Understanding Zen

Zen is a Buddhist tradition centered on direct experience in everyday life. Through seated meditation and close attention to ordinary activities, Zen practices invite you to meet experience as it is—without relying on explanation, interpretation, or belief.

What Defines Zen?

Zen developed out of Chan Buddhism in China and later took root in Japan. From the beginning, its emphasis has been on direct experience rather than philosophy or doctrine. Rather than explaining reality, Zen points you back to what’s happening right now.

The core practice of Zen is seated meditation, known as zazen. In zazen, you sit still and allow experience to unfold without trying to control it. Some Zen schools also work with koans—short, paradoxical prompts meant to interrupt habitual thinking. Others, though, emphasize the simplicity of just sitting still.

Conceptual Pillars of Zen

Zazen

It’s the practice of sitting still and allowing experience to unfold without interference. It trains openness to whatever arises—comfort or discomfort, restlessness or calm—without trying to fix or improve it.

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What Is Sitting?

Koans

Koans are short, paradoxical prompts used in some Zen traditions to disrupt habitual thinking. They’re not puzzles to solve, but tools for loosening the mind’s usual ways of understanding.

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The Koan Way

Everyday Practice

Zen treats daily life as an ongoing opportunity to practice. Ordinary activities like walking, eating, and speaking become exercises in noticing experience directly.

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Everyday Mindfulness

Key Teachers of Zen

Diane Musho Hamilton

Diane Musho Hamilton is an award-winning mediator, author, and teacher of Zen meditation who received dharma transmission from Genpo Merzel Roshi in 2006. She specializes in group facilitation and conflict resolution, ranging from simple neighborhood disputes to complex negotiations. In her view, mediation and meditation have a shared goal of bringing division or dispute into harmony.

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Resolving Conflict Ethics and Emptiness

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Alan Watts

Alan Watts taught Buddhism at the American Academy of Asian Studies before gaining national renown for his radio series “Way Beyond The West.” His talks popularized Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy among American 1960s counterculture communities. Across his life, Watts studied Zen Buddhism, briefly served as an Anglican priest, wove cybernetics into his thinking, and ultimately saw himself as a philosophical entertainer.

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The Alan Watts Collection Tao of Philosophy Philosophies of Asia Myth & Religion Philosophy & Society Comparative Philosophy

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Charlotte Joko Beck

Charlotte Joko Beck was renowned for her practical approach to Zen. Her spiritual journey began in her 40s and she ultimately received Dharma transmission from Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi. She founded the Zen Center of San Diego and her writings have influenced contemporary Zen practice.

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The Practice of Life

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Jan Chozen Bays

Jan Chozen Bays, MD, is an ordained Zen teacher, pediatrician, and expert on child abuse. She serves as co-Abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery, a center for Zen training in Clatskanie, Oregon. She has published six books and many medical, philosophical, and spiritual articles.

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Everyday Mindfulness

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