Zazen is Soto Zen's entire practice and it deliberately withholds the usual handholds: no mantra, no visualisation, and — after the beginner stage — not even breath-counting. Dogen's formulation, shikantaza or "just sitting," carries the claim that sitting is not instrumental. You are not sitting in order to become a buddha, because that framing puts awakening in the future and keeps the seeker in business; the sitting is itself the expression of what is already the case. Sesshin, the week-long intensive, runs from before dawn to night with sitting, walking, work and formal meals, and the encouragement stick is applied on request rather than as punishment, whatever the cartoon suggests.