, 2001.