For Dogen, zazen is first and foremost an holistic body posture, not a state of mind.ĭogen uses various terms to describe zazen, one of which is gotsu-za, which means “sitting immovable like a bold mountain.” A related term of great importance is kekka-fuza-“full-lotus position”-which Dogen regards as the key to zazen. Contemporary scholars are finding much in this text to help them understand, not only a unique approach to Buddhadharma, but also to zazen as practice. His Shobogenzo is one of the great masterpieces of the Buddhist doctrinal tradition. It would therefore be helpful to us to look at some of the differences between zazen and meditation.ĭogen (1200-1252) was the founder of the Soto Zen tradition, and a meditation master par excellence. However zazen, as understood by Dogen Zenji, is something different, and cannot be categorized as meditation in the sense described above. It is true that many meditation practices in the Buddhist tradition are helpful in achieving these objectives, and these may certainly be skillful uses of meditation tools. In the West, zazen is usually translated as “Zen meditation” or “sitting meditation.” More and more, in contemporary usage, zazen is considered one of the many methods from Eastern spiritual traditions for attaining objectives such as mind/body health, skillful social behavior, a peaceful mind or the resolution of various problems in life. There seems to be a common misunderstanding about zazen, which some people think of as a technique for reaching a state of “no thought.” Such an understanding of zazen assumes that a certain state of mind can be reached by manipulation, technique or method.

Fujita at a workshop called “The Lived-Body Experience in Buddhist Meditation” he taught at BCBS in March, 2002.

These remarks are excerpted from course handouts given by Rev.

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