Editing Zazen (section)

==Practice==

===Five types of Zazen===
[[Philip Kapleau|Kapleau]] 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'', '[[Little Vehicle|small vehicle]]' practices;
* ''daijo'', zazen aimed at gaining insight into true nature;
* ''saijojo'', [[shikantaza]].<ref>{{cite book  | last1 = Kapleau | first1 = Philip |author-link=Philip Kapleau| title = The Three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment | year = 1989 | publisher = Anchor Books | location = New York |pages=48–53| isbn = 0-385-26093-8}}</ref>

=== Sitting ===
[[File:Hsuan Hua Hong Kong 1.jpeg|thumb|A young master [[Hsuan Hua]] sitting in full [[Lotus position|lotus]]]]

In Zen temples and monasteries, practitioners traditionally sit zazen together in a meditation hall usually referred to as a ''[[zendo]]'', each sitting on a cushion called a ''[[zafu]]''<ref name="zmm"/> which itself may be placed on a low, flat mat called a ''[[zabuton]]''.<ref name="zmm"/> Practitioners of the Rinzai school sit facing each other with their backs to the wall, while those of the Sōtō school sit facing the wall or a curtain.<ref>{{cite book  | last1 = Kapleau | first1 = Philip | author-link=Philip Kapleau| title = The Three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment | year = 1989 | publisher = Anchor Books | location = New York |page=10(8)| isbn = 0-385-26093-8}}</ref> Before taking one's seat, and after rising at the end of a period of zazen, a Zen practitioner performs a ''gassho'' bow to their seat, and a second bow to fellow practitioners.<ref>{{cite web|last=Warner|first=Brad|author-link=Brad Warner|title=How To Sit Zazen|url=http://www.dogensanghalosangeles.org/dsla/zazen.html|publisher=Dogen Sangha Los Angeles|access-date=April 1, 2015|archive-date=March 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316031504/http://www.dogensanghalosangeles.org/dsla/zazen.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The beginning of a period of zazen is traditionally announced by ringing a bell three times (''shijosho''), and the end of the period by ringing the bell either once or twice (''hozensho''). Long periods of zazen may alternate with periods of [[kinhin]] (walking meditation).<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last= Heine |editor1-first=Steven|editor2-last=Wright |editor2-first=Dale S.|editor-link1=Steven Heine|title=Zen Ritual : Studies of Zen Buddhist Theory in Practice: Studies of Zen Buddhist Theory in Practice|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2007|page=223|isbn=9780198041467}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maezumi|first1=Hakuyu Taizan|last2=Glassman|first2=Bernie|author-link1=Taizan Maezumi|author-link2=Bernie Glassman|title=On Zen Practice: Body, Breath, Mind|publisher=[[Wisdom Publications]]|pages=48–49|year=2002|isbn= 086171315X}}</ref>

=== Posture ===
The posture of zazen is seated, with crossed legs and folded hands, and an erect but settled spine.<ref name="zmbm">{{cite book|last=Suzuki|first=Shunryū|author-link=Shunryū Suzuki|title=Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind|title-link=Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind|page=8|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]]|year=2011|isbn=978-159030849-3}}</ref> The hands are folded together into a simple [[mudra]] over the belly.<ref name="zmbm"/> In many practices, the practitioner breathes from the ''[[Dantian|hara]]'' (the [[center of gravity]] in the belly) 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:<ref name="zmm"/>
* ''[[Lotus position|Kekkafuza]]'' (full-lotus)
* ''[[Lotus position#Variations|Hankafuza]]'' (half-lotus)
* ''[[Siddhasana#Variations|Burmese]]'' (a seated posture in which the ankles are placed in front of the sitter)
* ''[[Seiza]]'' (a kneeling posture using a bench or [[zafu]])

It is not uncommon for modern practitioners to practice zazen in a chair,<ref name="zmm"/> sometimes with a wedge or cushion on top of it so that one is sitting on an incline, or by placing a wedge behind the lower back to help maintain the natural curve of the spine.

