Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Zazen / Shikantaza
To sit in upright, alert, objectless awareness — ‘just sitting’ — without seeking any goal, allowing thoughts to come and go while resting as awareness itself.
Shikantaza in 5 lines: Sit upright and grounded on a cushion (or chair), spine “like a stack of coins,” hands in the oval mudra at the belly. Eyes open but lowered and soft. Breathe naturally. Just sit — fully awake, no object, no goal; let thoughts come and go without chasing or fighting them (“think of not-thinking”). When you notice you’ve drifted into a story, simply return to upright, open sitting.
What it is
Zazen is seated Zen meditation. In the Soto school, its signature form is shikantaza — literally “nothing but precisely sitting,” usually rendered “just sitting.” Unlike concentration practices, shikantaza has no object — no breath count, no mantra, no koan to solve.
You sit in a precise, grounded, upright posture, fully awake and present, and simply be sitting — neither suppressing thoughts nor following them, neither seeking enlightenment nor avoiding anything. Dogen’s radical teaching is that zazen is not a means to attain awakening later; correct sitting is the expression of awakening itself (practice-realization are one).
It operationalizes pure witnessing awareness (Life Is a Dream), present-moment being (Everything Happens in the Now), and non-striving/effortlessness (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
Dogen gave detailed instructions in Fukanzazengi (c. 1227). A faithful protocol:
- Set the place and time. A quiet space, moderate light and temperature, neither too bright nor dark. Traditionally one sits facing a wall (Soto style; the Rinzai school faces inward toward the room).
- Posture — the heart of zazen. Sit on a cushion (zafu) raising the hips. Cross the legs in full lotus (each foot on the opposite thigh) or half lotus (one foot on the opposite thigh); a kneeling bench or chair is an accepted adaptation. The knees should ground down, forming a stable tripod with the sitting bones.
- Spine, head, and hands. Straighten the spine “like a stack of coins”; lengthen the back of the neck, chin slightly in, ears over shoulders, nose over navel. Hands form the cosmic mudra (hokkai-join): left hand resting in the right palm, thumbs lightly touching to form an oval, held at the lower belly.
- Eyes and mouth. Eyes remain open but lowered, softly resting on the floor/wall about a metre ahead, unfocused — Zen deliberately keeps the eyes open to avoid drowsiness and dreaming. Mouth closed, tongue against the upper palate, breathing through the nose.
- Settle the breath, then let it be. Dogen suggests one or two deep breaths and a slight rock side to side to settle, then let breathing return to natural and quiet.
- “Think not-thinking.” The core inner instruction. Dogen quotes the dialogue: how do you think while sitting still? — “Think of not-thinking” (fushiryo). How do you think of not-thinking? Beyond thinking (hishiryo). In practice: do not chase thoughts, do not fight to stop them; let them arise and dissolve on their own while you rest as alert, open awareness. You are not the thoughts; you are the sitting awareness in which they pass.
- Just sit, without goal. Add no agenda — not even “I am meditating well.” Dogen: zazen is not “step-by-step meditation” but “the dharma gate of repose and bliss.” When the mind wanders into a story and you notice, simply return to upright, open sitting.
- Closing. Rock gently side to side, bow, and rise slowly. (Sourcing note: “think of not-thinking / beyond thinking” and “stack of coins” reflect standard renderings of Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, attributed. The protocol is a faithful description, not a reproduction of the text.)
Source & Lineage
Eihei Dogen (1200–1253) founded the Japanese Soto Zen school after studying Chan in China; he laid out zazen in Fukanzazengi and developed the philosophy of practice-realization throughout his Shobogenzo.
Shikantaza descends from his Chinese teacher Tiantong Rujing. The contrasting Rinzai school (Hakuin lineage) centres zazen on koan introspection (e.g., the sound of one hand) rather than objectless sitting.
Modern Western transmission came especially through Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, 1970, San Francisco Zen Center) and teachers like Kodo Sawaki / Kosho Uchiyama. → (Zen teachers, Dogen).
The Traditions' versions
Dzogchen / Mahamudra — “resting in natural awareness” / open presence without an object closely parallels shikantaza.,
- Krishnamurti’s “choiceless awareness” — passive, objectless attention to what is.
- Christian apophatic prayer — resting in God beyond images/thought (The Cloud of Unknowing).
- Taoist “sitting and forgetting” (zuowang) — Zhuangzi’s letting-go of self into the Way.
- Advaita self-abidance — resting as awareness itself.
Common refinements
Sitting to “get” something. Striving for enlightenment or calm contradicts shikantaza’s non-goal nature; let go of the agenda. (This is itself the hardest instruction.)
- Closing the eyes / spacing out. Soft open eyes keep you alert and out of dreamy drift; closed-eye dullness is the classic Soto pitfall (“sinking”).
- Suppressing thoughts. “Just sitting” is not blanking the mind — thoughts pass through; you neither grab nor banish them.
- Slumping or over-straining posture. Collapse causes dullness; rigidity causes pain. Aim for “relaxed uprightness.” Use a bench or chair if your knees demand it — adapted posture is fully legitimate.
- Fidgeting. Stillness of body supports stillness of mind; settle once, then hold.