The Zazengi: Rules for Zazen
By Eihei Dogen
Translated by Dan Welch and Kazuaki Tanahashi (reprinted from The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza edited by John Daido Loori)
Practicing Zen is zazen. For zazen a quiet place is suitable. Lay out a thick mat. Do not let in drafts or smoke, rain or dew. Protect and maintain the place where you settle your body. There are examples from the past of sitting on a diamond seat and sitting on a flat stone covered with a thick layer of grass.
Day or night the place of sitting should not be dark; it should be kept warm in winter and cool in summer.
Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavor. It is not introspection.
Do not desire to become a buddha; let sitting or lying down drop away. Be moderate in eating and drinking. Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head form fire. On Mount Huangmei the Fifth Ancestor practiced zazen to the exclusion of all other activities.
When sitting zazen, wear the kashaya (the Buddha’s robe) and use a round cushion. The cushion should not be placed all the way under the legs, but only under the buttocks. In this way the crossed legs rest on the mat and the backbone is supported with the round cushion. This is the method used by all buddha ancestors fro zazen.
Sit either in the half-lotus position or in the full-lotus position. For the full-lotus put the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh. The toes should lie along the thighs, not extending beyond. For the half-lotus position, simply put the left foot on the right thigh.
Loosen your robes and arrange them in an orderly way. Place the right hand on the left foot and the left hand on the right hand, lightly touching the ends of the thumbs together. With the hands in this position, place them next to the body so that the joined thumb-tips are at the navel.
Straighten your body and sit erect. Do not lean to the left or right; do not bend forward or backward. Your ears should be in line with your shoulders, and your nose in line with your navel.
Rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth, and breathe through your nose. Lips and teeth should be closed. Eyes should be open, neither too wide, nor too narrow. Having adjusted body and mind in this manner, take a breath and exhale fully.
Sit solidly in samadhi and think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Nonthinking. This is the heart of zazen.
Zazen is not learning to do concentration. It is the dharma gate of great ease and joy. It is undefiled practice-enlightenment.
Some notes:
Zazen means seated Zen as in Zen meditation.
This document is one of two by the great thirteenth century Japanese Soto master Eihei Dogen. There have been a number of studies of these texts worth looking at. One I recommend is Carl Bielefeldt’s Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation. But the real value is found in doing it.
In addition to the full-lotus and half-lotus, the quarter-lotus (also called the half-ass lotus) where the ankle rests on the calf, the so-called burmese position where the foot is simply placed in front of the calf, and seiza where one kneels, with the buttocks resting either on the heels, a sideways zafu or a special bench; all work. Also it actually doesn’t matter which foot rests on which thigh or calf. I’ve spent the last year sitting in a chair to no obvious ill-effect beyond a bruised ego (perhaps all for the best). Whatever position, the principal remains the same, when possible, sit with the buttocks slightly higher than the knees, creating a triangulated base to support the torso. People with severe back or knee problems also “sit” quite well lying down.
Also, if you’ve taken an introductory course to Zen meditation you probably were introduced to some form of “breath counting.” Because the mind is such a monkey, many teachers, most actually, suggest beginning by attaching yr attention to yr breath. There are several ways to do this, the most succinct form is to count both inhalation and exhalation of five breath cycles: so, inhale one; exhale, two, inhale three, etc. Do again. This is in fact a complete practice, and some people continue with this for the whole of one’s life. The schools in which I’ve practiced, however, once one has attained a little concentration, go on to the practice described here, or take on koan introspection. Or both.
Generally if one wishes to take up this practice at some point it needs to become pretty much a daily thing. The minimum time to sit before seeing some sort of results is about half an hour a day most every day. Many experienced practitioners sit double or triple that.
However, when beginning, developing regularity is vastly more important that cultivating duration. So, committing to sitting ten minutes a day three days a week, and doing it, is better than deciding to sit two hours a day, and discovering all the good reasons not to do it… Get up to the half hour and you can legitimately call yourself a Zen meditator.
Connecting with a competent teacher and perhaps hitting a retreat (usually starting with one and three day retreats before moving on to seven days) are next steps worth considering…
Last, a note on “nonthinking” the summa bonum of this practice. Also terribly misleading. Many people have wasted many years trying to stop the brain’s function in a vain effort to stop thinking. There, sadly, is only one way to completely still the brain’s movement. That deadend noted, this enigmatic phrase points to something well worth the struggle. I’ve found the translation “beyond thinking” helpful. Think boundless as you think. Then let go of that, as well…
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