Zazen : simply sitting

Shikantaza, only sitting, zazen, seated meditation. Simply sitting in the posture Buddha adopted when he experienced awakening, without following any thoughts, without any object.

This is the heart of the practice in our school, pure and undecorated meditation. It is not reflective meditation, such as we conceive it in the West, but meditative absorption. We are one with zazen, we let the body and mind fall away, meaning, of course, all our daily worries, our mental ruminations, and also all concepts that we may have about Zen and zazen; and we dive totally into the moment, which is pure presence. We “cast aside the old man” and open ourselves to the reality of here and now.

For thousands of years, in India, the ascetics practiced meditation, but what characterizes zazen is that it is directly linked to the awakening of the Buddha. It is the expression, the realization of this awakening.

Katia Kôren Robel.