Is Shikantaza an 'awareness of awareness'?

[VictorV]

Hello Sangha,

Browsing on Facebook I found an article by Zen master Kokyo Henkel (Santa Cruz Zen Center). I found his 'third type of meditation' interesting, which he describes as 'awareness of awareness':

--> "There is a third type of meditation, which I propose is the hallmark of traditional Zen. The Zen ancestors of China and Japan usually taught a zazen we could call awareness of awareness, or just being awareness itself. Awareness that is usually directed toward an object of experience, either a specific single object or the whole field of objects, is instead directed back upon itself, where it is always already shining. Since awareness itself is the only thing that is not an object of awareness, this is the end of subject-object duality, the cessation of the division of mind and experience. This is mindfulness of no object, non-dual awareness, and when immersed in it, this is therefore the cessation of suffering, the end of discontent and grasping and fear, and the source of true love and compassion." <--

Is this kind of practice another way to describe Shikantaza? If so, I find it a very practical way to explain this practice. I tried it this morning and it brought me to a kind of open/concentrated awareness.

I leave the link to the full article below:

https://kokyohenkel.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/7/4/127410773/three_types_of_zazen.pdf

Thanks in advace for your views on this and sorry for having written more than three sentences.

Gassho

V.
SatTodayLAH

[Tomás ESP]

I think Shikantaza goes beyond awareness of awareness. Having practiced awareness of awareness in Tibetan Buddhism and Kashmir Shaivism, it is still a "goal-oriented" practice. When you sit, you focus awareness on awareness itself and the duality, eventually, collapses. But it is a "forced" process, at least in my experience. In fact, I stopped doing it, because it brought a huge sense of bliss, but then it was very destabilizing on the long run (even to the point where I felt dissociated of the body). I find Shikantaza to be radical, but simple. You just sit. Aware of it all, but without focusing on awareness itself. Just REALLY sitting, and nothing else. At least that's my own perspective and experience, not sure if it's accurate in terms of Soto Zen Shikantaza.

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH

Sorry for going over 3 sentences.

[Inshin]

At times one takes away the person but does not take away the
environment. At times one takes away the environment but does not take
away the person. At times one takes away both the person and the
environment. At times one takes away neither the person nor the
environment.

Linji "Four Procedures"

How can we be free from this contact between the sense organ, our mind,
and the object of mind? There are many different answers to this question, from
early Buddhism to Mahāyāna and Zen Buddhism.
In Yogācāra teaching, the way is to negate the object and see only
consciousness. The way in early Buddhism is to eliminate mind and acknowledge only form. A third way is to go beyond the dichotomy of self and
other, sense organ and object. This is our approach, following Dōgen. Nāgārjuna
showed us that the two sides of every pair negate each other. By negating both
sides he points to the reality that is there before our mind creates these
dichotomies. Dōgen does the same.
This short section in Suttanipāta concerns the middle path between thinking
and no-thinking — without ordinary perception, without mistaken or disordered
perception, without no perception, and without any annihilation of perception.
This is our zazen. We let go of both ordinary and distorted perceptions. They still
happen, but we don’t believe or act on them; this is freedom from our
perceptions. We also don’t negate or eliminate perceptions. In zazen we just sit.
This “just sitting” is free from ordinary and disordered perceptions, yet the
perceptions are still there, not annihilated. This is freedom from contact, like and
dislike, and our preferences.
Dōgen’s verse about Mount Lu from the Eihei Koroku:
A person in the mountains should love the mountains.
With going and coming, the mountains are his body.
The mountains are the body, but the body is not the self
So where can one find any senses or their objects?

From Mountains and Waters Sutra by Okumara.


The above passage clarified Shikantaza even further for me.

Gassho
Sat

[Shonin]

Dave
SAT

[Jundo]

Hmmm.

The "first type" sounds to me like Vipassana and various kinds of meditation centered on a certain object of mediation as focus ...

... mindfulness of a mental object. Classic meditation objects include mantras or mentally visualized images of buddhas. Probably the most common object that meditators use is the physical body or the breath, which is part of the physical body. ... Along with tactile sensations, the Buddha also taught mindfulness of feelings which is not just the tactile sensation but also its quality of being either pleasant or unpleasant, before adding any conceptual stories to it. He also taught mindfulness of mental qualities which are also objects of awareness. ... The result of mindfulness of these mental objects – tactile sensations, feelings, and mental qualities – is that we become more present and relaxed, and the mind wanders off less and less into thoughts of the past and future, which relieves a lot of unnecessary suffering caused by thinking. However, this type of meditation alone will not lead to liberation from all suffering. It can relieve us of a lot of distracting thoughts about the past and future, it leads to a relaxed abiding in the present, but it doesn't cut through the root of birth and death, the source of habitual discontent; it doesn't address the fundamental illusion of separation that is the cause of all types of discontent.

