" Within every moment of thought you should see yourself that your fundamental nature is pure. You should cultivate for yourself, pratice for yourself, and accomplish for yourself the enlightenment of buddhahood."
--Huineng [1]

Part I: Posture, Hands and head

   Like all elements of posture, this hand position is a tool, reflecting the state of one’s mind. Maintaining this position requires subtle, continuous effort, otherwise our attention fades and the hands slump and drift apart, or we get distracted and find our thumbs pushing together. Noticing the degree of energy in the thumbs can be a signal in regulating the effort we use with our mind; steady, gentle pressure, with both the thumbs and the will, is most conducive to meditation. This applies for the entire posture, closing but not clenching the jaw, lifting but not forcing the head up, straightening but not straining with the spine.

Meditation mudra    Put your hands together in front of you. Your forearms may rest on your thighs or feet (in full lotus), or you may hold them against your body. The hands should be held close to your lower abdomen in some manner that doesn’t tense the shoulders or upper back. In Soto Zen, we form a particular hand position for meditation. The palms are up, fingers are parallel, and the left-hand fingers are on top of, and directly over, the corresponding right-hand fingers. The thumbs lightly touch, forming a bridge over your fingers. This position represents union of all opposites, with the left and right hands coming together to form an oval.

   Keep your head upright, ears directly over the shoulders, chin tucked in, thus elongating the neck. This will rotate the face slightly down, but keep the head upright, not leaning forward. The lips and teeth stay closed, with the tongue pressed lightly against the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth. Eyes remain slightly open, but don’t need to be focused, gazing towards the floor at about a 45-degree angle. The eyes are not looking down so much as inward, and keeping them partially open anchors one in the present, preventing the tendency to get lost in thoughts, drowsiness or trance states. Zazen is not about shutting off from sensations and phenomena, it is about our direct experience of the world and mind, taking refuge in a deep, thorough absorption in the present moment, and keeping the eyes open is more conducive to this.

Posture
   ---Legs
   ---Torso
>   --Hands and head
Breath
Bowing
Mind
Where
When


[1]Hui-Neng, pgs 60-61 in The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Chinese Patriarch, trans. by J., McRae. (2000) Numata Center, Berkeley CA.