Shikantaza

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In Zen Buddhism, Shikantaza (只管打坐) is the practice of "just sitting." It is Dōgen's Japanese translation of the Chinese phrase zhǐguǎn dǎzuò (只管打坐 / 祇管打坐). The phrase was used by Dōgen's teacher Rujing, a monk of the Caodong school of Chan Buddhism, to refer to the meditation practice called "silent illumination" (mozhao, Chinese: 默照), or "serene reflection," famously taught by the Caodong master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157). In Japan, the practice is associated with the Sōtō school, Dōgen's offshoot of Caodong. Some practitioners teach that shikantaza means that one should not focus attention on a specific object (such as the breath), instead "just sitting" in a state of conscious awareness. As the modern Sōtō Zen teacher Shohaku Okumura explains, "We don’t set our mind on any particular object, visualization, mantra, or even our breath itself. When we just sit, our mind is nowhere and everywhere." According to Buswell and Lopez, the Sōtō school presents shikantaza as a radical simplification...

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