Shikantaza
By: Rebecca Li
Making the mind anything but just mind as it is, is not Silent Illumination. By just staying continuously with what is going on, with clarity, we are being truly kind to ourselves and cultivating the habit of being unconditionally compassionate to everyone we encounter.
From: Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No Method. Li is a Chan teacher and dharma heir of Simon Child, in the lineage of Master Sheng Yen.
By John Daido Loori
Whether we work on the breath, with a koan, or shikantaza, zazen eventually leads to samadhi. The first indication is usually an off-sensation of the body. This happens most frequently during sesshin because of the long periods of sitting. When you sit for a while without moving the body, it stops receiving information about its edges through the senses, such as the friction of your clothing, or an itch on your leg. So, although you know the body is there, you don’t feel it. Some people get frightened at this point and involuntarily their body twitches and defines its edges. Then they slowly move to that place again, and gradually they learn to trust it and they begin to go a little further each time. Next comes the off-sensation of the mind. The mind is dependent on thoughts, but when the thoughts disappear, the mind disappears, the self disappears. That constant reflex action that says, “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here” is the ego manifesting itself. This is when we realize that we are constantly re-creating ourselves.
From The Art of Just Sitting. John Daido Loori (1931-2009) was the Abbott of Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York. He received Dharma Transmission from Taizan Maezumi Roshi. He also received Dharma Transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well.
By: Shohaku Okumura
…In zazen we let go of our thought. This letting go is “not-understanding.” Thought is “understanding.” By letting go we “do not-understanding.” This sitting and letting go of thought, this opening the hand of thought, is the true Dharma eye. That means that we are not grasping things with our karmic consciousness or with the thoughts that arise from it.
“Karmic consciousness” refers to the storage of our past experiences. According to Yogacara teaching, our consciousness can be categorized into eight layers….[T]he deepest layer of our consciousness is our “storehouse consciousness.” All the experiences from birth or even before are stored in this deepest layer. When we encounter a new object or situation, we interpret it according to what kind of seeds are stored in our storehouse. The way we view and react to things depends on the seeds we have. This is karmic consciousness, and it is how we are unique: each of us has different seeds stored in our storehouse. That is the teaching of Buddhist psychology.
…Our zazen is a unique thing. We face the wall without an object. Still, many things rise in our consciousness. For example, I might think about an incident that made me angry, maybe yesterday. That event may be so powerful that no matter how many times I have tried to let go it still comes up. Actually, when I am sitting and facing the wall the incident is already over. It’s not reality anymore. But it continues in my consciousness as if it were real. During zazen I can see clearly that there’s no object, no person in front of me now. It’s an illusion, just energy that still remains from those seeds in my storehouse consciousness. So I can let go. When we let go without grasping, without taking action based on our thoughts, we are released from our karmic consciousness. This is the completely unique activity of zazen.
Of course, day-to-day things influence what’s going on in our minds. If someone recently triggered my anger, thoughts come up about that person while I’m sitting. I might try to figure out why the person said or did such a thing. Anger also may arise. Anger is a kind of energy; it comes back no matter how many times I try to let go. When I am sitting facing the wall, the person and the incident are already gone, yet the person is also still sitting within me. The instant that brought up my anger is gone yet still seems to be there. While sitting, I may try to figure out what kind of person this is and why he or she did this or that.
When I continue this way in zazen, moment by moment…, I get tired. Somehow my mind calms down. Eventually I realize that the reason this person did the thing that angered me is gone. The anger, though, is still there as energy. When I sit with this energy it goes deeper and deeper. This is no longer the anger caused by the particular action or particular person. Instead, I find that this anger is my self. And still I sit and try to let go of whatever comes up, to just keep sitting. Sometimes, not always, I experience that the anger disappears.
I have found that anger is not really caused by a particular person’s action. The anger is inside me. That person’s action or speech simply opens the lid of my consciousness. Feelings and thoughts always come from our own consciousness. They come up in zazen; when we let go, we can let go, and that’s okay. Zazen is a unique and precious practice. In the zendo we can let go of everything. This is really liberation – not only from our daily lives but also from the karmic consciousness created by our twisted karma. In zazen we are determined not to take action based on the thoughts coming and going; therefore we don’t create new karma. This is what it means that in zazen we are liberated from our karma.
My teacher… taught that zazen itself is the true Dharma eye. In other words, the true Dharma eye means not seeing things with our karmic consciousness. This is the meaning of [my teacher’s] phrase ”opening the hand of thought.” In ordinary life, thought leads to actions. When we open the hand of thought, we let go and no actions arise.
