Sitting Instructions

    The follow is a set of sitting instructions for Zen meditation, compiled by Seiju Mamoser, founder of the Albuquerque Zen Center.

    • Za-zen (sitting practice). Sit formally—unify body and mind.
    • Posture
      1. Firm base: Burmese/Seiza/Chair.
      2. Elevated rump.
      3. Sternum up, rock forward on pelvis, up, not out.
      4. Chin tucked in, head from ceiling.
      5. Mouth closed, nostrils flared.
      6. Eyes open-half-open, resting on floor, soft focus.
      7. Hands—cradle hara.
      8. Rely on skeleton.
      9. Relax within posture.
      10. Loose clothing (at waist and leg).
      11. Basic rules during zazen: sit still, sit quietly—no movement, no unnecessary noise.
    • Breathing
      1. Use diaphragm, upper chest does not move.
      2. Let your body breathe, don’t try controlling; yet extend subtly.
      3. Be mindful of breath, short, long, without judgment.
      4. Feel with hands/hara.
      5. Complete breathing/spherical breathing.
        • Inhaling, embrace entire world within yourself.
        • Exhaling, give yourself to the world’s embrace.
        • Both inhaling and exhaling completely unify with world.
        • Give yourself to breathing unify with breathing
    • Mind
      1. Become aware of entire body/let your consciousness fill your body.
      2. Center your focus on hara, below the navel. Feel your whole body with whole body.
      3. Come alive to physical experience of breathing, sensation of inhaling and exhaling.
      4. Unifying mind and body with breathing is not observing the breath, monitoring the breath, or counting the breath, though counting can be used as a temporary tool to focus the mind away from subjective activity.
      5. Take note of thoughts, memories, emotions, but return immediately to physical awareness of breathing. Surrender thoughts, memories, emotions into breathing.
      6. Senses are alert, but passive; completely receptive, without attachment.
      7. Sit at the center of sphere of sensation.
      8. Awareness and thinking are very different activities; there is no intellectual content in zazen—mind-full-ness.
      9. Every time we attach to thoughts/memories/emotions we lose awareness of this moment of our life and our relationship with the world around us.
      10. Our practice must arise each moment at the speed of life.
      11. Don’t identify with subjective activity (thoughts, memories, emotions).
      12. When distracted, take note and surrender into breathing awareness.
    • Unify mind and body through activity
      1. Zazen is physical activity. The mind is disciplined to turn from centering on subjective mental activity to realization of immediate physical awareness (relationship).
      2. Our consciousness becomes one with your experience through unifying with our activity.
      3. Not meditation—no subject/object discriminating.
      4. The practice of coming awake in each moment of our life. No one can do this for us.
      5. Strong will: we need a great, persistent determination to cut through attachment and conceptualization.
      6. Complete relaxation is necessary for complete awareness.
      7. Complete activity—whole body-mind unified in activity of breathing—great energy.
      8. No-thinking activity; understanding is doing—manifestation—meaning and action together.
      9. Embrace your experience, no resistance, no judgment. Embrace our pain and discomfort; separating from unpleasant sensation is suffering. Relax with the sensation; keep experience fluid. Don’t become myopic, feel the unpleasant sensation within the sphere of all sensations arising this moment.
      10. Breathe spherically.
      11. Simple to describe, very difficult to do; don’t get discouraged.
      12. Begin again and again.
      13. Don’t judge or compare.