The heart of Zen practice is zazen, or sitting practice.
At Burning House, each of our zazen periods lasts 40 minutes. If you're just starting zazen practice, this may be too physically or mentally demanding. Some people may find that their minds are so scattered and anxious that even five minutes seems like an eternity. That's perfectly fine. In the beginning, how long you sit is not as important as the fact that you sit regularly. If you can only sit for five minutes a day, that's ok, but make sure you sit for five minutes every day. As your mind settles down and your body becomes more flexible and resilient, gradually extend the length of your sits. When you can sit for 40 minutes at home, join us for a sit at the zendo. We sit in groups of three sitting periods, but you're welcome to stay for just one or two sits until you can sit for three in a row.
If you arrive before a group of sits, you can tell the jikijitsu that you're new to zazen and can't sit for the full period. He or she will half-strike a bell 20 minutes into the sit. At that time, you can change your position or stand and face your cushions. When the bell is struck again, sit down for the rest of the sit.
Good posture is the fundamental, indispensable, prerequisite element of sitting practice.
A certain amount of discomfort is inevitable when a body is kept still long enough to do the work of zazen. A teacher once said "Leg pain is the taste of Zen." However, Zen is not a masochistic practice, and there is no merit in suffering needlessly. If you are sitting through great pain simply because you did not adopt a proper posture, you are not benefiting your practice and will not be awarded any medals. The purpose of adopting a sitting posture is to arrange your body in such a way that only those muscles are engaged which are essential to breathing and holding your body erect. When the rest of the body is allowed to relax, it will not feel pain from accumulated stress.
We will discuss posture in some detail, but you should be aware that working on your posture can be a long -- perhaps endless -- process of refinement, not something that is learned in an afternoon. Here are three resources you can turn to for help:
A number of books have been written about Zen practice which contain detailed explanations of sitting postures and problems, with useful illustrations. Three to look at are "Zen Training" by Katsuki Sekida, "The Posture of Meditation" by Will Johnson, and later editions of "The Three Pillars of Zen" by Philip Kapleau Roshi. If, as your practice progresses, you find yourself having recurring pain in a certain part of your body, it may be helpful to refer to one of these checklists of common problems for ideas about what you may be doing wrongly.
Other sangha members may notice ways that you're hurting yourself, and offer advice. They're often speaking from painful experience and trying to help you avoid what they've gone through, so listen carefully. Make sure you understand why what you're doing is a problem and why any proposed solutions should fix it.
You are the only one who can feel what is going on in your own body. At first, you may not be listening well to what it's telling you, and may even misdiagnose yourself and come up with the wrong solution for the wrong problem. At that time, what others have to say will be very important. You may also find it helpful to sit in front of a mirror from time to time. If you look up after 15 or 20 minutes (after your body has settled into the consequences of whatever you initially asked it to do), you may find yourself looking at someone performing remarkable contortions.
However, what's most important in the end is how you feel. The physical realization that you have pain in your left side and that you can feel that your center of gravity is out of balance because you're leaning to the right will make a greater impression on you than anyone telling you about it, or even seeing it for yourself.
Your comfort with sitting will also be influenced by your general physical state; get enough exercise and try to have a good, relaxed posture in your day-to-day life. Yoga can be great help, and is worth exploring if you don't practice it already.
A final bit of good news is that discomfort in the body is often linked to or enhanced by discomfort in the mind. As your practice deepens and your mind becomes more at rest, your physical pain will decrease.
Although you may sit in one of several different postures, you will have certain common goals to apply to all of them. When you reduce posture to its basics, you have two goals:
In theory, this should be simple, but in practice, you'll find that adopting a correct posture requires careful attention and mindfulness. Even though you're trying to find the most natural position, we're so used to doing things in an unnatural way that what's natural may seem unnatural, and vice versa. Like many aspects of your practice, your posture will evolve over time as you become more and more sensitive to it. You'll make ever smaller and more subtle refinements. Follow the example of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who tries to find a new muscle to relax every day.
