What To Do During Zazen (To Do or Not To Do …)

In the alleys of Zen meditation instructions, surprisingly varied opinions exist regarding what one should do while sitting in zazen.

If we refer to classical Zen texts as a kind of instructional manuals of Zen sitting, one of those classics called "Zazengi" says, "When a thought arises, be aware of it." Also, in Dogen Zenji's famous "Fukan Zazengi," it states, "Think of no-thinking."

The idea here is to do nothing while sitting, as thoughts naturally arise. At that moment, the key is not to actively engage with what arises, whatever their contents are. This is because such engagement divides thoughts and oneself, which is contrary to what zazen aims at. The other side of the coin is that, when you don’t engage with what arises, there is no division, whatsoever, between you and the thoughts.

If you notice yourself engaging in thoughts, just noticing it is sufficient. Becoming aware, getting caught up again, becoming aware again ... this is more than good as a decent practice in zazen.

One may be instructed to, rather than just to be aware, "be the breath" or "be the koan." To "be" here means to wholeheartedly attend to a selected “object (other than thoughts),” thereby dropping the imaginary boundary between "me" and that object (such as breath or koan)”, resulting in the re-merging of the above two into one, placing them to he place they originally were.

Back to Dogen Zenji's “Think of no-thinking,” this essentially states that, when thoughts arise while sitting, they are not "thoughts" as such, as long as you don’t engage with them. He also terms this as "non-thinking." This could have a potential of being a powerful Koan as well, when one asks “What is non-thinking?”