Zazen
Zazen is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition.
The generalized Japanese term for meditation is 瞑想 ; however, zazen has been used informally to include all forms of seated Buddhist meditation. The term zuòchán can be found in early Chinese Buddhist sources, such as the Dhyāna sutras. For example, the famous translator Kumārajīva translated a work termed Zuòchán sān mēi jīng and the Chinese Tiantai master Zhiyi wrote some very influential works on sitting meditation.
The meaning and method of zazen varies from school to school, but in general it is a quiet type of Buddhist meditation done in a sitting posture like the lotus position. The practice can be done with various methods, such as following the breath, mentally repeating a phrase and a kind of open monitoring in which one is aware of whatever comes to our attention. Repeating a huatou, a short meditation phrase, is a common method in Chinese Chan and Korean Seon. Meanwhile, nianfo, the practice of silently reciting the Buddha Amitabha's name, is common in the traditions influenced by Pure Land practice, and was also taught by Chan masters like Zongmi.
In the Japanese Buddhist Rinzai school, zazen is usually combined with the study of koans. The Japanese Sōtō school makes less or no use of koans, preferring an approach known as shikantaza where the mind has no object at all.
Practice
Five types of Zazen
quotes Hakuun Yasutani's lectures for beginners. In lecture four, Yasutani lists five kinds of zazen:- bompu, developing meditative concentration to aid well-being;
- gedo, zazen-like practices from other religious traditions;
- shojo, 'small vehicle' practices;
- daijo, zazen aimed at gaining insight into true nature;
- saijojo, shikantaza.
Sitting
Posture
explains that one sits in the posture of zazen with legs crossed and the spine erect. The hands form the cosmic mudra, with thumbs lightly touching at about the level of the navel. In many practices, the practitioner breathes from the hara and the eyelids are half-lowered, the eyes being neither fully open nor shut so that the practitioner is neither distracted by, nor turning away from, external stimuli.The legs are folded in one of the standard sitting styles:
- Kekkafuza
- Hankafuza
- Burmese
- Seiza
Samadhi
The initial stages of training in zazen may resemble traditional Buddhist samatha meditation. According to some approaches, the student begins by focusing on the breath at the hara/tanden with mindfulness of breath exercises such as counting breath or just watching it. Mantras are also sometimes used in place of counting. Practice may be continued in one of these ways until there is adequate "one-pointedness" of mind to constitute an initial experience of samadhi. At this point, the practitioner might move on to koan-practice or shikantaza.While some teachers such as Dainin Katagiri Roshi taught watching the breath, and Shunryū Suzuki taught counting the breath, others such as Kōshō Uchiyama and Shohaku Okumura taught neither counting nor watching the breath. According to Okumura, one does not put one's focus on the breath : "We don’t set our mind on any particular object, visualization, mantra, or even our breath itself. When we just sit, our mind is nowhere and everywhere."
While Yasutani Roshi states that the development of 2=定力, the power of concentration, is one of the three aims of zazen, Dogen warns that the aim of zazen is not the development of mindless concentration.