No matter what posture you use, you should sit with a straight back with your upper body centered over your pelvis.
Your pelvis should be gently tilted forward so you're sitting right on top of your sitting bones or a little on the front of them. Your lower body should be arranged to provide the most stable support possible, and your upper body should be placed squarely on top of it. Imagine that a string is running from the top of your head and lifting you toward the ceiling. Lift up, then gently set your torso back down. Position yourself so gravity is pulling you with equal force from all sides. If you lean in one direction, the muscles on the opposite side of your body will have to work to hold you erect. The longer they have to work, the more tired and sore they'll become. Keep your center of gravity right in the middle of your body. Try swaying from side to side until you come to rest at the center, then doing the same from front to back.
Please note that sitting with a straight back does not mean sitting with a straight spine. Your spine is not perfectly straight. The curvature of the spine differs from person to person, but in general, you should feel your spine coming out from your pelvis, curving inward in your lower back, curving out in your upper back, and curving back in as it goes into your neck. Make sure you're not making it do anything unnatural. If you experience pain in your lower back, you may find that you're letting your back collapse so that the lower back is thrust out instead of in. Pain in the upper back may be caused by tilting the head back and compressing the neck and upper spine. When you sit down, follow the path of your spine up from your seat, tucking it in all the correct directions. You'll generally find that your head wants to be turned slightly toward the floor rather than perfectly parallel to it.
You should let your eyes unfocus and relax, and let your eyelids close part of the way. Don't close your eyes completely, or you'll tend to daydream or fall asleep. Let in enough light to keep you alert, but not enough to distract you. You'll have to experiment with this; in darker settings, you may need to let in more light.
Once your upper body is in position, be careful in the placement of your arms. If your arms are long enough, you should place your hands in your lap with the palms upward and the left hand on top of the right. Let the tips of your thumbs come together as though you were holding a jewel. Make sure the upper hand is slid far enough into the palm of the right. If it's not, this will push your arms out and lift your shoulders. Your shoulders should always be pushed back and relaxed. Also, make sure that your elbows sit close to your body. Holding your elbows out will cause pain in the upper arms.
Once you've achieved this position, you should be able to let most of your muscles relax. The only ones that will be gently engaged are those in your lower torso that help keep your body erect. When you're in this position, gravity will be doing most of the work, and these muscles can work for a very long time with no discomfort. Check your whole body from time to time and see whether anything's tightened. If it has, locate it and relax it immediately. Even small tensions become huge over time.
The various sitting postures differ mainly in the arrangement of the lower body.
Crosslegged postures are practiced on at least two cushions. The knees rest on a wide, flat, square cushion called a zabuton, and the seat rests on a thicker, round cushion called a zafu, which sits on the zabuton.
When you sit on the cushions, your base will be created by a triangle formed by your two knees and your sitting bones. When the weight of your body comes down into your seat and spreads out to the legs, you have a wide, solid area of support with no single place bearing all the burden.
The importance of getting your knees down on the cushion cannot be emphasized enough. If your knees are off the cushion, the muscles in your legs are holding them up, and fatigue and pain will not be far behind. It may take some time to develop enough flexibility in your legs to get the knees down (Yoga can be helpful here), but until you do, your upper body will be supported only by the muscles in your lower torso and by leg muscles that are already busy supporting the legs. Your knees must be down on the cushion, supporting your weight. There is no option to this. If your knees cannot rest on the zabuton, you will need to place support cushions between the zabuton and your knees to avoid injury.
Your pelvis must be higher than your knees, and will be tilted forward so that you're sitting right on the bottom or slightly on the front part of the sitting bones. Tilting the pelvis forward enables it to provide good support to your torso and locks your lower back into its natural curve.
