Zazen: How to Sit, Shikantaza and Koans Explained

What zazen means

Za means "sitting" in Japanese. Zen goes back through the Chinese Chan to the Sanskrit dhyana, absorption. Zazen is therefore literally "seated absorption," the central practice of Zen Buddhism. Unlike many forms of meditation, there is no object you direct yourself toward: no mantra, no visualization, no goal to reach.

In Zen, sitting is not a means to an end but an expression of the point itself. Dogen, the great Japanese master, put it radically: practice and awakening are not two things. Whoever sits is not practicing for later. They are sitting now. If you want to see where zazen stands among the other approaches, our overview of the four families of meditation techniques places it among the open-awareness practices.

Where zazen comes from

Legend traces Zen to Bodhidharma, an Indian monk said to have come to China in the fifth or sixth century and to have sat silently facing a cave wall near the Shaolin monastery for nine years. Historically, the Chan school becomes tangible in Tang-dynasty China. From there it spread to Korea, Vietnam and Japan.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Japanese monks brought back two lineages: Eisai the Rinzai school, Dogen the Soto school. Dogen returned from China in 1227 and soon afterward wrote the Fukanzazengi, the "Universal Recommendations for Zazen," a guide of just a few pages that is still chanted in Soto monasteries today.

Zen reached America through both doors. D. T. Suzuki's books made Rinzai ideas famous in the 1950s. Shunryu Suzuki, a Soto priest, arrived in San Francisco in 1959, founded the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962 and in 1967 opened Tassajara, often called the first Zen training monastery outside Asia. His talks became Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970), still the most widely read zazen book in English. Philip Kapleau's The Three Pillars of Zen (1965) gave Americans the first detailed practice instructions and led to the Rochester Zen Center in 1966. In Europe, the Soto teacher Taisen Deshimaru moved to Paris in 1967 and founded dojos across the continent.

Soto and Rinzai: shikantaza and koans

Both schools sit zazen, but with a different emphasis. In the Soto school the practice is called shikantaza, "nothing but sitting." You usually sit facing the wall and hold on to nothing: thoughts come and go like clouds, and you neither follow nor fight them.

In the Rinzai school you sit facing the room and also work with koans: paradoxical questions or short stories the intellect cannot solve, such as Hakuin's "What is the sound of one hand?" The koan is tested in private interview with the teacher. If you are curious about other forms of seated meditation, the differences and overlaps are in our piece on the Vipassana 10-day course.

The posture, step by step

Zazen starts with the body. The Fukanzazengi gives surprisingly concrete instructions that still hold:

• The cushion. Sit on the front third of a round cushion, the zafu. Ideally a mat, the zabuton, lies underneath so your knees rest softly.
• The legs. Both knees touch the floor. With your seat on the cushion, this makes a stable triangle of three points.
• The back. Tip the pelvis slightly forward, straighten the spine, push the crown gently toward the ceiling and draw the chin slightly back. Ears over shoulders, nose over navel.
• The hands. Lay the left hand, back down, in the right; the thumb tips touch lightly and form an oval. This is the cosmic mudra (more hand gestures in our guide to mudras). The hands rest against the lower belly.
• Mouth and eyes. The mouth is closed, the tongue rests against the palate behind the teeth. The eyes are half open, the gaze resting without focus on the floor about three feet in front of you.
• The breath. Breathe calmly through the nose. Force nothing: the breath settles into a slower rhythm on its own, and the exhale in particular grows longer.

Which leg position suits you?

Full lotus is the classic, but for most Western hips it is not a good idea. What matters more than the form is that you can sit stably and without pain. The height of the cushion decides more than the leg position: your knees should be lower than your hips.

Position	How you sit	For whom	Cushion height
Full lotus	both feet on the opposite thighs	very flexible hips	rather low
Half lotus	one foot on the thigh, the other below	moderate flexibility	medium
Burmese	both shins on the floor, one in front of the other	most beginners	medium to high
Seiza	kneeling, cushion on edge between the heels or a bench	sensitive hips	high
Chair	upright on the front edge of the seat, feet flat	knee or back problems	none

A rule of thumb from dojo practice: rather too high than too low. If you sit too low, the pelvis tips back and the back rounds. More on choosing a zafu, a bolster and the filling is in our guide to choosing a meditation cushion.

What happens in your head, and what you do with it

After a few breaths the movie starts: grocery lists, conversations, worries, plans. That is not a mistake; it is the normal state. The practice consists of not going along. You notice that you have drifted and come back to the posture and the breath, without scolding yourself. A hundred times in one sitting, if necessary.

For the beginning, the tradition offers a simple support: counting the breath. Count each exhalation from one to ten, then begin again. If you lose the thread, start over at one. At some point you drop the counting and simply sit.

In dojos and zendos, sitting periods of 25 to 40 minutes alternate with kinhin, a very slow walking meditation in which each half step takes one breath (our guide to walking meditation covers the method). Traditionally, a stick of incense burning down measured the length of a sitting period.