…Only in zazen can we stop making karma. When we leave the zendo we have to do something; to do something we have to make choices, and the choices I make depend on my values, which are influenced by my karmic consciousness.
When we stand up from the cushion and go outside we cannot let go of everything; it would be dangerous. When we leave the zendo we have to think again. We have to make choices about what we should and shouldn’t do. In daily life I need to think and take actions using my knowledge, understanding, values, and picture of the world…
Our practice in daily life is about creating wholesome karma. In this context, wholesome karma means to manifest in daily life what we experience in zazen: no separation between myself and other people and myriad things….That is our life based on zazen and the bodhisattva vows.
Note: This is from Chapter 1 of The Mountains and Waters Sutra
By: Hee-Jin Kim
Shikantaza (just sitting) consists of four aspects:
(1) It is that seated meditation which is objectless, imageless, themeless, with no internal or external devices or supports, and is non concentrative, decentered and open-ended. Yet it is a heightened, sustained, and total awareness of the self an the world.
(2) It seeks no attainment whatsoever, be it enlightenment, an extraordinary religious experience, supernormal powers, or buddhahood, and accordingly, it is non-teleological and simply ordinary.
(3) It is “the body-mind cast off” as the state of ultimate freedom, also called the samadhi of self-fulfilling activity (jijiyu zammai)
(4) It requires single-minded earnestness, resolve, and urgency on the part of the meditator.
Note: This quote is from Dogen on Meditation and Thinking: A Reflection of His View of Zen
Further note: Here is Katagiri Roshi (1928-1990), founder of the Minnesota Zen Center and an important figure in the transmission of Soto Zen from Japan to the West, on the meaning of jijuyu zammai (self-fulfilling samadhi):
Ji means self, ju means receive, yu means use and samadhi means oneness. This means you receive your life and simultaneously the whole universe. That is why samadhi is translated into Japanese as “right acceptance.” Right acceptance is to receive yourself and simultaneously the whole universe. We have to receive the universe and use it. You are you, but you are not you, you are the whole universe. That is why we are beautiful. If we wholeheartedly paint a certain scene from nature on canvas, it becomes not just a portion of nature that we pick out, it represents the whole picture of nature. At that time, that picture becomes a masterpiece… Drawing one line is not one line, this one line is simultaneously the whole picture. That is called jijuyu samadhi.
—This quote is taken from Katagiri’s book Returning to Silence.
By: Hee-Jin Kim
Nonthinking should be understood as…radically nondualistic thinking…objectless, non-referential thinking.
Note: Hee-Jin Kim is a leading scholar of Dogen and Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. He is the author of Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist and Dogen on Meditation and Thinking: A Reflection on His View of Zen.
By: Lewis Richmond
In the last few years neurologists have been wiring up Zen meditators, and they’ve been discovering that the electrical patterns of the meditating brain look different than those of the normal waking mind. We might say that zazen is a different way to be awake. This difference may rest not so much in the cortex—the part that does thinking and logical tasks—but in the older parts of the brain, those having to do with emotion, spatial perception, and the faculty that defines the boundary of self and other.
This emerging neurological understanding may help us understand “think not-thinking” as a state where the higher brain functions are all operative and alert, but not purposefully active. We don’t shut down ordinary consciousness, as we would in states of deep concentration or trance. But we don’t apply our mind to anything in particular, either. Instead, we just rest in awareness itself, consciousness itself.
By: Josho Pat Phelan
In everyday language, it sounds like Dogen is saying to stop thinking. We all know what thinking is, and not-thinking is its opposite. But trying to stop thought by using discriminating consciousness to control consciousness creates a narrow, controlled experience. Both thinking and stopping thinking are found in the realm of duality; they are relative to one another. One can’t exist without the other because they mutually define each other like hot and cold, light and dark, forward and backward. But Dogen’s nonthinking is outside duality. Actually, the character translated as “non” in “non-thinking” includes the aspects of beyond, transcendent or emancipated. Kaz Tanahashi translated “nonthinking” both as “beyond thinking” and as “before thinking”. So, “nonthinking” is considered emancipated thinking which transcends and is free from both thinking and stopping thought.
Dogen was critical of meditation methods that involved stopping thought and controlling the mind in order to become absorbed completely in the object of meditation. This type of absorption usually removes awareness from the immediate environment and from one’s bodily presence.
