Zazen: A Complete Introduction | How to Sit, What to Do If You Can’t Cross Your Legs, and How It Differs from Meditation

Sit, and do nothing. That one simple thing has become the hardest thing we do. We can justify ourselves when we are doing something. But when we are doing nothing, an explanation is demanded almost immediately. Zazen is an old method for setting that demand down. For fifteen hundred years, the way of sitting has barely changed.

💎 The One Line That Holds This Article Zazen is not a technique for emptying the mind. It is the practice of stopping the attempt to empty it.

The Answer, in Three Lines Zazen means folding the legs, standing the spine, holding the eyes half-open, and watching the breath without controlling it — and if your legs will not fold, a chair is perfectly acceptable. Wandering thoughts are not to be erased, only not followed. Meditation research as a whole shows moderate evidence for benefit, but nothing can be asserted about zazen alone.

1. What Is Zazen — Practicing “Nothing”

Zazen means sitting in a settled posture, with the breath and body composed, and remaining there without trying to achieve anything. Trace the word back and you arrive at the Indian dhyāna — translated into Chinese as chan, into Japanese as zen. Its meaning: quiet contemplation. To be still, and let thought settle.

Because it was done seated, it became za-zen — sitting zen. One thing is worth saying before anything else. Zazen is not a technique for making the mind blank. Many people say, “My thoughts never stop, so I must not be suited to this.” But thoughts not stopping is evidence that your brain is working correctly.

What zazen does is not erase thought. It is to stop being carried off by thought. To stay seated. To stay here. That is all.

2. Zazen vs Meditation — The Question of Whether There Is a Destination

“How is zazen different from meditation?” It is the most common question of all. Broadly speaking, zazen is a form of meditation. But set beside modern mindfulness, its attitude is unmistakably different.

The real difference sits in that last row. Mindfulness names a destination: less stress, more focus. Shikantaza, the practice Dogen taught, names none. Just sit. You do not sit in order to attain awakening; the sitting itself is already it. At first glance this is an extremely unhelpful teaching.

And yet, as a release from the pressure to produce a result, it may be the posture modern life needs most. For the wider doorway into practice, see A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness Meditation: A Complete Introduction.

3. The History of Zazen — From Bodhidharma to Dogen

The story begins with Bodhidharma. A monk said to have travelled from India to China around the sixth century. At Shaolin on Mount Song, the legend says, he faced a wall and sat for nine years. (Better read not as history but as a story about what facing a wall means in Zen.) Zen grew enormously in China, and reached Japan in earnest in the Kamakura period.

Eisai (1141–1215) brought Rinzai; Dogen (1200–1253) brought Soto. Dogen sailed for Song China in 1223 and studied under Rujing at Mount Tiantong. What he received there was a phrase: shinjin datsuraku — body and mind, dropped away. Returning in 1227, he immediately wrote the Fukanzazengi — “Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen.”

Note the word: universally. Japanese zazen begins with an invitation to everyone, not only to monks. In 1244 Dogen founded Eihei-ji in the mountains of Echizen. Nearly eight hundred years later, people are still sitting there in the same posture.

4. Soto vs Rinzai — Facing the Wall, or Facing Each Other

Japan has three main Zen schools, and they genuinely sit differently.

So if you are considering a temple sitting and wondering whether you face the wall or not — that is a matter of school. Neither is more correct. In Rinzai you are given a koan, a question that logic cannot dissolve, and you sit with it. What is the sound of one hand?— a question shaped by Hakuin Ekaku in the Edo period.

In Soto, no question is handed to you. The sitting is the question, and also the answer.

5. How to Do Zazen — The Five Points

Here is the practice itself. There are only five things to remember.

① Legs — fold them if they fold, and don’t if they don’t

• Full lotus (kekkafuza): each foot on the opposite thigh. The most stable, and impossible for many hips
• Half lotus (hankafuza): one foot on the opposite thigh. The most common form in Japanese sitting groups
• Seiza: kneeling. Familiar in Japan, and kind to the spine
• Chair zazen: soles flat on the floor, back away from the backrest (see chapter 6)

In every case, raise your hips until your knees rest lower than your hips. Get that right and eighty percent of the posture is already done.

② Hands — the hokkai jō-in

Rest the right hand palm-up below the navel. Lay the left palm on top of it, and let the tips of the thumbs touch lightly. An oval forms. That oval opens when you are getting drowsy, and presses together when you are tense. It is, in other words, a small instrument reporting your state.

