Zazen Instructions

These instructions assume you are physically and otherwise able to sit reasonably comfortably. If this is not realistically feasible for you, please speak with one of our teachers about how to adapt meditation practice to your needs.

Zazen (sitting meditation) is very simple:

• Sit with your back straight.

• Dispense with thoughts of Buddha, enlightenment, and the laundry.

The key to getting started with mediation is to do it every day, or at least most days, even if you don’t sit for long at first.  Set a regular time if you can. Sit for five or ten minutes initially. Increase the length of your sits gradually, until you’re sitting 25 minutes at a time.

Meditation teaches us how to meditate. Be patient. It’s impossible to fail.

Sit with your back straight

There are three basic sitting options:

• Cushion. Sit with your legs crossed in the Lotus position (each foot on opposite thigh, like a pretzel); the Half Lotus position (one foot on opposite thigh with other foot on mat); or the Burmese position (both feet on mat). Choose what’s comfortable. Don’t force it.

• Kneeling (seiza position). With a meditation bench, sit on the platform with your shins underneath it, resting on your mat. With a cushion, turn it on its side, place it between your legs, and sit on it.

• Chair. Use a non-swiveling table or desk chair, not an easy chair. Sit forward a bit, ideally without using the back for support. Set your knees at a right angle, with your feet flat on the floor.

The Zen Mountain Monastery website has helpful photos of each of these positions.

Whichever option you choose, sit upright, but not rigidly. Pivot your pelvic cage forward ever so slightly to avoid slouching, while keeping your torso, neck, and head from leaning forward or back. Let your spine, with its natural curves, be like a stack of coins that may have some variations here and there but remains well-balanced. 

Lay the back of your left hand in your right palm and let the tips of your thumbs meet, forming an oval. Rest your wrists and forearms on the tops of your legs, right below your waist. Set your hands up against your belly, right above your waist. Alternatively, set your hands, palm down, on or just above your knees, with the tip of each index finger touching the tip of the thumb.

Hold your head straight, tuck your chin slightly, and relax your shoulders. Keep your mouth closed or barely open. 

Let your eyelids drop, but don’t close your eyes completely. Let your gaze fall gently, without focus, on the floor, a foot or two in front of you.

Maintain your position throughout a meditation session. If you notice you have lost your posture, correct it quietly, with as little movement as necessary. 

Dispense with thoughts of Buddha, enlightenment, and the laundry

Thoughts and sensations will come and go. Sometimes your attention will become absorbed in them or wander off with them.  Gently disengage from this absorption or wandering when you become aware of it. Do your best to let thoughts and sensations pass, without judgement, like clouds in the sky.

You may find it helpful at first to maintain awareness of your breath. This can help us avoid having a conversation with ourselves as we learn to meditate. Do not direct or control the breath, which is doing fine without our conscious help. The idea is just to give it some attention, gently and non-exclusively.  

One way to do this is to count your breaths. Mark the moment when an exhale turns into an inhale, or vice versa, by briefly and gently thinking “one.” (It does not matter whether you mark the end of the exhale or the inhale. Choose the one that seems most natural to you and stick with it for the entire meditation session.) When your breath reaches that point again, gently think “two,” and so on until 10.  Start over at 10.  You frequently will get lost in thought on your way to 10. That is okay.  Just start over at one when this happens.

Many people find relaxing their exclusive focus on thoughts and sensations, and on our thoughts about thoughts and sensations, to be challenging for some time as they begin to meditate. Relaxing this exclusive focus tends to happen gradually, as we let go of ideas of effort and achievement in meditation and settle into the practice. But thoughts, sensations, and giving them attention never completely disappear— nor is this a goal in meditation.