Let’s start off with a seated meditation. Take off your shoes and have a seat on a cushion at Kaisandō. You don’t have to sit in a particular way, just find a comfortable seated position.

Make sure you’re in a position where you can feel relaxed. Sit up straight and breathe from your nose, while focusing on the air flowing through your stomach. Concentrate on the spot right below your navel. Slowly exhale, bit by bit, and then inhale at once. Try repeating that. Feel the airflow through you as inhale, and flow out as you exhale.

From this point, we’ll go through a Zen meditation practice for about eight minutes.

Just focus on your breath. Breathe in, and out. Inhale, and exhale.
Take this moment to check how you’re feeling.
Relax your eyelids so that they’re not fully open, but not fully closed either. If your eyes are open, you might be distracted by what's around you, and if they are closed you can get distracted by thoughts from within. Try to find a nice balance.

Let’s start with a Zen practice called “Sūsokukan,” counting your breath.

Count from one to ten, saying each number on the exhale. Like this: inhale, and say “One… ” as you exhale… pause, then inhale again… say “Two…” as you exhale… and so on. Remember to breathe in and out through your nose. Keep the inhales short and the exhales long, about twice as long as the inhale.
If you finish counting to ten, start over from one, and repeat again. If you lose concentration in the middle, start over from one and repeat again, too. You don’t need to think hard, you want to keep your thoughts and your practice as simple as possible.

Start with a long exhale, removing all the breath from your lungs. “One…” Take a short inhale, then exhale, “Two…” Continue at your own pace.

Are you having trouble concentrating? Don’t worry, when you notice your mind wandering, try to bring your focus back to your breath.

Keep focusing on your breath.
You probably noticed some other thoughts floating around in your head. That’s OK, it’s completely natural. As you continue to breathe in and out, so too will your thoughts float in and out.
You don’t need to focus on any thought, in particular, just observe them as they pass by you.

How are you feeling? Do you notice any change in your breathing?
When you start to focus on your body and your breath, your mind becomes clearer. So clear, that it almost disappears. The mind is still there but has become fluid like water, not bound to any shape or form. Seated Zen meditation is the best way to achieve this kind of gentle and free mindset.

So, how was the meditation experience? How did it make you feel?

When you let yourself slow down and enter a new world within yourself, that’s when you start to notice things you never noticed before. So today, as you walk around the Zen and Garden Museum, remember this practice and remember to take your time in order to fully immerse yourself in Zen.