Zen teachings often criticize textual study and worldly action, concentrating primarily on meditation in pursuit of an unmediated awareness of the processes of the world and the mind. However, these teachings are themselves also deeply rooted in the Buddhist textual tradition, drawing primarily on Mahayana sutras composed in India and China, and on the recorded teachings of masters in the various Zen traditions themselves.
Zazen
Zen meditation is called zazen. Zazen translates approximately to "sitting meditation", although it can be applied to practice in any posture. During zazen, practitioners usually assume a lotus, half-lotus, burmese, or seiza position. Rinzai practitioners typically sit facing the center of the room, while Soto practitioners sit facing a wall. Awareness is directed towards complete cognizance of one's posture and breathing. In this way, practitioners seek to transcend thought and be directly aware of the universe.
In Soto, shikantaza meditation, sometimes translated as "just-sitting," I.e., a meditation with no objects, anchors, "seeds," or content, is the primary form of practice. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found in Dogen's Shobogenzo.
Koan practice
The Zen schools (especially but not exclusively Rinzai) also employ koans (Japanese; Chinese: gongan; Korean: gong'an). The term is borrowed from that for a signpost used in ancient China, on which new laws were announced to the public. In much the same sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans, which are often paradoxical are not meant to be apprehended rationally but rather to be realized in experience.
1 -[Zen (Chan)]
2 -[Zen (Chan) : Zazen, Koan and other practices]
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