What if there was a way you could train your wisdom and insight? No tools or equipment required. No books to read. No classes to attend. All you’d need is a few minutes each day. Such a means of building a wider perspective and developing clear insight exists. It’s called Zen meditation.

Zen Buddhist traditions place a greater emphasis on meditation than do some of the other schools of Buddhism. In Zen Buddhism, there’s a belief that wisdom, morality, and insight follow naturally from meditation practice. 

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the two fundamental components of Zen meditation, which are ‘stopping’ and ‘looking deeply’. We’ll define Zen meditation and give some step-by-step instructions on how to practice Zen meditation. Ultimately, I’d like to clarify the somewhat intangible terms of ‘insight’ and ‘wisdom’, by illustrating short, real-life examples of how each Zen meditation session is like a deposit into a bank, in that the merits can be withdrawn later when conducting your daily life. 

“If you pack the wood too densely, the fire will not take; the flames need room to breathe. In the same way, if our lives have no breathing room, we won’t be able to enjoy all the things we have, no matter how great or precious they are.”

– Haemin Sunim, Love for Imperfect Things (paid link)

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What is Zen meditation?

Zen meditation, also known as zazen, is an integral aspect of Zen philosophy, derived from the Japanese term “zenno,” which originates from the Chinese Ch’an or channo, meaning “absorptive concentration”. Zazen, translated as “seated mind,” serves as the cornerstone of Zen, regarded not only as the pathway to wisdom and insight but, in the words of thirteenth-century master Dogen, as wisdom itself when practiced with wholehearted commitment. Zen meditation is not merely a component of Zen philosophy. It is the essence of Zen.

“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”

– Dogen

How to do Zen meditation

• Stop doing whatever it is you were doing. Simply sit or stand still for a moment before engaging in the following instructions. 
• Begin your meditation practice with a small bow towards your cushion or chair as a gesture of respect for the space you are about to occupy. 
• Take a cross-legged position.
• Gently lower your chin, open your eyes, and soften your focus, looking down about three feet in front of you. 
• Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth to promote proper nasal breathing. 
• Cradle your left hand with your right, thumbs meeting just below your navel.
• Inhale through your nose, imagining your lower belly filling like a balloon, following the air’s movement. Exhale, “watching” the journey of the air as it exits through your nostrils. 
• Establish a breathing pattern and count each breath, starting with one on the inbreath and two on the outbreath, progressing to ten, then returning to one. Acknowledge thoughts, let them go, and return to one if your mind wanders. 
• Dedicate the merits of your practice to a loved one or to all beings.

Stopping: The first essential component of Zen meditation

Zen meditation recognizes that the mind and body are one. When the body is rushing, the mind races. When the mind is troubled, the body tenses. This is why Zen meditation teachers urge us to stop and sit for dedicated meditation practice. We must first calm the body before calming the mind. 

To stop in the sense of Zen meditation, we must literally stop using our body to manipulate the world. When you want to practice Zen meditation, first put down the phone, don’t try to kill two birds with one stone by stretching or practicing yoga, don’t worry about lighting incense or ringing a meditation bell. Invite total stillness. 

After we’ve settled the body, we can begin to use the breath as the bridge between mind and body which returns us to a natural state not dominated by language and intellect. The late Zen meditation teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, called this returning home: 

“We run throughout our whole life, chasing after some idea of happiness. Stopping means to stop our running, our forgetfulness, and our being caught in the past or future. We come home to the present moment where life is available. The present moment contains every moment.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh, How To Relax (paid link)

Connecting with your natural state of composure

There is this idea in Zen philosophy that we’re like a block of uncarved wood, that our natural state is one of wholeness and composure. The human ability to detect patterns and use language to make sense of the world is like the blade that carves and shapes our mind into our concept of ‘self’. The sense of self is merely a collection of perceived patterns, some of which turn out to be incorrect when examined closely. These learned concepts beget expectations and desires. When we attach ourselves to these expectations and desires, we suffer. 

Additionally, the only thing that makes the past or future seem real is language. So this stopping, this returning home to the breath, is a break from the long-chain thinking we’re accustomed to. It’s a break from all the external thinking, labeling, and pattern-recognizing we all do. This is why the breath is so important as an object of focus. It’s always there. It’s a bridge between mind and body, and it requires no concepts, notions, ideas, or language.

Looking deeply: The second essential component of Zen meditation 

Zen philosophy has a rich history and a vibrant culture today, so it’s no surprise that there are many different Zen meditation techniques. In some traditions, meditators use koans, which are paradoxical statements, stories, or questions which the meditator contemplates. One example is, “What was your original face before you were born?” In other traditions, a practice called Shikantaza (literally, “nothing but precise sitting”) is used to cultivate wisdom. Shikantaza is a variation of mindfulness or concentration meditation, whereby the meditator simply observes whatever bubbles up. Sounds, thoughts, sensations—just watch them come and go naturally. 

Then there’s the practice of looking deeply. This is where the meditator seeks the true nature of things. It’s the stripping away of the fabricated concepts that the human mind attaches to everything. The guidance of the Eightfold Path is useful here. Several of its folds come into play when looking deeply during meditation. 