====Samadhi====
{{Main|Samadhi#Buddhism}}

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 ''[[Dantian|hara/tanden]]''<ref name="DogenLeighton2010">{{cite book|author1=Eihei Dogen|author2-link=Taigen Dan Leighton|author2=Taigen Dan Leighton|author3-link=Shōhaku Okumura|author3=Shōhaku Okumura|author4-link=John Daido Loori|author4=John Daido Loori|title=Dogen's Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9nqqLwjgzQoC&pg=PA349|date=16 March 2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-86171-670-8|pages=348–349|author1-link=Dogen}}</ref> with [[Anapanasati|mindfulness of breath]] (''ānāpānasmṛti'') exercises such as [[Ganana|counting breath]] (''sūsokukan'' 数息観) or just watching it (''zuisokukan'' 随息観).{{refn|group=note|The Japanese Rinzai master [[Takuan Sōhō]] was critical of the practice of placing the mind below the navel (at the hara/tanden) in concentration. He said, "...viewed from the highest standpoint of Buddhism, putting the mind just below the navel and not allowing it to wander is a low level of understanding, not a high one. [...] If you consider putting your mind below your navel and not letting it wander, your mind will be taken by the mind that thinks of this plan. You will have no ability to move ahead and will be exceptionally unfree."<ref>Takuan Sōhō, The Unfettered Mind, Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman, translated by William Scott Wilson, page 18, Shambhala Publications, 2012</ref>}} [[Mantra]]s are also sometimes used in place of counting. Practice may be continued in one of these ways until there is adequate "[[Ekaggata|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|Dainin Katagiri Roshi]] taught watching the breath, and [[Shunryū Suzuki]] taught counting the breath, others such as [[Kōshō Uchiyama]] and [[Shōhaku Okumura|Shohaku Okumura]] taught neither counting nor watching the breath.<ref>Sōtō Zen: an Introduction to Zazen, pages 16-17, Sotoshu Shumucho, 2002</ref> According to Okumura, one does not put one's focus on the breath (nor any object at all): "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."<ref>Sōtō Zen: an Introduction to Zazen, page 17, Sotoshu Shumucho, 2002</ref>{{refn|group=note|Similarly, according to the famous East Asian śāstra, the [[Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana|''Awakening of Faith'']], one does not concentrate on the breath:<br /><br />"Should there be a person who desires to practice “cessation,” he should stay in a quiet place and sit erect in an even temper. [His attention should be focused] neither on breathing nor on any form or color, nor on empty space, earth, water, fire, wind, nor even on what has been seen, heard, remembered, or conceived."<ref>The Awakening of Faith, attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, translated from the Chinese of Paramārtha by Yoshito Hakeda, page 74, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2005</ref>}}

While Yasutani Roshi states that the development of {{Nihongo|2=定力|3=jōriki}} ([[Sanskrit]] ''{{IAST|samādhibala}}''), the [[Five Strengths|power]] of concentration, is one of the three aims of zazen,<ref>Philip Kapleau, ''The three pillars of Zen''.</ref> Dogen warns that the aim of zazen is not the development of mindless concentration.<ref name="Bielefeldt1990">{{cite book|author=Carl Bielefeldt|title=Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dw0IdBImyRYC&pg=PA137|date=16 August 1990|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-90978-6|pages=137–}}</ref>

====Koan introspection====
{{main|Koan}}

In the [[Rinzai]] school, after having developed awareness, the practitioner can now focus their consciousness on a koan as an object of meditation. While koan practice is generally associated with the Rinzai school and Shikantaza with the [[Sōtō]] school, many Zen communities use both methods depending on the teacher and students.

====Shikantaza====
{{main|Shikantaza}}

Zazen is considered the heart of Japanese Sōtō [[Zen]] [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] practice.<ref name="hcz1"/><ref>Deshimaru, Taisen (1981) The Way of True Zen, American Zen Association, {{ISBN|978-0972804943}}</ref> The aim of zazen is just [[sitting]], that is, suspending all judgemental thinking and letting words, ideas, images and thoughts pass by without getting involved in them.<ref name="hcz2"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Suzuki|first=Shunryū|author-link=Shunryū Suzuki|title=Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind|title-link=Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind|pages=15–16|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]]|year=2011|isbn=978-159030849-3}}</ref> Practitioners do not use any specific object of meditation,<ref name="hcz2"/> instead remaining as much as possible in the present moment, aware of and observing what is occurring around them and what is passing through their minds. In his ''[[Shobogenzo]]'', [[Dogen]] says, "Sitting fixedly, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Nonthinking. This is the art of zazen."<ref>{{cite web |title=Sotan Tatsugami Roshi Dogen |url=https://web.stanford.edu/~funn/Sotan.Tatsugami.html |website=web.stanford.edu |access-date=29 August 2023 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829160749/https://web.stanford.edu/~funn/Sotan.Tatsugami.html |url-status=live }}</ref>