What is zazen?

The word itself

Zazen is a Japanese word. Za means sitting, and zen means meditation or absorption, carried into Japanese from the Sanskrit dhyana by way of the Chinese chan. So zazen is simply seated meditation. It has been the central practice of the Zen school for centuries, and in Sōtō Zen the great teacher Eihei Dōgen called it the gate of ease and joy, the practice through which awakening is expressed rather than merely pursued.

How zazen is practiced

The form is simple, and you can learn it in a morning. You sit upright on a cushion with your legs crossed, or upright in a chair with both feet flat on the floor. The hands rest in the lap, one atop the other, thumbs lightly touching. The eyes stay lowered and open, resting on the floor a few feet ahead. The breath is allowed to be natural, neither forced nor controlled. The spine is tall, the shoulders soft, the whole body settled like a mountain.

Zazen is not a trance and not a blank. You are awake, present, and at ease. For the full posture, breath, and what to do with your hands and eyes, see our guide to sitting zazen.

Shikantaza: just sitting

In Sōtō Zen the practice is shikantaza, which means nothing but precisely sitting, or just sitting. It is not a technique for reaching a special state, and it is not a matter of emptying the mind or holding your attention on any one thing. You simply sit, wholeheartedly, and let whatever arises arise. A thought comes, a thought goes. A sound comes, a sound goes. Let it come, let it go, just sit. There is nothing to fix and nothing to achieve. The sitting itself is complete.

What zazen is for

It is fair to ask what all this sitting is for, and the honest answer is unusual: in Zen, zazen is not a means to some other end. Dōgen taught that practice and awakening are not two separate things, so the sitting is not a ladder you climb and then discard. That said, people who sit regularly often find their lives a little steadier and clearer, their reactions a little less automatic, their attention more their own. Zazen is a way of coming home to your life, again and again, exactly as it is.

Sitting zazen in Greenville

The surest way to understand zazen is to sit it, with others, in a quiet room. Greenville Zen Center sits together every Sunday morning at 52 Cleveland Street in Greenville, SC. A short orientation at 8:00 a.m. teaches newcomers the posture before zazen begins at 8:15, and every sitting is free. You can read about Zen and our tradition, plan your first visit, or simply come as you are.