We can practice Right Understanding by actively contemplating impermanence and non-attachment. We can practice compassion and seeing interconnection in the world by practicing loving kindness meditation. In loving kindness meditation, we simply repeat the phrases: May you be healthy. May you be happy. May you be at peace. 

To sustain this practice, we must have Right Concentration, where we marry our attention with our intention to practice. We must also practice Right Mindfulness, which helps us notice when we’ve become distracted. 

Related article: Right Mindfulness & Right Concentration Of The Eightfold Path

Wisdom and insight are byproducts of practice

The methods are many, but the result of all these Zen meditation techniques is the same. When we stop and reflect as prescribed by the Zen meditation practices we’ve discussed, we can begin to see why Zen philosophy says insight and wisdom naturally follow from meditation. 

How could we not walk away wiser from a 20-minute meditation session during which we contemplated, however briefly, impermanence, interconnection, and unconditional love for all beings? How could we not walk away with a deeper understanding of our true nature from a 20-minute stretch during which we allowed our minds and bodies to rest in silence?

To say that insight and wisdom naturally follow from Zen meditation makes it sound easy, but this is not my intention. We must first break the habit of running, striving, planning, doing, and breaking a habit is never easy. Then, we must get good at observing the breath to settle the mind. Finally, once we are able to stop and return home to the breath, we can contemplate fundamental truths of life like impermanence and non-attachment, which is important because although they are fundamental, they are not always apparent in our daily lives. 

The benefits of Zen meditation

I’d like to leave you not with studies showing the physiological and psychological benefits of meditation, although that would be easy to do given there are so many of them out there. Instead, I’d like to leave you with some short, hypothetical examples of how the benefits of Zen meditation—the wisdom and insight that naturally flow from it—can occur in daily life. 

These are some ways that wisdom and insight manifest themselves in real life. Full disclosure: I’ve adapted most of the items from the list below from a wonderful book by Korean Zen Buddhist teacher, Haemin Sunim called The Things You Can Only See When You Slow Down (paid link). 

When a terrible feeling arises, look for its transient nature. Remind yourself that it is only a visitor, and that it’ll be gone soon. 

The wise don’t stuff themselves at a meal to the point of feeling bloated and uncomfortable. They are aware of when they’ve eaten enough. 

When others are angry or abusive towards you, your first thought is, ‘This person is suffering. I wonder what’s causing that suffering.’ 

In relationships, your love is usually the only variable you can control. You can show your love in infinite ways, but you cannot control what they think, say, or do. 

Your true nature is that of unshakable composure. Only envy and expectation disrupt this natural steadiness of mind. 

When confronted with a difficult situation, be incredibly curious of your initial thought regarding it. The initial thought is like the lead in a good journalist’s story. It sets the tone for the rest of the narrative. Like any piece of good writing, it can be molded and shaped however you like. 

When you are overwhelmed, write everything that’s overwhelming you down on a piece of paper. This alleviates much of the angst. You’ll feel instantly better having organized your thoughts and having gotten them ‘out’ of your head. Now, place the paper on your desk, and take a rest—meditate, go for a walk, or go to bed. After you’ve rested, return to the paper and transform it into a list of small actions to take to resolve some of the issues. 

Try to be joyful even when you don’t feel like it. Part of Zen wisdom is keeping an open, curious, and playful mind. Anger closes the door to an open mind because anger is a state of certainty (I am angry because so-and-so did this), so choose joy whenever possible. 

When faced with a tough decision, add this factor into your equation: ‘How many people will benefit from this?’ If the answer is only yourself, then it may be the wrong decision. 

The easiest way to speak more eloquently and carefully is to say less. 

When you feel irritated or slightly depressed, do something kind for someone else. This will not solve your problem, but you will feel better. This is incredibly hard to do, so be patient with yourself as you practice.

Final thoughts

These instances, scenarios, and guidelines may seem idealistic. ‘Wisdom’ and ‘insight’ are lofty terms. I hope that the above points illustrate what these terms truly mean. Wisdom and insight are action states—they’re verbs. They’re things that you think, say, and do in real life. 

The ability to think, speak, and act like a Zen monk is within your reach. Wisdom and insight are only idealistic and intangible to the mind that is too busy, too caught up in the day-to-day. Zen meditation is the training ground that gradually builds the capacity to act in the ways described above. It’s the elevated look-off point that lets you climb out from under the canopy to see the panoramic view of the entire forest.

Remember, the first and most critical foundation of Zen meditation is to simply stop and sit. Don’t worry about concepts, techniques, or teachings. Just find stillness. 

Once you’ve mastered the ability to stop, you can then consider interconnection in your life. You can observe the transient nature of pain and beauty in your life. You can ask yourself, ‘what expectations, objects, or desires am I attached to? How can I let them go?’ These simple contemplations of the true nature of reality, and how it relates to your life, when combined with the restorative act of stopping, shift your neural circuitry in ways that enable wise thought, speech, and action. 

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