Note: Josho Pat Phalen is the Guiding Teacher of the Chapel Hill Zen Center and is the dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi. This quote is taken from one of a series of dharma talks that she gave on the Fukanzazengi, and which can be found here.
By: Kosho Uchiyama Roshi
I have said that if you sit and think during zazen, then that is thinking and not doing zazen. Does that mean that no thoughts at all should occur to us during zazen? Is good zazen that condition when all thoughts have ceased to come into our minds?
Here we have to clearly distinguish “chasing after thoughts and thinking” from “ideas or thoughts merely occurring.” If a thought occurs during zazen and we proceed to chase after it, then we are thinking and no doing zazen. Yet this doesn’t mean that we are doing zazen only when thoughts have entirely ceased to occur. How should we understand this contradiction?
Imagine placing a large rock next to a person doing zazen. Since this rock is not alive, no matter how long it sits there, a thought will never occur to is. Unlike the rock, however, the person doing zazen next to it is a living human being. Even if we sit as stationary as the rock, we cannot say that no thoughts will occur. On the contrary, if they did not, we would have to say that that person is no longer alive. Of course, the truth of life never means to become lifeless like the rock. For that reason, thoughts ceasing to occur is not the ideal state of one sitting zazen. It is perfectly natural that thoughts occur. Yet, if we chase after thoughts we are thinking and no longer doing zazen. So what should our attitude be?
Briefly, our attitude in zazen is aiming at maintaining the posture of zazen without our flesh and bones, and with our mind letting go of thoughts.
What is letting go of thoughts? Well, when we think, we think of something. Thinking of something means grasping that something with thought. However, during zazen we open the hand of thought that is trying to grasp something, and simply refrain from grasping. This is letting go of thoughts.
Note: Kosho Uchiyama Roshi (1912-1998) was a Soto Zen priest and Abbott of Anatai-ji Monastery near Tokyo. Among his dharma heirs are Shohaku Okumura. This quote is taken from his book Opening the Hand of Thought.
By: John Daido Loori
When you’re doing shikantaza you don’t try to focus on anything specifically, or to make thoughts go away. You simply allow everything to be just the way it is. Thoughts come, thoughts go, and you simply watch them; you keep your awareness on them. It takes a lot of energy and persistence to sit shikantaza, to not get caught up in daydreaming. But little by little, thoughts begin to slow down, and finally they cease to arise. When the thought disappears, the thinker disappears. This is the samadhi of falling away of body and mind.
Note: John Daido Loori (1931-2009) was the founder of Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York and was a dharma heir of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. This quote is taken from an article in Lion’s Roar which can be found here.
By: Brad Warner
If you start really paying attention to your own thought process—I’m talking here about the process itself and not just the contents of the individual thoughts that make it up—you’ll notice that thoughts don’t just go on and on continuously. There are little spaces between them. Most of us tend to habitually try and fill these spaces up with more thoughts as fast as we possibly can. But even the best of us can’t fill them all, so there are always little gaps. See, you might say that there are two basic kinds of thought. There are thoughts that pop up unannounced and uninvited in our brains for no reason we’re able to discern. These are just the results of previous thoughts and experiences that have left their traces in the neural pathways of our brains. You can’t do much to stop these, nor should you try. The other kind of thought is when we grab on to one of these streams of energy and start playing with it the way your mom always told you not to do with your wee-wee in front of the neighbors. We dig deep into these thoughts and roll around in them like a pig rolling in its own doo-doo, feeling all that delicious coolness and drinking deep of their lovely stink.
To practice “thinking not thinking,” all you need to do is ignore the first kind of thoughts and learn how not to instigate the second. This is easier said than done, of course. But get into the habit, and it begins to come naturally.
…Now try to look at the natural spaces between thoughts. Learn what it feels like to just stop generating more and more stuff for your brain to chew on. Now see if you can do that for longer and longer periods. A couple of seconds is fine. Voilà! Thinking not thinking!
Note: Brad Warner is a Soto Zen teacher, writer and former punk rock bass guitarist. His books include Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality, and Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master. This quote is from an article by Warner titled “Think Not Thinking” in Tricycle Magazine, which can be found here.
