Zazen meditation

Zazen is the most important physical discipline in Zen Buddhism.
The basic philosophy of Zen Buddhism is 'mind-body unity'. The idea is that by toning the body, the mind will naturally become toned as well. In Zen Buddhism, the body is more important than the mind.

However, this does not mean that ethics is neglected. Buddhism has a set of precepts for lay believers called the 'Five Precepts'. It's like external ehtics.And for ordained believerss, it's not only the 'Five Precepts' also another five precepts which is like internal ethics, so totally 'Ten precepts'

Those are similar with Yoga's precepts, which is called 'Yama' and 'Niyama' The former is external ethics and the latter is internal ethics.

  Yoga

Yama

1. Non-biolence

2. Truthfullness

3. Non-stealing

4. Celibacy or right use of energy

5. Non-possesiveness, Non-greed

Niyama

1. Cleanliness

2. Contentment

3. Dicipline

4. Sturdy of the self

5. Surrender to higher being

Zazen Meditation is done in the following way.

1. Be at quiet place where you can concentrate.

2. Sit crossed-legged against a wall, Sit about 80cm away from the wall.

3. Put your right hand on your feet, and put your left hand on your right hand, with the tips of your thumbs lightly touching each other.

4. keep your eyes half open, half clesed. And gaze at the top of your nose, so your vision should be blur. You may see the wall in front of you, however, do not focus on your vision. As you see the wall somehow, you can keep to sit straight.

5. As you breathe naturally, and try to find a natural movements of your belly to syncronize with your natural breath. So, try not to controll your breth and the movement of your belly.

6. Your belly is rising with your natural inhalatin, and your belly is falling with natural exhalation.

7. Count your inhalation and your exhalation upto 10 through your belly, so try to count the rising belly and the falling belly upto 10.

8. Count only your inhalation upto 10 through your belly, so try to count only the rising your belly upto 10.

9. Count only your exhalation upto 10 through your belly, so try to count only the falling of your belly upto 10.

10. Repeat 7 to 9 for 3 times.

11. If you complete to count without missing your count and losing your count, go to 12. Otherwise, keep counting until you complete it.

12. Stop counting, but keep watching the movement of your belly. And add to watch the touch of your thumbs. Also imagine that you have a butter on your head and the butter is melting. And the melting butter is covering your head and your whole body.

13. Traditionally, it's done for about 40 minutes. However, it can be shorter or longer as you like.