What the research says

Meditation is well studied; zazen specifically, much less so. A widely cited meta-analysis by Madhav Goyal and colleagues at Johns Hopkins, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2014, pooled 47 trials and found moderate evidence that mindfulness programs reduce anxiety, depression and pain: comparable to other active treatments, but no miracle. Individual studies of experienced Zen practitioners report differences in pain perception and in the activity of certain brain networks; these are small samples, not proof of healing.

Honesty also means saying this: meditation is not pleasant for everyone. Research from Brown University (Lindahl and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2017) documented that some practitioners, especially on long, intensive retreats, experience agitation, distressing memories surfacing or a sense of unreality. Anyone who is psychologically unstable right now should start gently and ideally with an experienced guide. A softer way in that moves through the body piece by piece is in our guide to the body scan.

Zazen in everyday life: at home and in a zendo

You do not need a monastery. A quiet spot, a cushion, a bare wall and a timer are enough. Many people start with ten minutes in the morning and slowly build up to twenty or thirty. Regularity beats duration: ten minutes daily changes more than an hour once a month.

If you want to sit with others, most American cities have Soto and Rinzai groups, from large centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Rochester and Minneapolis to small sitting groups in churches and community halls. Many offer free or donation-based introductions, often on a weekday evening or Sunday morning. There you learn the forms too: bowing as you enter the room, the bell, the silence. For more intensive experience there is sesshin, a multi-day silent retreat with many sitting periods a day. Sesshin are demanding and better suited to people with some practice.

How should you start with zazen?

Common experiences

Anyone who describes their first weeks of zazen, in meditation forums or in comments under introductory videos, reports almost the same things: legs falling asleep, tingling feet and a head that gets louder instead of quieter. Many also describe that this changes after a few weeks, not because the thoughts disappear but because you follow them less. Beginners at zendos are often surprised at how concrete and physical the instructions are: pelvis, chin, tongue, thumbs. And people who come from other forms of meditation like to call zazen the "barest" practice, because there is nothing to hold on to. These are typical patterns, not attributed quotes.

What we do not promise

We do not promise that zazen will enlighten you, relax you or heal you. It is a practice, not a therapy. Research on meditation shows moderate effects, not guarantees, and the data for zazen alone are thin. If you live with depression, an anxiety disorder or the effects of trauma, talk to a professional before intensive meditation practice. And no cushion in the world replaces the practice itself.

Practically: how to begin

Set up a spot. A quiet corner, a bare wall, a cushion, a mat. Always the same spot helps.

Get the height right. Knees lower than hips, pelvis tipped slightly forward. Rather too high than too low.

Start small. Ten minutes daily, counting the breath from one to ten. After two weeks you can extend.

Use a gentle timer. That way you do not look at the clock. If you like, use an incense stick as the measure, as dojos do.

Move afterward. A few minutes of slow walking, kinhin, bring your legs back and extend the stillness.

Frequently asked questions

What is zazen?

Zazen is the seated meditation of Zen Buddhism. The word means seated absorption: you sit upright, breathe naturally and let thoughts come and go without following them, with no mantra and no object.

What is the difference between shikantaza and koans?

Shikantaza, just sitting, is the Soto practice without any object, usually facing a wall. In the Rinzai school practitioners also work with koans, paradoxical questions tested in private interview with a teacher.

How long should I do zazen?

Ten minutes a day is enough to begin. In dojos and zendos a sitting period usually lasts 25 to 40 minutes, alternating with kinhin, slow walking meditation.

Do I have to sit in full lotus?

No. Burmese position, seiza on a bench or a chair all work. What matters is a stable, upright and painless posture with the knees lower than the hips.

What cushion do I need for zazen?

Traditionally a round zafu filled with kapok or buckwheat hulls on a zabuton mat. Choose the height so that your knees sit lower than your hips.

Is zazen scientifically proven?

For meditation in general there is moderate evidence of less stress, anxiety and pain. For zazen specifically there are only a few small studies, and healing effects are not proven.

Sources and further reading

• Dogen: Fukanzazengi (Universal Recommendations for Zazen), 1227; English translation by the Soto Zen Text Project.
• Shunryu Suzuki: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Weatherhill, 1970.
• Philip Kapleau: The Three Pillars of Zen, 1965.
• Taisen Deshimaru: The Zen Way to the Martial Arts and Questions to a Zen Master.
• Madhav Goyal et al.: "Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being," JAMA Internal Medicine 174 (2014).
• Jared R. Lindahl et al.: "The varieties of contemplative experience," PLOS ONE 12 (2017).
• Soto Zen Buddhism International Center: "Shikantaza (Just Sitting)," key terms.
• In the magazine: Meditation techniques · Choosing a meditation cushion · Walking meditation · Body scan · Vipassana
• Questions about an order or a product: 28@templeofdesire.com

This article describes a spiritual practice and summarizes research. It is not medical or psychological advice.