You will need to experiment to find out how high you need to sit. If your zafu is too thin or you sit too low on it, your pelvis will not be tilted far enough to provide support to the upper body, and the muscles of your back will become sore from having to take over the work of keeping you erect. If you sit too high, your base will be tipped too far forward, and your back will sway backwards out of its normal position to compensate.
Place your zafu far enough back on the zabuton so you can fit both knees on the zabuton with room to spare in front of them. Check that a line drawn between your knees would be parallel to the front edge of the zabuton. If the front side of your triangle base is twisted to one side, you will still naturally tend to look forward, toward the person across from you. With your base out of alignment, the only way you will be able to look forward is by twisting your torso, creating muscular tension.
Be careful that your knees are not too far apart, causing extra strain in the knees and upper legs, and providing less support for the torso.
Try changing the position of your legs with every sit. If your left leg is on the bottom during one sit, put your right leg on the bottom during the next sit. This will prevent excess strain on one side.
It may be helpful to get your legs in position first, then bend all the way forward from the waist, almost touching your head to the floor. Lift up slightly, reach back, and pull the cushion under you, so that your sitting bones land squarely on it. Rise from the waist vertebrae by vertebrae, letting the head come up last. This will get you solidly seated, with your back aligned and supported so you can sit up straight. After checking your center of gravity and the position of your arms, you should be ready to sit.
The traditional posture for Zen practice is the full lotus. To enter full lotus, take one foot and place it on the thigh of the opposite leg, close to the groin, then take the other foot and place it in a complimentary position on the opposite thigh.
This position offers an exceptionally stable base. The pressure of the crossed lower legs drives the knees into the cushion while lifting the pelvis into its proper position, supporting the back and allowing it to relax.
While the full lotus is the most advantageous posture for zazen, it can also be the most difficult for new students. To be able to sit comfortably in it, you will need to work on opening the knees, relaxing and extending the thigh muscles, and increasing flexibility in the ankles (the ankle of the lower leg will have to relax and bend to accommodate the upper leg). Stretching exercises to help with these goals can be found in many books on Zen and on Yoga. You may want to practice sitting in half lotus first, alternating legs to stretch each side, then sit in full lotus for short, gradually-increasing periods.
Make sure that your knees are close enough together and your feet placed high enough on your thighs to be secure. Practice barefooted; the fabric of a sock pressed against the fabric of your pants can let the upper foot slide off the leg, while the foot's flesh will grip and hold. Watch for and relax any tension in the legs and especially in the knees.
In the half lotus posture, only one foot is brought onto the thigh of the opposite leg, and the other foot is placed under the thigh of its opposite.
This can be easier than the full lotus position, but it is asymmetrical and can lead to misalignment of the spine. The adjustments needed to compensate for this can lead to unnecessary stress. It does not provide a stable base for the upper body and is not recommended as a posture for regular use, but it can be helpful in stretching the leg muscles in preparation for full lotus.
Be careful that you don't place too much weight on the lower foot, restricting its circulation and causing it to fall asleep.
The Burmese posture places both legs flat on the cushion with the ankle of one leg in front of the ankle of the other. Pull your inner foot in tightly against the cushion so you have room to pull the outer foot against it. Getting the feet and lower legs in will let you angle the upper legs so the knees can go down.
In the Burmese posture, you must be especially conscious of getting your knees down on the cushion. Crossing your legs in full or half lotus naturally pushes the knees down, but it's much easier to leave them up in the Burmese posture. If your knees come up, you may find all your weight being carried down onto your bent ankles, which will quickly tire of the load.
You have to get your knees down and your legs in and flat on the cushion so the weight of your body is supported by your knees and the outer sides of your calves. The weight will then be distributed across a wide space, instead of running into a single spot.
Also, notice that the knee of the inner leg bears more weight and is more easily pushed down. You may need to place a small support cushion under the knee of the outer leg.
Seiza is a kneeling position in which your seat is supported by a pair of zafus, a zafu turned on its end, or a bench. In seiza, your base will be formed by your seat, your knees, and the fronts of your lower legs, which rest on a zabuton.
