Sōtō Zen Buddhism is a Japanese school of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition that emphasizes seated meditation and non-conceptual thinking. Popularized by Dogen in the 11th Century, the Sōtō Zen tradition has since grown to attract people practitioners from across the world. Today, Sōtō Zen represents one of the largest unified Buddhist sect, with over 14,000 temples worldwide. In the US, Sōtō meditation centers can be found in most major metropolitan areas.

Sōtō is distinguished from the other major Zen schools, Rinzai and Obaku, by its focus on just-sitting, or shikan taza. Essentially, this approach emphasizes zazen as the key act of samadhi (enlightenment), as opposed to the other schools, which offer supplementary methods like koans as potential routes to the dissipation of the ego.