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What  is Zazen?
Zazen is sometimes described as meditation, but meditation is a broad term. Zazen is zazen. It is sitting stable, upright, comfortable and still, while ceasing the pursuit for thoughts and sense perceptions. In zazen, we let all thoughts, feelings and images come and go, just as they are, without any analysis or judgement. We just sit. This act of just sitting is called shikantaza in Japanese.
We sit like a heavy rock on the bottom of a river, letting all waves and streams flow us by. They will calm down by themselves. We let go of all struggles and goals, and we stop trying to escape from the great reality as it is, here and now. It can help us return to a more balanced state of body and mind.
A period of zazen is usually between 20 and 30 minutes long, but it can be longer or shorter. Zazen is not a competition. If we have several periods of zazen, we do kinhin in between. Kinhin is like zazen, but we walk slowly instead of sitting. |
