Hi All,
I have read many, many much poorer or misleading descriptions of Shikantaza. However, this Teacher "Gets Sit Right!"
Lovely! Recommended to all ...
.
I heard it might be behind a paywall for some folks? If so, here is a different version:
Gassho, Jundo
stlah
I have read many, many much poorer or misleading descriptions of Shikantaza. However, this Teacher "Gets Sit Right!"
Lovely! Recommended to all ....
One of the most famous Buddhist meditations is the Zen practice of “just sitting,” or shikantaza in Japanese. For someone who wants a better world and wants to show up in it as a better person, it’s fair to ask: Why take up a practice of doing nothing in a world like this? Why would we do such a simple, directionless thing?
Twentieth-century Zen master Kodo Sawaki Roshi answered that question with this apparent paradox: “In the world, it’s always about winning or losing, plus or minus. Yet in shikantaza, it’s about nothing. It’s good for nothing. That’s why it is the greatest and most all-inclusive thing there is.”
... The descriptions of shikantaza emphasize the formlessness of nonduality: no separate sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mind. Poetry, metaphor, and the spiritual imagination can shine light on the many facets of objectless, themeless meditation. They’re saying that it’s not about reaching some understanding, or poking our intellect into the workings of the world. It’s the subtle activity of allowing all things—not just you—to be completely at rest as they are.
In this way, shikantaza goes against the stream of the attainment mind that we’ve all been coopted into having. We are taking our attention back, decluttering and decolonizing the mind. Letting things be, and letting things be free—because, well, things are free. They freely come and go, freely begin and end, freely come together and fall apart and come together in new ways.
Twentieth-century Zen master Kodo Sawaki Roshi answered that question with this apparent paradox: “In the world, it’s always about winning or losing, plus or minus. Yet in shikantaza, it’s about nothing. It’s good for nothing. That’s why it is the greatest and most all-inclusive thing there is.”
... The descriptions of shikantaza emphasize the formlessness of nonduality: no separate sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mind. Poetry, metaphor, and the spiritual imagination can shine light on the many facets of objectless, themeless meditation. They’re saying that it’s not about reaching some understanding, or poking our intellect into the workings of the world. It’s the subtle activity of allowing all things—not just you—to be completely at rest as they are.
In this way, shikantaza goes against the stream of the attainment mind that we’ve all been coopted into having. We are taking our attention back, decluttering and decolonizing the mind. Letting things be, and letting things be free—because, well, things are free. They freely come and go, freely begin and end, freely come together and fall apart and come together in new ways.
I heard it might be behind a paywall for some folks? If so, here is a different version:
Gassho, Jundo
stlah
Comment