You're doing it, right now.

If someone had told me this when I first started sitting, I think I would have punched them in the face. It's actually kind of a mean thing to say because it makes it seem like this practice is as simple as just breathing; like anyone can do it, like you're the only idiot who can't seem to just sit there, and breathe.
But, the truth of the matter is, it's true. You're already doing it. You're breathing, right now. And probably, you're sitting, right now. So, honestly, you're doing it, right now. You're sitting zazen.

I know, it doesn't feel like it. And often, as soon as you actually sit down and try to breathe, a million thoughts come in your head and you can't find your breath and your leg starts hurting and the cat starts meowing and the garbage truck decides to explode those air brakes....
But really, through all of that, you're breathing and, depending on the way you "sit zazen," you're sitting too. And that's all you have to do. In fact, your body is already doing it for you. Your body breathes whether you want it to or not (well, I guess that's not true, maybe you could hold your breath but I've heard that if you do it long enough, your body makes you pass out so that you'll start breathing again).

Like I said, I wouldn't have wanted to hear this when I first started sitting and, honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to hear it last week either. But this week, I've been sitting at home and there have been fewer distractions. Also this week, I've been almost closing my eyes. One of the leaders at Young Urban Zen explained the practice of closing your eyes enough so that your top and bottom eyelashes barely touch- but your eyes are still open. I had never done this before, I always just kept my eyes open and gazed a few feet in front of me. But now, as soon as I almost close my eyes, my shoulders relax completely, I slouch a little bit, but I totally feel my breath. I'm not feeling for my breath, I actually just am in to my body, probably because with my eyes almost closed, I have nothing else to do. Regardless of what causes it, I've been feeling my breath all week. And on Friday, as I was filling up the kids' water bottles before school, I felt a breath. It was the same feeling I had had when I sat zazen the morning before. It's the same breath, it's my body, breathing. I didn't ask it to breathe, I didn't focus on it, it just breathed, while I was filling up the water bottles. And I realized, that this was happening all the time. I'm breathing all the time. I don't even have to think about it, my body is going to do it for me. All I have to do is let it.
And I thought, "Darnit- this is a little too familiar. This sounds an awful lot like "just let things manifest, you're already perfect the way you are, just let your life live itself" blah blah blah. Darnit! But it's true. If your definition of zazen is "to just sit and breathe," half of it is already done for you. You're already breathing, so you can just sit down.
Sorry, it's not what I wanted to hear either but I just keep feeling it, all day long. That same breath that I'm doing as I walk around, it's the same breath that I'm deperately trying to focus on during zazen. We'll see what happens tomorrow when I try to just sit down with it. But still, I do know that I'm doing half of zazen (breathing), all day long.