By Taisez Deshimaru Roshi

Zazen is difficult, I know that. But if you practice it every day, it is very effective for expanding your consciousness and developing your intuition. Not only does zazen release great energies, but it is also and especially the attitude of awakening. While one is practicing, one must not want to achieve anything, whatever it may be. Without purposefulness, it is solely concentration on the posture of body, mind and breathing.

The attitude

You sit on the middle of the round cushion (Zafu - 座蒲) and cross your legs in the lotus or half-lotus position. If both are impossible and you only cross your legs without putting one foot on the thigh of the other leg, you still have to press your knees firmly to the floor. In the lotus position, the feet on each thigh press on zones with important acupuncture points that belong to the liver, bladder and kidney meridians. In the past, the Samurai automatically stimulated these energy centers by the pressure of the thighs on the horse. The pelvis is tilted forward from the height of the fifth lumbar vertebra.  "One has the impression," my master Kodo Sawaki used to say, "as if the anus were looking at the sun." The spine is well arched and the back is kept straight. Knees on the ground and head towards the sky. The chin is pulled back and the neck is stretched well. The stomach is relaxed and the nose is in a vertical line above the navel.
Thus one is like a taut bow, with the mind as an arrow. After assuming this posture, place your hands on your thighs near your knees and balance your back in a straight line, seven or eight times to the left and right, reducing the movement a little bit each time until you find the balance in the vertical. Afterwards, one greets with gassho, that is, one puts both palms together in front of the body at the height of the shoulders, keeping the bent arms in a horizontal line.
Now you only have to put your hands - the left one in the right, palms turned upwards - against the lower abdomen. The thumbs touch each other with their tips and are kept straight under slight tension. They form neither mountain nor valley. The shoulders fall naturally downwards, as if they were pulled back and thrown backwards. The tip of the tongue touches the palate. The gaze is directed to the ground about one meter in front of the own body. In reality, however, it goes inside. The half-closed eyes look at nothing - even if, intuitively, you see everything!

 
The Breathing

It plays a very important role. Every living thing breathes. In the beginning is the breath. Zen breathing is not comparable to any other. It aims primarily at creating a slow, powerful and natural rhythm. If you concentrate on a smooth, long and deep exhalation and direct your attention to the posture, the inhalation happens in a very natural way. The air is expelled slowly and quietly, while the pressure caused by the exhalation descends powerfully into the abdomen. One "presses on the intestines" and thus causes a healing massage of the internal organs.
Zen masters compare Zen breathing to the mooing of a cow or the exhalation of a baby crying out right after birth. This breathing is the om, the seed, the pneuma, the source of all life.

The attitude of the mind

Correct breathing can only come from correct posture. Likewise, the posture of the mind naturally results from deep concentration on posture and breathing. Those who have breath live long, intense and happy lives. The practice of correct breathing makes it possible to balance all nervous stresses, to master instincts and passions and to control mental activity.
 
The blood circulation in the brain is improved in a remarkable way. The cerebral cortex recovers and the conscious flow of thoughts stops while the blood penetrates the deep layers. Thus better nourished, they awaken from their half-sleep, and their new activity produces a feeling of well-being, serenity and calm, similar to deep sleep, yet completely awake.
The nervous system is relaxed, the brain stem thalamus and hypothalamus -, in full activity. One is highly receptive and alert through every single cell of the body. One thinks unconsciously with the whole body, every duality, all opposites are overcome without having to expend energy.
The so-called primitive peoples have kept the deep layers of the brain very active. By developing our kind of civilization, we have trained, refined and complicated the intellect, but we have forgotten the power, intuition and wisdom associated with the inner core of the brain. For this very reason, Zen is an invaluable asset to the people of today, at least to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Through the regular practice of zazen, he is given the chance to become a new person and return to the origin of life. He can grasp existence at its root and thus regain the normal state of body and mind.
Sitting in zazen, one lets the images, thoughts and all mental entities which emerge from the unconscious pass by like clouds in the sky - without resisting them, without clinging to them. Like shadows in front of a mirror, everything that emanates from the subconscious passes by, returns and finally vanishes. Thus one reaches the deep unconscious, which is without thought, beyond all thought, hishiryo, true purity.
Zen is very simple and at the same time quite difficult to understand. It is a matter of effort and repetition - like life.
If while sitting - without detour, without purpose and profit - your posture, breathing and mind are in harmony, then you understand true Zen, then you understand the Buddha nature.