Zazen is contact with oneself, intimate and alone. When you know yourself, you know others. When you know others, you can let go of yourself and others. This knowledge in action comes every day. Each day is different and does not depend on the day before, nor does it influence the day that comes. This is the complete truth of the freedom of the moment. Thousands of Buddhas taught this and themselves became Buddha.
Boris Yudo.
Zazen meditation has four basic characteristics.
1. Hishiryo — hi means “not,” and shiryo means “thinking” or “awareness.” Hishiryo can be translated as “beyond ordinary personal and subjective thinking-awareness.” Through the deep experience of Zazen we can observe that we are not only thinking; we are doing something: we are sitting. During Zazen, thinking and action are in complete unity. It is the natural state of unity of body and mind. Zazen is an action through which we can observe the unity of our being in its purest and simplest form, beyond self-centered thinking.
2. Shoshin tanza — sho means “right” or “correct,” shin means “body,” tan means “regular,” and za means “sitting.” Shoshin tanza therefore means regular sitting in Zazen with the correct posture of the body. This characteristic also shows that Zazen is not about thinking about something; it is an action performed through the body.
3. Shinjin datsuraku — shin means “body,” jin means “mind” or “spirit,” datsu means “to be liberated,” and raku means “to let fall away.” Shinjin datsuraku therefore means “to be liberated from body and mind,” or “to let body and mind fall away.” To understand this we can look at the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. These regulate many functions of our organs and are not directly controlled by our will. In Zazen, bodily processes and thinking processes come into balance. When this balance appears, thinking and perception become quieter. At that moment we reach a balanced state of body and mind called shinjin datsuraku. This means liberation from the usual state of being attached to body and mind, and it allows us to taste life in its purest form.
4. Shikantaza — shikan means “only” or “just,” ta means “to do something,” and za means “to sit.” Shikantaza therefore means “doing nothing but sitting.” In this bodily action of sitting without expecting anything, the main essence of the whole Buddhist teaching is found. We can say that without Zazen the Buddha’s teaching does not exist, and that the practice of Zazen itself is the best way to taste and know its essence.