Osho Zazen
Osho created the Zazen retreat and the simple structure that supports it, around the same time that he gave us the guidance for OSHO Vipassana.
The meaning of the word ’Zazen’: ’Za’ means sitting doing nothing.
And ’Zen’ means: in that sitting when you are not doing anything you fall upon yourself, you encounter yourself, you see yourself. The word ’zazen’ is beautiful. ’Sitting and looking into yourself’ – that is the meaning of it.
If you already love Vipassana you will be intrigued how the fundamentals of these two methods are the same, and yet the small differences, give a very different experience.
In Zazen you will keep your eyes lowered and unfocused, with your gaze resting just in front of you. Relaxing into your own being.
Each 25 minute session is followed by an awareness walk – “one mind walking”
"A man who has experienced zazen simply knows that whatever comes before the eyes is just phenomena, it comes and goes just like clouds come and go, flowers come and go. Everything in the world, except your being goes on moving into new forms. To find yourself is to find the center of the cyclone. The whole world is a cyclone, but once you have found your center the cyclone disappears."
- Osho, “The Original Man, #5”
JUST SITTING, DOING NOTHING,
THE SPRING COMES AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF.
You are simply relaxing into your own being, not doing anything at all. It is not a question of doing, it is simply a question of being. You go on relaxing into your being. OSHO
JUST SITTING, DOING NOTHING,
THE SPRING COMES AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF.
You are simply relaxing into your own being, not doing anything at all. It is not a question of doing, it is simply a question of being. You go on relaxing into your being.
A moment comes when you are in your utter purity, in your utter simplicity, in your utter innocence. That is satori.
Zazen is a beautiful word. It simply means just sitting – not even doing meditation. In fact, you cannot do meditation. Meditation is just sitting silently; it is not a question of doing. If you are doing something you are disturbing your meditation.
Somebody is chanting a mantra; he is disturbing his meditation. Somebody is focusing on something; he is disturbing his meditation. Somebody is concentrating, somebody is praying, somebody is thinking of God: they are disturbing their meditation.
All these are the doings of the mind, and if the doing continues the mind continues. Stop doing, and where is the mind? When the doing disappears, mind disappears. And the disappearance of the mind is satori.
It is beyond speculation. You cannot think about it, you can only experience it. It is the ultimate experience, and the immediate experience, too, of truth, of beauty, of love, of bliss, of God, of nirvana.
- Osho, "Walking in Zen, Sitting in Zen, #4, Q2"