Meditation in Chan functions as the central means for realizing inherent Buddha‑nature and awakening to the true nature of mind. Rather than relying primarily on doctrinal study or conceptual analysis, Chan turns attention to direct, non‑conceptual awareness of experience as it is. Through this contemplative discipline, practitioners are guided to see directly into mind itself, to recognize that the awakened state is not something added from outside but the uncovering of what has always been present. In this sense, meditation is both the path and the expression of realization, the way by which Buddha‑nature is disclosed and the mode of being that naturally unfolds from such insight.

A key role of meditation in Chan is to cut through discursive, dualistic thinking and the habitual attachment to thoughts, views, and words. The tradition speaks of “no‑thought” and “no‑mind,” not as blankness or suppression, but as a state of spontaneous, unattached awareness in which mental chatter no longer dominates. In this clarity, the apparent split between subject and object, self and world, begins to dissolve, revealing the non‑duality that underlies Chan teachings such as “mind is Buddha” and “ordinary mind is the Way.” Meditation thus serves to remove the obscurations that conceal this ordinary-yet-profound reality, rather than to construct some new or special state.

Within this framework, Chan developed specific meditative approaches that embody its emphasis on direct pointing to mind. Practices such as “silent illumination,” in which one simply sits in open, uncontrived awareness, and koan or huatou inquiry, in which one wrestles with a critical phrase or paradoxical question, are used to exhaust reliance on discursive reasoning and catalyze sudden awakening. More basic methods, such as mindfulness of breathing, can serve as foundational supports, steadying attention so that deeper insight may arise. Even in lineages that stress sudden enlightenment, meditation remains the ground that prepares, clarifies, and stabilizes the mind.

Chan also insists that meditative insight must permeate the whole of life. Seated meditation stabilizes clarity and presence so that walking, working, and speaking become expressions of the same awakened awareness. Practice is embedded in a disciplined communal context of precepts, rituals, work, and study, all of which support and reflect meditative realization. At the same time, there is a consistent warning against clinging to meditation itself as an object of attachment; the aim is not to possess special experiences, but to recognize that when delusion falls away, ordinary mind—lived moment by moment—is already Buddha‑mind.