③ Back — hang it, don’t stack it

If you think “straighten the spine,” the chest juts and the low back over-arches. Instead, imagine the crown of your head suspended by a thread from the ceiling. Tuck the chin slightly. Ears over shoulders, nose over navel. At the start, sway the torso widely left and right, reducing the arc until you stop at the center.

This is sayū yōshin — a way of locating your own vertical.

④ Eyes — half-open. Not closed

This surprises most people. In zazen, the eyes stay open. Held half-open, the gaze falls naturally to the floor about a meter ahead. The reason is plain. Closed eyes invite sleep — and wider daydreaming. Keeping them open is also the Zen posture itself: being still without shutting the world out.

⑤ Breath — settle it, then let it go

Once seated, begin with kanki issoku — a narrow mouth, and a full exhale. A few times. Then simply breathe through the nose. Do not manage it. You do not need to breathe deeply. If the breath is shallow, let it be shallow. Watching it is enough.

6. Chair Zazen — For Anyone Whose Legs Won’t Cross

“I can’t sit cross-legged, so I assumed zazen was closed to me.” We hear this constantly. To be direct: a chair is completely fine. Most temple sitting groups now provide chairs. For anyone with knee or hip pain, or a surgical history, forcing the legs into a fold is further from the spirit of Zen, not closer.

The essentials of chair zazen:

1. Keep your back off the backrest (leaning rounds the spine)
2. Plant both soles flat on the floor (use a book or block if they don’t reach)
3. Knees at about 90°, roughly a fist and a half apart
4. Sit forward on the front half of the seat so the pelvis can stand upright
5. Hands in the same hokkai jō-in, below the navel

Dogen described the forms in fine detail in the Fukanzazengi. But not because awakening lives in the shape of your ankles. Those forms are the answer to a practical question: what lets a person sit, without pain, for a long time? If the answer for you is a chair, then a chair is correct.

7. Susokukan — Counting the Breath, the First Tool

Shikantaza asks you to just sit, which means, strictly, doing nothing. But for a beginner, “do nothing” offers nothing to hold. So Zen has long used susokukan — breath counting. The method is bare. Count each exhale: one, two, up to ten. At ten, return to one. If you lose the count, return to one without reproach.

That is the whole instruction. The value of counting is that it tells you where you are. If you can count, the mind is here. If you cannot, it had gone somewhere. Counting is, in effect, a compass showing the mind’s current position. When it grows familiar, stop counting. Notice that the breath is still there without being counted.

That is the doorway into shikantaza.

8. What to Do with Wandering Thoughts — Don’t Chase, Don’t Fight

Three minutes in, they arrive without fail. Tomorrow’s schedule. The reply you didn’t make. What is left in the refrigerator. There is no need whatsoever to think failed again. Zen offers an image. Thoughts are clouds crossing the sky. Try to erase a cloud and the whole sky becomes a battlefield.

Let them drift, and the sky is doing nothing at all. The actual method is two steps.

1. Notice — the instant you realize you were thinking, you are already back
2. Return — to the breath, or the count. Do not grade the noticing

That round trip is the content of zazen. If you returned fifty times in one sitting, you practiced fifty times. There is also a family of practice built not around removing thought but around observing it. Its attitude differs from zazen, but the two illuminate each other.

9. The Science of Zazen — What Happens in Brain and Nervous System

Here we separate what is known from what is not.

What research suggests (evidence: moderate)

The finding reported most consistently across meditation studies concerns the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is the circuitry that keeps thinking about you when you are doing nothing. Past regret. Future worry. Self-assessment.— the machinery behind “my head won’t be quiet.”

Brewer and colleagues (2011, PNAS) reported that experienced meditators showed reduced activity in main DMN nodes alongside stronger coupling with regions tied to self-monitoring and cognitive control. The second thread is breath and the autonomic nervous system. Slow breathing is known to favor parasympathetic activity by way of the vagus nerve.

Sitting, standing the spine, letting the breath deepen on its own — that alone has a physiological basis.

What is not known (evidence: weak to unestablished)

• Large randomized trials on zazen specifically are very few. Most findings come from mindfulness-based programs such as MBSR
• So the phrasing “zazen improves X” currently outruns the evidence
• Neuroscience has not measured anything corresponding to “awakening”
• Effect sizes vary widely between studies, and results shift depending on how control groups are designed

The wider picture is in Meditation and Neuroscience.

10. The Claimed Benefits of Zazen — Drawing the Line Honestly

An honest sorting of what is commonly said.

What MuZenCosmos holds to is a single rule: do not say what cannot be said. Zazen is a remarkable practice. Being remarkable, it needs no embellishment.

