Koan practice stands at the heart of Rinzai Zen, yet it does not exhaust the range of meditative disciplines cultivated in this tradition. Alongside the intense engagement with koans, Rinzai monasteries and training halls make systematic use of seated meditation, walking meditation, chanting, and mindful work. In this way, koan inquiry functions less as an isolated technique and more as the organizing axis of a broader regimen that shapes body, speech, and mind. The emphasis on sudden awakening is thus supported by a variety of complementary practices that stabilize attention and integrate insight into daily conduct.

Seated meditation, or zazen, remains fundamental. Practitioners may engage in silent sitting with breath awareness as a preliminary training, developing concentration and calm before or alongside formal koan study. Some lineages also employ a “just sitting” mode of zazen, akin to shikantaza, even though this style is more strongly associated with Soto Zen. In Rinzai settings, such sitting can serve as a way to mature and deepen realization once a measure of insight has been opened through koan work. Breath-based practice and open, objectless awareness thus function as essential supports rather than as alternatives that displace koans.

The monastic schedule typically weaves together sitting and walking meditation. Kinhin, or walking meditation, is used between periods of zazen to maintain continuity of awareness while allowing the body to move and the circulation to refresh. This alternation between stillness and motion helps prevent meditation from becoming a purely static or inward-looking exercise. The same attentive quality cultivated on the cushion is carried into each step, reinforcing the sense that awakening is not confined to formal postures.

Chanting and liturgical practices also play a significant role. Recitation of sutras and dhāraṇī, together with the dedication of merit, serves both devotional and concentrative functions. The rhythmic, vocal dimension of chanting can gather scattered attention, while the content of the texts situates individual practice within a larger Mahāyāna vision. In this way, the sharp, questioning edge of koan investigation is balanced by forms that emphasize reverence, continuity with tradition, and the aspiration to benefit all beings.

Daily activities are likewise treated as fields of practice. Mindful work, or samu, along with tasks such as cleaning, cooking, and other communal duties, is approached as an extension of meditative awareness into ordinary life. The same disciplined attention brought to koans and zazen is invited into each gesture and task. Through this comprehensive training, koan practice remains central and distinctive, yet it is embedded in a whole way of life designed to foster both sudden awakening and its gradual embodiment.