Sitting

By totally just sitting, we put our whole being on the ground of interdependent origination. We do nothing but “just sitting” with whole body and mind. Dogen Zenji’s zazen (shikantaza) is a unique practice even within different kinds of meditation practices in the various forms of Buddhism. We don’t meditate. Meditation is done by our mind. But in zazen, we don’t do anything with our mind. We don’t count breath. We don’t watch breath. We don’t chant mantra. We don’t contemplate anything. We don’t try to concentrate our mind on any particular object. We have no techniques. We really just sit with both body and mind. We sit in an upright posture, breathe through the nose quietly, deeply, and smoothly from our abdomen. We keep our eyes open. Even when we sit in this posture, our mind is functioning. Our heart is beating; our stomach is digesting food. Each and every organ in our body continues to function. There is no reason that our brain stops working in our zazen. The function of our brain is to secrete thoughts. Thoughts well up in our mind moment by moment. But we refrain from doing anything with our thoughts. We just let everything come up freely and go away freely. We don’t grasp anything. We don’t try to control anything. We just sit.
-- John Daido Loori, The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza
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