When entering Zazen you will bow to the teacher then bow to where you will meditate then position yourself.
Zazen or Zen Meditation is meditating while sitting in the half-lotus or full-lotus position. As you sit in this position you take your right hand with the palm facing up in your lap then take your left hand with the palm facing up on top of the right hand with the thumbs lightly touching to complete a circuit in the body. You place the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth to help prevent saliva from building up.
The teacher will ring the bell to signal when to start.
With your eyes half-closed and relaxed gaze you concentrate on a point in front of you usually facing a wall. You let the thoughts enter your mind, acknowledge them, and let them while concentrating without concentrating on the spaces between the thoughts. The goal is to increase the spaces between the thoughts until no thoughts appear in your mind which can be difficult to do until you have had much practice.
When the Zazen is over the teacher will ring the bell once again.
Tips
When trying to clear your mind the objective is to not try. There is no good and there is no bad. There is also no judgment. Everything is without these concepts. It just is.
If a thought enters your mind do not get upset about it. Just accept it and move back to your practice. To help prevent this from happening again you can gently think ‘stop’ to get back on track. Eventually, you sill not even require the ‘stop’ thought at all and have just non-thought during your meditation.