By: Sotan Tatsugami
Dogen Zenji asks: "How do you think the unthinkable?" Answering himself, Dogen says: "non-thinking". "Non" is not merely a negation. In this case "non" means beyond, transcendent, or emancipated. Non-thinking is the state of one's mind beyond the thinkable, yet including it. Non-thinking is to transcend "no thinking" and to become free. The function of thinking exists, of course, but you are able to transcend it and free yourself. You cannot attain freedom, however, when you cling to something, when you cannot abandon everything. Your view of things becomes very one-sided then. In Japanese there is a very interesting word: tam-pan-kan. This means a person who carries a board on his shoulder. He can see just one side of the board, not the other. Therefore, tam-pan-kan denotes an inflexible and unadaptable person. You should not be a tam-pan-kan. I would like to recommend that you practice zazen. By doing so you will get a taste of what non-thinking means. It is difficult to understand what non-thinking means by listening to a lecture. Please practice zazen. The experience of non-thinking is not only very important, but essential in the practice of zazen. It enables you to realize how valuable zazen is.
Note: This quote is taken from a series of lectures given by Sotan Tatsugami at Tassajara Monastery in 1969-70, translated by then Katagairi Sensei, later Katagiri Roshi (founder of the Minnesota Zen Center and one of the early Japanese Zen pioneers in America). Sotan Tatsugami served for 12 years as the head of training at Eiheiji Monastery in Japan, which was founded by Dogen.
If you are interested, there is an interesting piece on David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber website on the relationships and differences in practice and viewpoints between Tatsugami, Katagiri and Suzuki when they were practicing together at Tassajara that can be found here:
By: Barry Magid
"Think nonthinking" is a phrase by Dogen that people stumble over and find confusing. People in Dogen's time, and even now, misunderstand it to mean "don't think." A better translation of "Non Thinking" is "just think." Like, "just sit," this is not a simple phrase. Our thinking is not something contaminating our mind, something we're trying to get rid of. We let it be there empty of intention. Let thought just be thought, not something we have to do anything about whatsoever.
Note: Barry Magid is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen teacher. He is the founder of the Ordinary Mind Zendo in New York City and is a dharma heir of Charlotte Joko Beck. The above quote is from a dharma talk by him that can be found here.
By: Issho Fujita
When we refer to the qualities of…beyond thinking…we mean that sitting posture is (itself) beyond thinking and has no thought…not that we ourselves are. We will never be beyond thinking…as long as we live. What we can do is sit with the faith that zazen posture itself is Buddha, that zazen posture itself is beyond thinking.
We tend to think that we are sitting zazen. This is not the case. The entire universe is sitting zazen.
Note: Issho Fujita is a Soto Zen teacher who was the Abbott of Valley Zendo in western Massachusetts and the Director of Soto Zen International Center in Japan. This quote is taken from a talk given by Josho Pat Phelan.
By Norman Fischer
In zazen we’re not trying to think something in particular or to orient the mind in a particular direction. Nor is it necessary for us to somehow shut off thinking, which, though difficult, is actually not impossible when the mind is concentrating. Instead, he says think not-thinking, which is called nonthinking—a sort of thinking. It is very, very similar to the way we usually think, but there’s a little, tiny difference. And that little, tiny difference makes a categorical difference, even though we could miss it. The difference is so small that it is hard to see, but once you see it, it makes all the difference.
In usual thinking, and most of the time we are not at all conscious of this, what drives the thinking is some hook, some catch to thinking. That hook and that catch is “I” or “me.” “I’m thinking.” The thinking has to do with me. This fact inspires and conditions the thinking at all points, and that’s all we know in our life. So Descartes, who never dreamed of anything like zazen, was right when he said, “I think therefore I am.” That’s exactly right: “I think therefore I am.” And he could have added, “And therefore I suffer, and I screw up right and left, and I ultimately make everybody miserable.
So that’s what characterizes ordinary thinking—that hook, that catch of “I”, which is the most natural thing in the world. When we think of not-thinking or non-thinking, the “I,” that little catch, is naturally set aside, because instead of putting our energy into it, which we normally and automatically do, we are putting our energy into our breathing posture. We’re trusting that and developing that, and we’re doing a little kind of brain surgery. We’re gently removing “me” and “I”, and we’re replacing it with breathing and posture. Therefore the thinking has a completely different force and energy. It might not even be the same thoughts! The content could be almost the same, at least at first. But the sense of what the thinking is and its meaning and the energy behind it are utterly and completely different. Thoughts can arise and pass away without that hook or that catch. Each thought is free—it doesn’t have to be in service or me or I. It doesn’t have to be my thought. It just comes and goes.