11. Zazen and the Cosmos — Why Sitting Makes You Smaller

Now we step outside science. Something curious happens when you sit. You become slightly smaller. Not in any diminishing sense. Before sitting, our world is entirely full of us. Tomorrow’s meeting, last year’s failure — all of it inside my story. But after thirty minutes, when you lift your eyes, there is a tree moving outside the window.

That tree was there the whole time you sat. With no relation to your story. Zen called this “forgetting the self.” Dogen’s famous lines: To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. (Shobogenzo, Genjokoan) To learn yourself is to forget yourself.

It closely resembles what happens when we look up at a sky full of stars. When your troubles feel small under the stars, the troubles have not been solved. Only their placement has changed. Zazen may simply be a way of doing the same thing from the inside, without going out to find the stars.

If that view draws you, see The Complete Guide to Spirituality.

12. Safety and Cautions for Zazen

Even a quiet practice has lines worth keeping.

• Do not endure pain. Persisting through heavy numbness can, in some postures, mean compressing a nerve. Change your legs when it becomes strong. The body outranks the form
• Stand up slowly. Rising abruptly after long sitting is a common cause of falls. Stretch the legs, shake them out, then stand
• If you have knee, hip or low-back conditions or surgical history, start with a chair. There is no reason to force a fold
• Unpleasant experiences do occasionally occur. A systematic review of adverse events in meditation practices (Farias et al., 2020) found that roughly 8% of practitioners reported some unpleasant experience — rising anxiety, resurfacing memories, a thinning sense of reality. If you live with strong anxiety, trauma or dissociative tendencies, begin only with professional guidance
• Long or extended silent retreats are not beginner territory. Start with 5–15 minutes. Adding sessions is safer than adding minutes
• Do not substitute it for treatment. If you are under care, speak with your clinician

13. Choosing Your First Zazen Cushion — A Five-Point Checklist

Zazen needs no expensive equipment. But whether a zafu suits your body changes, unmistakably, whether you keep sitting.

1. Is the height right for you? The test is simple: when seated, your knees should rest lower than your hips. The stiffer your hips, the taller you need. Fold a household cushion in half first, learn the height that works, then buy
2. Have you checked the filling? Buckwheat hulls settle into a firm, grounded shape but compress over time; kapok keeps springing back; foam stays uniform. It is a choice between “stability by sinking” and “stability by push-back”
3. Have you dealt with the hardness of the floor? Sitting straight on hardwood punishes ankles and knees. One layer under the zafu — a cushion or thick mat — changes how sustainable it feels
4. If you’ll use a chair, have you checked seat depth and foot contact? A deep, sinking sofa is unsuitable. Choose a flat chair at a height where your soles reach the floor, or add a block
5. Does the cover come off and wash? You will use it daily. A removable cover matters more with every month

On building the habit itself, see Making Meditation a Habit. Right height, one layer underneath, washable — meet those three and your preparation is complete.

About This Article (Disclaimer & Advertising Notice)

This article is informational content introducing the culture, history and practice of Zen. It is not a substitute for medical care or psychotherapy. Nothing written here about zazen is intended to guarantee improvement in any illness, symptom or psychological condition, and individual responses vary. If you live with persistent anxiety or low mood, with trauma or dissociative tendencies, or are under psychiatric or psychosomatic care, please consult a professional before practicing. Readers with knee, hip or low-back pain or surgical history should choose chair zazen rather than forcing the legs into a fold. This article does not advocate joining any particular school or religious organization.

[Advertising] This article may in future contain affiliate links (links introducing products or services). Purchases made through such links carry no additional cost to readers.

14. Consider, for Example, a Situation Like This

To make it concrete, let us imagine one general situation (a deliberately fictional, generalized illustration — not anyone’s actual account). Suppose there are nights when you get into bed and your head will not stop. The body is tired. You want to sleep, but tomorrow’s logistics and today’s conversation replay in turns.

At such moments, most people try to stop thinking. And the more they try, the more they notice that they are still thinking — a closed loop. Now suppose you borrow the form of zazen. Two things only. Get out of bed and sit on the floor. And count only the exhale, up to ten. Not in order to sleep.

You sit in order not to be trying to sleep. After five minutes, very often, the thoughts have not disappeared. But sometimes there is now a narrow gap between you and them. “I’m preoccupied with tomorrow’s schedule.”— it becomes sayable. That is a small migration: from being inside the thinking to watching it.

Whether sleep follows varies from night to night. But a sleepless night has changed from a night spent lying down to a night spent sitting. That difference is not as small as it sounds.

