Zazen as an Enactment Ritual
Zen Ritual November 22, 2007 Taigen Dan Leighton
Chapter 5 examines zazen, or seated meditation, the central ritual of Zen, from the Sōtō Zen perspective initiated by Dōgen. Rather than viewing zazen as a means to attain enlightenment, the essay presents it as 'the practice-realization of totally culminated awakening,' reversing the typical cause-and-effect logic. The author traces this approach to Vajrayana teachings influential in Japanese Shingon, Nichiren, Tendai, Jōdo, and Zen. The essay develops the 'unity of practice and realization' through Dōgen's instructions for meditation ritual, his extended essays, and direct teachings to his monks. When meditation is understood as the expression or function of buddhas rather than a technique for spiritual acquisition, meditative awareness in everyday life becomes possible.