Zen & Buddhism

Zazen - Sitting Meditation

The core Zen practice of sitting in stillness, directly encountering reality without concepts or goals.

Zazen is not meditation in the sense of doing something - it's the practice of just sitting, without trying to achieve anything. In Soto Zen, this is called shikantaza (just sitting). You're not focusing on the breath, repeating mantras, or visualizing - you're simply being present with what is. Neuroscience studies show that zazen practitioners develop thicker prefrontal cortex, increased gray matter density, and enhanced default mode network regulation. But the true power of zazen isn't measurable - it's the direct realization of your original nature, which was never missing.

The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Simply sit in meditation with pure intention.

Fukanzazengi

Written about in

• What Zen says about habit and discipline

  Zazen is the tradition's core discipline and also its strangest: sitting without trying to achieve anything. Dogen's Fukanzazengi opens by asking why practice should be needed at all if the Way is already perfect — Zen's founding instruction raises the objection to its own discipline in the first lines.