Coaching practices for Just Sitting Meditation
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Just Sitting Meditation, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Even in meditation I’m secretly grading myself, chasing some better state, treating sitting as a means to an end
- Sitting alone, every single day becomes a negotiation over whether to skip it, and my practice keeps collapsing
- I’m tired of techniques and counting and focusing on something
- My sits have gone quiet but kind of dead
- A feeling shows up and I’m instantly grabbing at it or shoving it away
Practices that may help
- Shikantaza: Just Sitting
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated. - Shikantaza — "just sitting" in the Soto Zen tradition
Sit with complete presence and nothing to achieve — no goal, no technique, no observer separate from sitting.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - Practicing with a sangha (community sitting)
Sit with others regularly — group practice stabilizes individual practice in ways solitude cannot.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Shikantaza (just sitting)
Sit in open, objectless awareness — not focusing on anything, not following anything.
Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond) - Silent illumination: the quality of awake stillness
Cultivate a stillness that is lit from inside — quiet and alert, not blank and dull.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Grounding in posture: zazen as the foundation
Let the body be upright, stable, and settled before everything else.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Standing meditation (Zhan Zhuang)
Stand still in a low posture for 5–20 minutes to build postural endurance and parasympathetic tone simultaneously.
Qigong: Evidence-Based Mind-Body Practice - Extending shikantaza to daily activity
Bring the same non-grasping, present awareness from formal sitting into ordinary tasks.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Metta at the close — sharing merit and goodwill
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical
Related concerns
- How To Practice Shikantaza
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
- How To Sit Shikantaza
Let the body be upright, stable, and settled before everything else.
Grounding in posture: zazen as the foundation
- Moving Samadhi Zen
Bring full, wholehearted attention to ordinary tasks, treating activity itself as meditation.
Work as practice (samu)
- Shikantaza Just Sitting
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
- Shikantaza Just Sitting After A Loss
Cultivate a stillness that is lit from inside — quiet and alert, not blank and dull.
Silent illumination: the quality of awake stillness
- Shikantaza Just Sitting After A Setback
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
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