Zazen: the Heart of Zen Practice

Anyone Can Do It
The practice of zazen is such a simple practice that anybody can do it. It’s easy. It doesn’t matter if you’re smart or stupid. It doesn’t matter if you have a high IQ or no IQ. Whether you’re literate or illiterate. Zazen is for all people. One of the most revered Zen masters of all time is the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng. He lived during the Tang Dynasty, in the early seventh century. He transformed Indian Buddhism into Chinese Buddhism and then into Zen as we practice it today. The Sixth Ancestor, Huineng, is so revered that a body of work ascribed to him is called a sutra — the Platform Sutra. This is the only text, other than the texts of the words of Shakyamuni Buddha, that is given the honor of being called a sutra. The Sixth Ancestor, Huineng, was illiterate! And yet he became one of the greatest of the Zen masters. He did not have a high IQ. If he could do it, you and I can. Even a child can do it. Everyone can count from one to ten. Or one to five. Or even one to three. In fact, everyone who breathes can do it. And since everyone breathes, everyone can do zazen. It’s so easy that I’ll be able to give you the entire practice in just a few minutes.

Body Posture
You begin with your body posture. You can do zazen sitting cross-legged on a pillow and mat. These are known in Zen language as a zafu and zabuton.

Or you can sit on a small, specially designed bench known as a sezar bench. You place your legs underneath the seat of the bench. You’ll find this a very stable and comfortable way to do zazen.

Or you can sit in a chair.

You can even do zazen lying down.

If you really want to be macho, you can go into one of the lotus positions: full, half, or quarter lotus.

In full lotus you fold your legs, placing your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh.

In half lotus you just either place your right foot on your left thigh, or left foot on your right thigh.

In quarter lotus you place either foot just below the thigh.

There is another folded-leg posture called Burmese, in which you fold your legs, placing them on the mat before you, with both feet just below the crotch.

But the actual position — lotus, sitting on a bench, or sitting in a chair — is not important. The idea is to be still and to slowly take control of your body. As your body is stilled, your mind is stilled.

Now you may object and say, “There’s no way I can keep my body still, not even in a chair or on a couch or wherever. I soon find my body aching and hurting. I soon feel strains and pulls in muscles I never knew were there. I would break out with an itch, here behind my neck, or on my head, and worst of all, on the tip of my nose. There’s no way I can sit still. I’ve tried it.”

I say to you, don’t worry about that. The practice of going back to one that I will soon describe will take care of all your itches. All your strains and pains. Be patient with yourself. Remember, even in your distracted state, even with all of your itches and muscle pain and spasms, you will still be able to do zazen. Don’t worry about it. Going back to one will slowly and very effectively calm your body. Calm the itches. Ease the pain. Bring your body to a state of peace. Your muscles will relax. Just be patient with yourself and with your body, and do the practice.

Breathing
Breathing is a very important part of zazen. Breathing should be abdominal. Bypassing your lungs, fill the tummy up so it expands like a balloon. Place your hands on your legs, close to your body, fingers overlapping, thumbs slightly touching just below the navel encircling the spot of the body known as the ki (or chi or joriki), which is known to be the most powerful chakra or power-source of the body. It is here that the strongest energy is generated. Maintain this position and take a deep breath. After the belly is full with air, hold it for a moment, and then slowly let it out. In-breath. Out-breath.

Then begin to count your breaths. I find the most powerful way of counting is on the out-breath. Hold the count for the length of the breath. So with your out-breath you will be saying “ooooooooooooooooone,” “twooooooooooooooooooo,” “threeeeeeeeeeee,” etc. Continue until you reach the number ten, and then go back to one.

Thinking
The old Buddhists identified two types of thought: random thoughts and reflective thoughts. Random thoughts are the ones that pop up in your head all the time. They come and they go. Reflective thoughts are one of the random thoughts you latch onto, entertain, develop, and get lost in. However, you will eventually realize you are caught in a reflective thought, and as soon as you do, all you have to do is stop the thought and go back to one.

It’s as simple as that. Just go back to one. No matter where you are lost — you may be counting “thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three” and at the same time discover yourself lost in a thought and think, “What am I doing? How did I get to thirty-three?” At that moment, just stop even that thought, and go back to one. It is very important that you don’t fall into the trap of judging yourself for getting lost. Just accept the fact that you’re lost, and without any fuss go back to one. No blame. Everybody gets lost. Now you know how to find your way. Just go back to one.

This process of

breathing,

counting of the breaths,

getting caught up in a reflective thought,

realizing it,

stopping the thought,

and returning to one

is purifying. By going through this process many times, you will lose count less often and your mind will become serene, even, calm, and — best of all — rested.

