Jing zuo

Jing zuo (pratisaṃlīna, Chinese: 靜坐; Pinyin: Jìngzuò; literal: "quiet sitting" / "sitting in silence") refers to the Neo-Confucian meditation practice advocated by Zhu Xi and Wang Yang-ming. Jing zuo can also be described as a form of spiritual self-cultivation that helps a person achieve a more fulfilling life ("6-Great Traditions").

Literally speaking, the term Jing zuo simply means 'sitting quietly', but the collocation soon acquired more specific meanings, referring to methods of quiet sitting that were practiced for medical or spiritual purposes. In early sources, such as the philosophical work Hanfeizi (3rd century BCE), Jing zuo seems to have been mainly understood as being of benefit to health, but some centuries later spiritual practices were also referred to using this term. At the outset, it was not limited to Confucianism, but could equally well be used about Buddhist and Daoist practices. The term became widely used in the Song dynasty, and became the preferred term for seated meditation among Neo-Confucians, who tended to avoid more narrowly Buddhist or Daoist terms. In modern Western parlance, it often refers specifically to Neo-Confucian forms of meditation, but it is also used for other religious and non-religious practices

The concept of meditation was not a major aspect of the Confucian life until the Neo-Confucian era. At this time Buddhism and Daoism had begun to expand into China and started to influence some aspects of Chinese culture. Even though there are some similarities, there are also some fundamental differences. Confucian meditation, unlike Daoist and Buddhist meditation, does not require the stopping of rational thought, but instead relies upon disciplined attention to one's current situation and mental phenomena. Its purpose is to develop as an individual in order to find full realization. (Johnston 2006) As Zhu Xi notes in [Reflections on Things at Hand]: "Whenever you have to attend to your daily affairs, or undertake any matter, always spend some time in meditation and everything will be all right" (Zhu Xi, 4:25).

A central aspect of Confucian meditation is Jing zuo or quiet sitting. Again, there is a fundamental difference between Neo-Confucians and Buddhist or Daoist meditation, in respect to Jing zuo (quiet sitting). "Neo-Confucians argued that quiet sitting was oriented to this world and aimed at perfecting one's self, whereas Buddhist and Daoist meditation focused on forgetting the world and abandoning one's self." (Yao 2000, p. 222). Furthermore, "Neo-Confucian scholars take quiet sitting (Jing zuo) to be only a way to help understand one's gain in self-cultivation and they do not see it as a means to isolate oneself from human affairs. They believe that it is only within this world and among worldly affairs that one can progress in the path of spiritual cultivation." (Yao 2000, p. 223).

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