Taigu speaks with my tongue! 
The faster approach to ... WHAT? WHAT! Attaining "faster" a realization beyond and right through human judgments of "fast vs. slow"? A "getting there" that is reached by a radical dropping of the need to "get" or "anywhere else"? How, Sam, does one get "faster" to a place beyond and right through "here and there"?
Different Teachers speak in different ways for the same reason that different chefs disagree on the right way to make tomato soup. The only question in the end is which recipes are tasty and which are not. Teachers who describe Shikantaza as some kind of instrument to get some where do not truly have a handle on Shikantaza in my book, for Shikantaza is a method to "get somewhere" by the radical dropping of the need to "get" (rare in our busy world of get get get) and "somewhere" (rare in our discontented world where we always looking for the answer "over there", the next book on the self-help bookshelf, and are blind to what is here there and everywhere). Only when such is fully realized does on truly "Get Somewhere"!
I agree that some settling and balance is necessary at the start, because the beginners' head (and all our heads sometimes) can be a mess! A bit of breath following can be helpful. However, this is not about building deep concentration states or experiencing some sudden "Kensho" (although such happens too). Rather, after a time of following breath, when some clarity and balance is present ... we return to just sitting in open, spacious awareness beyond and right through all human judgments of "clarity" vs. "mess". The result is a certain Clear Illumination which shines right through/behind/beyond and precisely as the whole catastrophe of "life's mess".
In a sense, it is unfortunate that the Harada-Yasutani-Sanbokyodan hybrid of Rinzai-Soto Practice has been so disproportionately influential in America and elsewhere, far beyond the small group it is in Japan, because it meant that their particular interpretations of aspects of Practice were also disproportionately influential as Zen came to America in the 50s, 60s and 70s. You can read more about them in the following scholar's paper. I believe that one reason that folks have become disenchanted with Zen Practice in the West is because a lot of the methods taught by them, and a lot of the "big payoffs" promised, did not pay out as was advertised in so many of the books written by their folks in the 1960's and 70s ... maybe most of the Zen books in English from that time because their group was one of the "only games in town" in those early years. They are generally nice folks (some fallen teachers in there too), but I just do not care for how they cook the soup sometimes.
Shikakantaza is cooking-non-cooking.
Gassho, Jundo
The faster approach to ... WHAT? WHAT! Attaining "faster" a realization beyond and right through human judgments of "fast vs. slow"? A "getting there" that is reached by a radical dropping of the need to "get" or "anywhere else"? How, Sam, does one get "faster" to a place beyond and right through "here and there"?
Different Teachers speak in different ways for the same reason that different chefs disagree on the right way to make tomato soup. The only question in the end is which recipes are tasty and which are not. Teachers who describe Shikantaza as some kind of instrument to get some where do not truly have a handle on Shikantaza in my book, for Shikantaza is a method to "get somewhere" by the radical dropping of the need to "get" (rare in our busy world of get get get) and "somewhere" (rare in our discontented world where we always looking for the answer "over there", the next book on the self-help bookshelf, and are blind to what is here there and everywhere). Only when such is fully realized does on truly "Get Somewhere"!
I agree that some settling and balance is necessary at the start, because the beginners' head (and all our heads sometimes) can be a mess! A bit of breath following can be helpful. However, this is not about building deep concentration states or experiencing some sudden "Kensho" (although such happens too). Rather, after a time of following breath, when some clarity and balance is present ... we return to just sitting in open, spacious awareness beyond and right through all human judgments of "clarity" vs. "mess". The result is a certain Clear Illumination which shines right through/behind/beyond and precisely as the whole catastrophe of "life's mess".
In a sense, it is unfortunate that the Harada-Yasutani-Sanbokyodan hybrid of Rinzai-Soto Practice has been so disproportionately influential in America and elsewhere, far beyond the small group it is in Japan, because it meant that their particular interpretations of aspects of Practice were also disproportionately influential as Zen came to America in the 50s, 60s and 70s. You can read more about them in the following scholar's paper. I believe that one reason that folks have become disenchanted with Zen Practice in the West is because a lot of the methods taught by them, and a lot of the "big payoffs" promised, did not pay out as was advertised in so many of the books written by their folks in the 1960's and 70s ... maybe most of the Zen books in English from that time because their group was one of the "only games in town" in those early years. They are generally nice folks (some fallen teachers in there too), but I just do not care for how they cook the soup sometimes.
As I mention from time to time, the Harada-Yasutani Lineage, and the organization known as "Sanbokyodan" represents a unique hybrid blending of "Just Sitting" Dogen with a form of of Rinzai Koan-centered Zazen pushing hard for Kensho, e.g., by the 'Mu' Koan. The flavor comes through at times as, for example, might be felt in the first few pages here. I mention this from time to time because folks should know that there are very different approaches to Zen and Zazen, and not all "Zen" is of the same flavor (just the same ... but sometimes very different ) . Thus, folks may otherwise go to the book store and pick up a "Zen" book, or listen to a talk, and wonder why the contents seem so different sometimes (same ... but different 
). Despite its modest size in Japan (but, then again, the same for my own lineage through Nishijima Roshi!), the Sanbôkyôdan has had a large influence on Zen in the West due to the great number of Zen teachers in America who have direct ties to it, including Robert Aitken, Maezumi Taizan (the "White Plum") and his students such as Daido Loori, Bernie Glassman, Genpo Merzel , Chozen Bays and Joan Halifax, as well as Philip Kapleau (author of Three Pillars of Zen") and Eido Tai Shimano Roshis.
You can read more in this the Robert Sharf article on the Sanbo Kyodan [PDF}
Sanbôkyôdan Zen and the Way of the New Religions
by Robert H. Sharf
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (1995) 22 3-4
). Despite its modest size in Japan (but, then again, the same for my own lineage through Nishijima Roshi!), the Sanbôkyôdan has had a large influence on Zen in the West due to the great number of Zen teachers in America who have direct ties to it, including Robert Aitken, Maezumi Taizan (the "White Plum") and his students such as Daido Loori, Bernie Glassman, Genpo Merzel , Chozen Bays and Joan Halifax, as well as Philip Kapleau (author of Three Pillars of Zen") and Eido Tai Shimano Roshis.You can read more in this the Robert Sharf article on the Sanbo Kyodan [PDF}
Sanbôkyôdan Zen and the Way of the New Religions
by Robert H. Sharf
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (1995) 22 3-4
Gassho, Jundo
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