How to Cultivate Awareness Through Zen Meditation
Learn the traditional practice of zazen (Zen meditation) from Zen priest Karen Maezen Miller, as shared via the same instructions handed down since 13th-century Japan, teaching simple, direct guidance on posture, breath, and mind for sitting meditation.
Introduction: Why Practice Zazen?
Meet Zen priest Karen Maezen Miller as she explores why people come to Zen meditation by instinct rather than accident, and introduces the benefits of zazen — from improved focus and emotional balance to discovering your “pure being.”
0:37
Introduction: Why Practice Zazen?
Meet Zen priest Karen Maezen Miller as she explores why people come to Zen meditation by instinct rather than accident, and introduces the benefits of zazen — from improved focus and emotional balance to discovering your “pure being.”
0:37
Finding Your Intention / The Buddha's Path
Discover what brought you to practice by examining your own intention, learning how Buddha abandoned punishing ascetic practices to simply sit down in exhaustion — and why we too often come to meditation when we’ve “run out of other options.”
08:19
Complete Posture Instructions: The Mountain Pose
Learn the fundamentals of zazen posture — from the three-point stability of the “mountain pose” to proper spine alignment, hand position (cosmic mudra), gaze, and natural belly breathing, with practice points you can return to throughout your sitting.
14:23
Guided Zazen Practice
Experience zazen together, learning to count the breath as a “living mantra,” allowing thoughts to rise and fall naturally, and practicing the instruction to simply begin again at “one” whenever the mind wanders.
03:22
Beginning Your Practice at Home
Receive encouragement and practical guidance for establishing a home practice — starting with just five minutes (or even less), finding a quiet space and time, seeking community support, and understanding that zazen itself is already “the activity of a Buddha.”
4:06Related Readings
How to Practice Just Sitting
We don’t sit in order to become a buddha—we sit because we already are one. Brian Joshin Byrnes on the Zen practice of shikantaza.
Zazen: Just Sitting, Going Nowhere
The Zen practice of just sitting, says Lewis Richmond, doesn’t help us to reach our destination. It allows us to stop having one. But how do you “go” nowhere?
How to Practice Zazen Meditation
Jules Shuzen Harris teaches Zazen, the meditation practice at the heart of Zen Buddhism.
Zazen: Just Wake Up
Zen teacher Myoan Grace Schireson teaches Zazen, sitting meditation from the Zen tradition, a foundational Buddhist practice.