(I know quite a few Vipassana and like teachers who would disagree with him regarding the "doesn't cut through the root of birth and death" part).

The "second type" sounds to me like what is often described by many modern teachers as "Shikantaza" (although my usual comment and complaint is that such descriptions leave out the "sitting for sitting sake, sitting as a sacred act" aspect which is vital) ...

In this second type of meditation, we open the ears and let in sound, open the eyes and let in color and shapes. All the sense gates are thrown wide open, but we are not getting involved in conceptual thought. A thought can arise, and becoming aware of it, it drops away and mindfulness returns to the present experience of now. This wide field of experience includes sensory objects, feelings, and mental qualities, but awareness is not directed toward any one particular object like the breath. It is a more open awareness, attending to the whole field of present experience, mindfulness of now. ... The twentieth-century nondenominational teacher Krishnamurti coined the term “choiceless awareness” ...

This type of mindfulness of the whole field of body-mind experience may be commonly talked about in modern Zen, but looking into the foundational teachings of the Buddha as well as those of the Zen tradition, I have not been able to find this kind of practice being taught.

Hmmm. This last sentence shows that he does not know his Buddhist history so well.

Then there is the "third type." However, in my book, the second type and third type are the same. When we engage in "choiceless awareness," the subject/object division softens, and sometimes drops away ... turning the light "inward" is to stop chasing "in" or "out."

just being awareness itself. Awareness that is usually directed toward an object of experience, either a specific single object or the whole field of objects, is instead directed back upon itself, where it is always already shining. Since awareness itself is the only thing that is not an object of awareness, this is the end of subject-object duality, the cessation of the division of mind and experience. This is mindfulness of no object, nondual awareness, and when immersed in it, this is therefore the cessation of suffering, the end of discontent and grasping and fear, and the source of true love and compassion.

Frankly, I don't think Kokyo (who has also been experimenting heavily with ayahuasca these past many years) ...

https://maps.org/news/multimedia-library/3368-buddhism-and-psychedelics

... truly understands Shikantaza very well, and he is off chasing after some "mind opening" and "non-dual" experiences of various sorts of "awareness," both in his meditation and in his drug use. It is a shame.

If an experience is any kind of object, it will appear to touch awareness or be touched by awareness – but awareness itself cannot be touched by anything, since it is not an object.

He is trying to experience the "witness" or some pure experience of consciousness or "awareness" without object too much. This is a common form of meditation, but not "just sitting" Shikantaza.

It is surprising how many folks have been taught (or are teaching) this or that for years and years, and wear nice robes, but have little understanding of the Shikantaza of "nothing to gain." Because they do not understand, they run here and there trying to fix it or find something else.

Gassho, J

STLah

PS - Ania, those are two nice quotes.

[VictorV]

Thank you, Jundo. Your words have made the subject very clear to me, especially the connection between types two and three in the article, and how important it is to sit without expectations.
Thanks Tomás, your experience is very interesting. I don't want to go back to 'chasing' goals when I sit.
Ania, thanks, your quotes have been inspiring although at some points they are still somewhat cryptic to me.
Gassho
V.
SatTodayLAH

[Kyōsen]

From what I've read of Jundo's writings on shikantaza, I don't think it's "being aware of awareness". Shikantaza really is its own thing and it's absolutely beautiful! "Being aware of awareness" is closer to Dzogchen's practice, where awareness is turned back on itself and one is to abide in that. Awareness becomes the "object" of attention, whereas in shikantaza there is no object of awareness, there is "just sitting".

Gassho
Kyōsen
Sat|LAH

[Tomás ESP]

You're welcome Victor, all the contributions above were very helpful, thank you all.

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH

[Jundo]

... "Being aware of awareness" is closer to Dzogchen's practice, where awareness is turned back on itself and one is to abide in that. Awareness becomes the "object" of attention, whereas in shikantaza there is no object of awareness, there is "just sitting".

Gassho
Kyōsen
Sat|LAH

This is my feeling too.

But truly, everything is the "object" of attention ... but without chasing after in or out, me and not me ... until the friction and division of object and subject is just not such a big deal. As Ania's Linji quote said, sometimes more one, sometimes more the other, sometimes one and the other and sometimes forget the whole show and just sit.

Gassho, J

STLah

[VictorV]

Gassho
V.
ST&LaH

[Tairin]

Thank you for this discussion.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Jundo]

I want to return to this, because it may deserve a little more 'splainin.

