from "A Reader on Shikantaza" ..contributors include Uchiyama Roshi, John Daido Loori,
In the same spirit, what does the following passage mean? “A difference, even the
breadth of a hair, separates heaven from Earth. If you make a distinction between
favorable and unfavorable conditions, your mind will be lost in confusion.”
Life is this moment is fresh, raw and new. But when we think about this essential fact as
an idea in our heads, we get stuck, wondering about what we can understand and what we
can force into our categories. When we think about “the freshness of life”, it isn’t fresh
anymore, it isn’t alive. Freshness of life means opening the hand of thought. Only when
we do so can life be fresh. Zazen is this “opening this hand of thought”. It is the posture
of letting go.
Now I have to say a word about the actual practice of shikantaza. Sitting in zazen does
not mean that we do not have any thoughts. All kinds of arise. Yet when you follow these
thoughts, it can’t be called zazen anymore. You are simply thinking in the posture of
zazen. So you have to realize that right now you are practicing zazen and it is not the time
for thinking. This is correcting your attitude, correcting your posture, letting the thoughts
go and returning to zazen. This is called “awakening from distraction and confusion.”
Another time you might be tired. Then you have to remind yourself that you are
practicing zazen right now, and it is not the time for sleeping. This is correcting your
attitude, correcting your posture, really opening the eyes and returning to zazen. This is
called “Awakening from dullness and fatigue.”
Zazen means awakening from distraction and confusion and from dullness and fatigue,
awakening to zazen billions of times. The zazen of living out this fresh and raw life
means awakening the mind, certifying through practice billions of times. This is
shikantaza.