Do not be afraid of thinking. Do not feel that by thinking you are doing it all wrong. That you are a failure at zazen. It’s impossible to stop thinking. As long as you are alive and breathe you will think. Remember it’s not the random thoughts that pop up all the time that cause the problems. It’s the reflective thoughts. The ones you involve yourself in. You shouldn’t even try to stop reflective thinking. The point is not to stop thinking. The point is to go through the process.

This is the process of purification. And so paradoxically, the more you think — the more you find yourself caught up in a reflective thought — the greater the opportunity for purification.

The Mind as the Sea
Zazen is the only practice I know of which rests, trains, steadies, and relaxes your mind. Zazen develops your mind to the point where it becomes the greatest tool you can have. Your mind is always working. Even when you sleep your mind is working. When you go on vacation your body rests. You lie down on the beach, take in the warm rays of the sun, and relax. But your mind is still working, working, working. When you are sleeping your mind doesn’t rest; it dreams! And everyone knows how much work dreaming can be! When you do zazen, your mind rests. You mind is let go and is given the time to build its inner muscles. In this way your mind is strengthened and takes a rest at the same time. And most important, your mind is at peace.

Mind Purification
How to purify your mind — when I use the word “purify,” I don’t mean it in the holy sense of the word but rather in the sense in which a blacksmith places a steel blade into a red-hot forge in order to purify it of all the extra dross and bits of metal that don’t belong. The steel then comes out of the forge in its pure state. It can now be worked on. It can be fashioned, pounded into shape, tempered, and ultimately sharpened into the finest blade.

Mind Purification Practice
Think of your mind as that piece of steel before it is placed in the forge. It is cluttered with a lot of junk and dross. The dross of the mind is the many thoughts you have. I’ve often likened the mind to a sea, and the waves of the sea as the thoughts of the mind. Sometimes, probably most times, the sea of your mind is raging with the force of a hurricane with waves tossing and turning every which way. Zazen is one way to calm your mind. But I’m now going to give you another way of calming the thought waves in the sea of your mind. And it’s a very simple technique that you can begin using right away.

More About Thinking
First, the random thoughts. These are the thoughts that pop into and out of your head all the time. They never stop. One thought tumbles in. Another thought pushes the first thought out, and that in turn is pushed out by another thought and so forth. This goes on all the time because we are alive. That’s just how the mind works. It’s impossible to stop this free flow of thoughts. And we wouldn’t want to stop it even if we could. That would mean we are dead. Then, second, the reflective thoughts. When you stop one of the pop-up thoughts and play with it, develop it, and work with it, you have a reflective thought. These are the thoughts that can give you a lot of trouble. These are the thoughts that are the waves of your sea mind. It seems almost impossible to control these thoughts. But I’ll show you how to do it.

You simply return to one. You all know how to do that. As you have already experienced, once you get lost in a reflective thought, you may follow it for quite some time without realizing it. But eventually you will realize you are stuck with a reflective thought, and then all you have to do is return to one or whatever your meditation subject happens to be.

But what about when you’re not meditating? What about in the middle of the night? Your thoughts are crashing about in your head every which way and you can’t sleep they’re so busy. How do you deal with them then? Well, one way is to get up and begin meditating. But there’s another way. And as I said, it’s easy.

All you have to do is label the thought with one of three labels: positive, negative, or neutral. Or wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral. Or happy, unhappy, or neutral. Every thought can be identified and labeled with one of these three labels.

The positive and neutral thoughts usually aren’t a problem. The big waves are the negative thoughts. These are the ones that are most difficult to deal with. But you’ve also got to be careful with the neutral thoughts because they can go either way.

As soon as you label a thought as positive, negative, or neutral, you gain control over it. Then, once the thought is appropriately labeled, you can deal with it. Labeling your thoughts is the way you control them. For instance, if you’re an inmate at an institution, say you’re lying down trying to sleep, but you’re thinking of your wife who didn’t visit you last Saturday as expected. What was wrong? You can’t get to a phone until next Friday. Why didn’t she come? And you can’t stop thinking about it and begin to imagine all sorts of crazy possibilities. Your thoughts develop into a nightmare that you can’t control. At this point, stop. Label that thought as negative. Then figure it out. “I can’t deal with this thought about why my wife didn’t visit me last Saturday because I don’t have all the facts. And I won’t be able to get all the facts until I can get to a phone. And I won’t be able to get to a phone until Friday. So I stop this negative thought now, and take it up again on Friday after I make that phone call. Basta! That’s all there is to it. By labeling your thoughts, you’re able, in a sense, to make an appointment with that troublesome thought and deal with it in your own time. You take control. Before you labeled the thought, it had control. But by putting a label on the thought, you rob it of its power and take the power back for yourself. And that’s all there is to it!