Kokyo is correct that some flavors of meditation, in which one seeks to experience a non-dual "awareness" (or object-free consciousness or unified mind and such) are very ancient and very basic, not only in many corners of Buddhism, but in Advaita, Daoism and the like. Some interpretations of Silent Illumination Zazen, the grandfather of Shikantaza, encourage reaching such concentrated states (other interpretations do not). Dzogchen tends to emphasize such. They can be very peaceful, tranquil, still and often blissful. In Shikantaza, one may sometimes experience such states too, although we tend to see them as one insight to encounter, and not the goal or stopping point. Such concentrated or mirror-like states can be very alluring and attractive because they seem so whole and peaceful.

The reason that, for most Zen folks, such states of mind are not the goal is that, in fact, the point is not to always maintain a mind like a clear mirror free of the "stuff" of the world. It is an important lesson to know that the clear mirror is always present, but it is also an important lesson to know that all the worldly "stuff" reflected in the mirror ... all the beautiful things but also the ugly things, the peace but also war, not only the timeless but also time and 'birth and death,' sickness and health ... is also held in the mirror and, in fact, is just the clear light of the shining and free mirror, just in other guise. We do not run away from the complexities and tangles of this world, but rather, we realize that the complexities and tangles are one and the same with the unity and boundlessless of the mirror-like mind.

For this reason, Kokyo's description of "type 2" meditation (choiceless awareness, i.e., Shikantaza) missed the mark. In Shikantaza, one sits without chasing after objects outside us, nor running away. We do not judge, we do not clutch thoughts. We do not seek some "mirror awareness" somehow untouched by the world which he describes, neither do we not seek it. We sit in the perfect completion of sitting for sitting's sake, with no other place to be nor goal to attain. In doing so, the light of the mirror shines through (and shines as) all the dark and light complexities of the world, and the hard border of "self" and "not self" softens, perhaps fully drops away. Kokyo's description of his "type 2" meditation left out many of those key aspects, and thus it was incomplete and wrong. It occasionally surprises me that some Zen teachers who should know better ... often folks with all the right robes and paperwork, and from good Lineages ... should nonetheless appear to be practicing some kind of "3/4th" Zazen, missing the target and somehow leaving out key points, like a chef who forgets the salt or painter who paints with the wrong end of the brush! Maybe they were trained that way, and then they pass it on. One can often tell because their description of Shikantaza lacks the key ingredients, and they can frequently be found turning away from Shikantaza in order to promote some other technique that they find more rewarding. They do not understand Shikantaza as the dropping of all need for pay-offs, thus the true Treasure realized in hand.

(As I said, his description of Vipassana and like object meditations struck me as also unfair to many who practice that way too).

Most of the quotes at the end of the essay resonate very well with Shikantaza too:

Shitou said, “The nature of your own mind is beyond annihilation and permanence. It is
complete and whole, the same in ordinary people and sages, responding freely. The world and all
living beings that appear are nothing but this mind. How could the reflection of the moon in
water, or images in a mirror actually come into being or cease?”

Yes, we realize that all the ordinary folks and great sages, the whole world with all its things and complexities, is just the mirror. As Dogen says, the moon is held within every wave and drop of dew.

Huangbo said, “All buddhas and all living beings are only this one mind; there is nothing else.
This mind has never been born and has never died… It is not existent or nonexistent, not old or
new, neither long nor short, neither large nor small. It goes beyond all limits and measurements,
all labels and characteristics

Yes, yet this one mind also -IS- all that is born and dies, all that exists or does not, both the old and young, the long and short, small and large. We experience this "birthless" and "limitless" and all the limits and measurements etc., one for all and all for one!

Dogen said, “The mind that has been authentically transmitted means one mind as all things, and
all things as one mind. For this reason, an ancient said, ‘When a person becomes aware of
awareness, there is not a bit of soil on the earth.’... Mind as mountains, rivers, and earth is
nothing other than mountains, rivers, and earth. There are no additional waves or surf, no wind or
smoke.”

Yes, mind as all things, all things as one mind ... and this -IS- mountains and rivers, waves and smoke too!

I am sure that experiencing this pure "awareness" is right for some folks, as is Vipassana and other ways. However, here we practice Shikantaza as our way to what is right here.

Sorry to pour on more words on words ...

Gassho, J

STLah

[VictorV]

So grateful for your words.
Gassho
SatTodayLAH

[Tairin]

Thank you Jundo

In Shikantaza, one sits without chasing after objects outside us, nor running away. We do not judge, we do not clutch thoughts. We do not seek some "mirror awareness" somehow untouched by the world which he describes, neither do we not seek it. We sit in the perfect completion of sitting for sitting's sake, with no other place to be nor goal to attain.

This is the description of Shikantaza that I come back to when I feel I may be getting lost.


Tairin
Just only sat today ....... and lah