One must sit Shikantaza with profound trust that sitting is whole, complete, nothing lacking, the sitting of the Buddhas and Ancestors sitting as this sitting right here and now, no other place to be, nothing more in need of doing, nothing more to attain, that Zazen embodies enlightenment itself. Even if one is not convinced at first, sit with faith that it is so nonetheless, that one is sitting as Buddha under the Bodhi Tree, and keep sitting so until the conviction becomes truly heartfelt.
When one sits in such conviction, Zazen proves to be thoroughly whole, complete, nothing lacking, the sitting of the Buddhas and Ancestors sitting as your sitting, no other place to be, nothing more in need of doing or attaining, Zazen as enlightenment itself. As well, all this life and world comes immediately to be whole, complete, nothing lacking, enlightenment itself.
Why?
The reason is that there is an aspect to sitting, to the events of this life and world whereby each just is what it is, which is ultimately determined simply by how we judge and how we weigh things. If one judges this lacking, it is. If one judges this whole and complete, it is. That is because, itself, it just is what it is, until our heart imposes feelings of something missing upon this, something more that needs to be done, something more in need of adding. Imagine the Buddha's sight of the morning star simply shining, without need for human measuring of the light as somehow enough or not enough, in need of more light or less, successful or inadequate as a star based on our personal selfish preferences for what makes a winning star. In our ignorance, we even judge the stars! Rather, the star is shining just as that star, not a drop to add or remove on our account. Likewise, this life is already this life, this world is thoroughly this world already ... and only our heart and selfish desires wish for this life to be some other life, this world to be some other way.
Now, don't misunderstand: One's learning to sit Zazen in contentment and free of judgements does not mean that, suddenly, all things in life will go your way, you will win every wager, never know hardship and all your dreams will come true, you will never know sickness and loss again. In fact, this will always be a world of ups and downs, love and loss, success and defeat, celebration and grief. I am sorry to say but, sometimes, your heart will still break, sometimes you may be afraid, sometimes there are smiles but sometimes tears. There will still be things lacking in this world, problems we have to fix in this world, wars to end, diseases to cure. This will always be a world of beauty, but of frequent ugliness too. Rather, I am speaking of a profound, fundamental, ultimate, boundless allowing of things which rests underneath and shining through it all, an equanimity which holds all the twists and turns, a wholeness which holds all the ups and downs, happy times and sad times, gains and losses, coming and going, war and peace, easy days and hard, sickness and health, birth and death of this life.
Sitting Zazen, in radical equanimity, allows us to embody this fundamental Wholeness and Peace which flows through all the broken pieces and sharp edges of this world.
And to know this Wholeness and Peace, one must sit with real trust, truly feeling with honest conviction, deep in one's heart and deep in the bones, that this world-life and sitting are not divided, that they are whole and complete through and through, nothing lacking ever, just flowing as they flow, whereby ... ipso facto, ... by the doing itself ... all is so simply because one feels so.
On the other hand, feel one's Zazen lacking, think enlightenment a distant goal, think of Buddha as far away, wonder how to make things ever more and better, measuring 'good vs. bad' in Zazen and any life conditions, trying for deeper states, more peace in one's heart ... and you yourself create lack, distance and separation, the need for more and better, a feeling that now is not one's home. Judging Zazen itself causes dissatisfaction, measuring goals (with Zazen but a means to get there) puts goals our of reach, the striving for peace is what denies one peace, the hunt for "deeper" states causes us to miss what is always here. You create all the little self's measures and desires and its constant need to fulfill. It is up to you.
Or, instead, accept this world of up and down, coming and going, passing time, win and lose, sickness and health, war and peace as just what all is, dropping measures and desires, and non-self is realized thus. One's faith in the wholeness of Zazen, and all this universe, becomes a "non-self" fulfilling belief. It is also up to you.
Then, rising up from such practice on the sitting cushion, we can return to a world with problems to solve, mouths to feed, work to do, potholes to fill, dreams to aim for, sicknesses to bear or cure, wars to end, flowers to tend and weeds to pull, tears to cry ...
... yet know, flowing through it all ...
... that all is just as it is ... all throughout ... whole, complete, nothing lacking, enlightenment itself.
Ipso Facto.
Gassho, J
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