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FAQ (Ten Common Questions)

Q1. What is zazen, exactly?

Sitting in a settled posture, with breath and body composed, remaining present without trying to achieve anything. It descends from the Indian dhyāna (quiet contemplation) by way of China, and developed its own forms in Japan. It is not a technique for emptying the mind, but the practice of stopping the attempt to empty it.

Q2. Is it written 座禅 or 坐禅 in Japanese?

Both, for the same practice. Soto Zen and Zen institutions generally prefer 坐禅, because 坐 denotes the act of sitting itself, while 座 originally meant the seat or place. General Japanese usage favors 座禅 for reasons of standard-character policy.

Q3. How does zazen differ from meditation?

Zazen is a form of meditation, but the relation to goals differs. Where mindfulness names a destination — cultivating awareness — Soto’s shikantaza treats the sitting itself as the whole practice. Zazen is also performed with eyes half-open, and normally without audio guidance.

Q4. Can I practice zazen if I can’t cross my legs?

Yes. Seiza or a chair is fine, and most temple sitting groups provide chairs. What matters is not the shape of your legs but that the knees rest lower than the hips and the spine stands. Enduring pain to achieve a fold moves you away from the spirit of the practice, not toward it.

Q5. How long should I sit?

Five to fifteen minutes is plenty at first. A traditional period in a Zen hall runs about forty minutes — the unit of experienced sitters. Adding sessions works better than adding minutes, and is physically safer.

Q6. What do I do when thoughts come?

Do not try to erase them. The moment you notice you were thinking, you have already returned. The method is two steps: notice → return to the breath or the count. If you returned fifty times in one sitting, you practiced fifty times. The key is not to grade the noticing.

Q7. Are the eyes open or closed?

Half-open, with the gaze falling naturally to the floor about a meter ahead. Closed eyes invite drowsiness and wider daydreaming. The form also expresses something central: being still without shutting the world out.

Q8. Will I be struck with the kyosaku stick?

In ordinary public sittings the stick is used only when a practitioner requests it, usually by placing the palms together. It is not punishment but a help against drowsiness or scattered attention. Placement and form vary by school and hall, and you may simply say beforehand that you would rather not receive it.

Q9. Can a complete beginner attend a temple sitting?

Many temples hold beginner sessions that open with an explanation of the forms. Wear something loose that covers the knees. Reservation requirements, chair availability and timing vary by temple, so check in advance.

Q10. Do I need religious belief to practice zazen?

No. Dogen titled his instructions universally recommended precisely because the practice is open. That said, zazen grew up inside Buddhism, and approaching that background with respect tends to deepen the sitting rather than complicate it.

In Closing | Sitting Is Not an Answer. It Is a Posture

We have gone a long way into the details. What is worth carrying away is one thing. It is enough to sit. You need not sit well. The thoughts need not stop. The legs need not fold. Nothing needs to work. For fifteen hundred years, countless people have sat in this same posture, never quite getting it right, and gone on sitting.

Tonight, you can stand at the very back of that line for five minutes. That is the whole method. One cushion on the floor. (Or a chair — that is fine.) Suspend your back from the ceiling, hold the eyes half-open, and look at the floor a meter ahead. Then count the exhale: one, two, up to ten.

When you lose it, return to one.— that is all. When you finish, look once out of the window. Through all five minutes that you sat, the sky was there the entire time. Remembering that is the quietest gift zazen gives back to us.

References

1. Dogen, Fukanzazengi (“Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen”), c. 1227. (Written immediately after Dogen’s return from China; the founding text on posture, breath and attitude in Japanese zazen.)
2. Dogen, Shobogenzo, various editions. (The fascicles “Genjokoan,” “Zazengi” and “Zazenshin” set out shikantaza and the phrase shinjin datsuraku, body and mind dropped away.)
3. James H. Austin, Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness, MIT Press, 1998. (A neurologist’s large-scale attempt to hold his own Zen practice and brain science side by side.)
4. Judson A. Brewer, Patrick D. Worhunsky, Jeremy R. Gray, Yi-Yuan Tang, Jochen Weber & Hedy Kober, “Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity,” PNAS, 108(50), 2011, pp. 20254–20259. (The key study reporting reduced default mode network activity in experienced meditators.)
5. Miguel Farias, Edward Maloney, Mansur Ali & Thomas Nicholson, “Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 142(5), 2020, pp. 374–393. (A systematic review of the frequency and character of unpleasant experiences in meditation practice.)

MuZenCosmos — Where the Cosmos Meets Silence | Sitting is not an answer. It is a posture.