So to repeat this wonderful centuries-old Buddhist teaching: Label your thoughts as positive, negative, or neutral. And then deal with the thoughts as you wish in your own time.

Labeling your thoughts is another way to purify your mind. By doing this practice, slowly the storm raging in your mind calms down. The waves of your sea mind get weaker and weaker. Soon there are no waves. And your sea mind becomes silent and still, like a plate of glass. Now the moon up above can be perfectly reflected upon the surface of your sea mind. This image — the moon reflecting on the sea — is a classic metaphor of enlightenment. Listen to how Dogen Zenji puts it in the Genjo Koan: A person’s becoming enlightened is like the reflection of the moon in water. The moon does not get wet nor is the water ruffled. Though the moonlight is vast and far-reaching, it is reflected in a few drops of water. The entire moon and heavens are reflected in even a drop of dew on the grass or in a drop of water. Our not being obstructed by enlightenment is like the water’s not being obstructed by the moon. Our not obstructing enlightenment is like the non-obstruction of the moonlight by a dewdrop. The depth of the water is equal to the height of the moon. As for the length or brevity [of the reflection], you should investigate the water’s vastness or smallness and the brightness or dimness of the moon.

Mind-purification practice is something you can do at all times and especially during meditation. If you find, while meditating, that you’re being nagged by a troublesome thought, label it, deal with it, and then go back to your meditation. You may find you want to deal with that thought right then and there. Okay, do it. But notice now you’re in control and not the thought.

Further Refinements
Rate the thoughts of each category. Begin with low-rated neutral thoughts: Rate them numerically. Then go to negative thoughts and similarly rate them. Then turn to your positive thoughts and rate them.

Then look at the whole salad of your thoughts. What do you have? What does it — the salad — tell you about yourself? Is it where you want to be? Where do you want to be? What changes need to be made? What needs to be added? What needs to be taken away?

Apply this method to your words,

your speech,

your acts.

Try to find a place in your home — or if you are an inmate in prison, in a corner of your cell — that you can use for the place where you do zazen. Set up a candle, an image or photo of the Buddha or of Christ, a flower (or a piece of fruit or vegetable, like a jalapeño, if you are in a prison and not allowed flowers), a stick of incense, and presto, you have an altar. Try to sit at least once a day. Go through as many counts of ten as you like. Begin with only a few minutes daily. It doesn’t matter if you sit for only a few minutes. What matters is the consistency of daily sitting. Slowly you will want to increase the time you spend sitting, until eventually you will be sitting for around a half hour, or about the time it takes for a six-inch stick of incense to burn. A half hour is a comfortable time to sit. After a half hour your legs may get tired and sore. It’s good to take a break and stretch your legs. Walk around a bit. There is a formal way of doing this. It is called kinhin, or walking meditation.

Kinhin
After sitting for a period, rise — still keeping your mind focused on your counting — and begin slow walking. Place your hands across your chest, with the left hand closed around your thumb, and place your right hand over the left hand. This is known as the shashu mudra. Keep your elbows slightly away from your body. Begin your slow walk with your left foot, take a half step; follow with the right foot and another half step. Calibrate your steps with your breathing and counting. One half-step, one breath, and the count of one. The next half-step, another breath, and the count of two. Continue to ten, and then go back to one. Do kinhin for a few minutes, then bow in place, keeping your hands in shashu, then begin walking at a regular pace and counting. Do this for a few more minutes. Let kinhin last about five minutes. Then you may go back to your sitting zazen.

That’s It!
That is zazen. All you need to know. Everything else is commentary. Everything else is extra. As you do this practice, bit by bit your life will be purified. Your life will change and take on new meaning. You’ll find you are no longer a slave to your passions, to your thoughts, to your instincts. You are no longer a slave to your cravings. Bit by bit you take control. You now can do anything you wish to do. If you are addicted to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, you can now begin to quit and take control these habits. You will be able to deal with whatever problems come up because, as your life and your mind are purified, you’ll be able to see things as they are. Such is the power of zazen. You can deal with anything that comes before you. Life is new, different, vibrant, exciting, simply wonderful. This is true even if you’re locked up in prison. No prison bars can contain the inner freedom you realize.

And the greatest thing of all is that your actions and even your thoughts are no longer controlled or influenced by other people or anything else outside of you. You will be in control. And you will be at peace.