The most common complaint people make about seiza is that their legs fall asleep. It may help to sit far enough back on your zabuton that your feet are past its edge and bend down towards the floor, instead of being bent flat at the ankle.
As with crosslegged postures, you will need to experiment with the height of your supporting cushion or bench. If it's too high, it will tip your body forward and drive too much weight into your knees. If it's too low, your pelvis will not be in a good position to support your torso.
On a chair, your base will be formed by your seat and your feet.
Don't sit back in the chair; sit on the front edge, with your pelvis tilted forward and your sitting bones making contact with the seat as in any other posture, so your back can be straight and supported as usual. If the chair is too low, you may need to lift your pelvis with a zafu or a support cushion. Carefully place your feet so that your upper legs are parallel to the floor and your lower legs are perpendicular to it. If your feet are too close to the chair, your body will be positioned as though it is going to topple forward, and you will have to strain to remain upright.
Keep the feet far enough apart to provide a wide, firm base. As with the knees on a zabuton, make sure that a line connecting your toes would be parallel with the front edge of the chair so your whole body is facing forward without a twist in the neck or back.
Sitting on a chair is not recommended, as it is difficult to support the body and allow it to relax properly in a chair. The base that is formed by your feet is not as supportive as that formed by your knees when you sit on a cushion. Instead of the weight traveling directly down your legs and into your knees as in a position on a zabuton, the weight of your torso will be borne almost entirely by your pelvis, with very little of it traveling out the upper legs, around the knees, and down into the lower legs and feet.
However, if a medical condition requires the use of a chair or you need to change postures for a zazen period during a retreat, chairs are available. As always, use your own judgment. Don't take up a chair just because you think it's going to solve problems that you'll actually face in any position, and don't sit on a cushion going through hell with a sprained ankle out of misguided pride.
It's good to develop a checklist to run down when you hit the cushion -- "Ok, knees down to the cushion, feet in, pelvis up and tilted, spine lifted, shoulders down, head up, arms back, head tilted, looking down at the floor...", etc. You have to get in as good a position as you can at the start of a sit, since your body will have to live with it until the end. However you set yourself up at the start is what you're stuck with, so get it right. Get settled in your place quickly but mindfully. Don't be afraid to take the time to get into the correct posture, and don't dally so much that you're still squirming around after everyone else is already sitting. There's plenty of time before the bell rings, but use it well. There will be plenty of time to sit after the bell rings; don't be in such a rush to get started that you hurt yourself in the long run.
Once you've attained a proper posture, you will be ready to begin your zazen practice. Your practice will evolve over time, and may involve a number of different methods over the years. You should eventually seek the help of a qualified teacher who can offer guidance on what you're doing and what you should be doing. For now, we recommend the practice of counting your breaths.
Begin by breathing fully, deeply, and naturally. Breathe through your nose and from your abdomen, not from your chest, feeling your abdomen expand and contract. You should feel your center of energy shift to your abdomen as it becomes the focal point of both your posture and your breath. You should not hear yourself breathing (and neither should anyone else).
Once your breathing is relaxed and regular, you'll silently count each exhalation, counting up to ten and then starting over at one. Each count should last the full exhalation; instead of a short "One", you should count "Ooooooooone", "Twoooooooo", etc.
This practice will help you focus and relax your mind. You'll soon discover that your mind wanders or is busy with other thoughts. You'll suddenly realize that you've stopped counting and started daydreaming or thinking about something that's troubling you, or you may still be counting but have no idea what number you're on. You may find that you've gone right past 10 and counted to 27. When this happens, just go back to one. Don't get angry or frustrated with yourself, just start again. Every time you get lost, go back to the beginning, without blame. Thoughts and feelings will come; just let them go, and take yourself back to one. If you return to counting your breaths again and again and again, everything else will settle down and stop bothering you quite naturally. Always gently and firmly come back to the practice with all your energy.