At first non-thinking might not feel so different from thinking, but it is totally different, because fundamentally there is no suffering in it. Even if the thoughts that come and go are very negative—nasty, smelly, awful thoughts—if you just let them come and go without that hook, without that catch, there’s really no suffering in the thoughts. Eventually, if you continue to practice non-thinking, there will be serenity and peace, and the kinds of thoughts that arise will be different. Thoughts will just float up into the mind and float away, with no more trouble or anguish than a cloud floating by in the sky. Practicing in that way, the backward step occurs.
Note: Norman Fischer is the founder and Spiritual Director of the Everyday Zen Foundation and is a Soto Zen teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. The above passage is from a talk that he gave on Fukanzazengi, which can be found on the Everyday Zen website here.
By: Shohaku Okumura
When we are sitting, we do not follow our thoughts, nor do we stop them. We just let them come and go freely. We cannot call it thinking because the thoughts are not grasped. If we simply peruse our thoughts, it is just thinking; it is not zazen. We cannot call zazen not-thinking either, because thoughts are coming and going like clouds floating in the sky. When we are sitting, our brain does not stop functioning, just as our stomach is always digesting. Sometimes our minds are busy; sometimes our minds are calm. Just sitting, without being concerned with the conditions of our mind, is the most important point in zazen. When we sit in this way, we are one with Reality, which is beyond thinking. To say it another way, Reality manifests itself through our body and mind.’ (notes on Fukanzazengi)
By: Suzuki Roshi
If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means your are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will be come calmer and calmer.... That everything is included within your mind is the essence of mind.
By: Sekkei Harada Roshi
But it isn’t necessary to stick to this form [prescribed by Dogen in the Fukanzazengi]. It is fine to switch over and put the right foot on the left thight. It is also all right to sit the way women do in Japan, with their feet tucked under them. Or to use various kinds of seats or benches. In any case don’t worry too much about the outer form. I would simply like you to find a position so you can sit comfortably for a long time, without feeling too much pain in your legs.
In some of the bigger monasteries in Japan, if a monk could not sit zazen in the full-lotus position, he was not allowed to stay. In recent years, though, there has been a realization that this was an error, and slowly things have changed. I think this is good.
Why is it that only the outer form has become emphasized in this way? The reason is that the essential Dharma has been lost, and in order to at least pass down something, a lot of emphasis has come to be placed on form.
We hear of people who think that Buddhist practice involves faithfully following the rules that Dogen prescribed. This is a great misinterpretation. This is to practice in a very narrow, militaristic sort of way. There may be some people here who think that practice means strictly adhering to the form, with no deviation allowed whatsoever. They may like to do it this way and thing it cannot be done in any other manner. I would like you to understand, however, that it is clearly taking place in a context where true zazen and true Dharma have disappeared. For that reason, only the form is emphasized and rigidly followed.
Note: Sekkei Harada Roshi (1926-2020) was the abbott of Hoshin-ji, a Soto Zen training monastery in Fukui Prefecture, near the coast of central Japan. The above quote is taken from his book, The Essence of Zen: The Teachings of Sekkei Harada.
By: Shohaku Okumura
We usually think this meditation practice is to attain some kind of enlightenment or awakening, but Dogen said we should just sit without any expectation, even enlightenment, because we practice in order to get enlightenment and that is desire, our egocentric desire is still working there in search of truth. So from the very very beginning, we, in Dogen’s expression, “throw ourselves into the Way without expecting any reward.”
[My] teacher, Sawaki Kodo Roshi, said Zazen, this sitting meditation, is “good for nothing.” That is what I [also] recommend to people. Zazen without expectation or without a gaining mind or “Zazen is good for nothing” is a kind of a Koan. Even I, when I started to practice, had some expectation; …without expectation or goal, we cannot start to practice. Here is a kind of conflict; we usually call this a “way seeking mind.” Without this way seeking mind (or in Buddhist terms bodhicitta) we cannot start to practice. But the teaching is you should not even expect the answer. So here is a conflict; as we continue, this becomes a really serious question.
Sometimes we have to face a dead end. Deep in my heart I think to practice “good for nothing Zazen” is the most authentic practice in [the] Buddhist tradition. That’s why I’m OK, that’s why my life is meaningful. One day I found myself sitting alone. … I sat by myself and I found deep peace. That means, I don’t need to be a good boy. I can be just sitting. And I found that is really “Zazen that is good for nothing.” Before that I intellectually understood it, that it is good for nothing as a Buddhist philosophy. But because of what I felt [that day sitting alone] my life is OK and meaningful. When I couldn’t continue in that way, I felt my life is not valuable. But I [have] found that that is [our] ground: we need to practice without a desire to be a good boy, not only in the secular, mundane way, but even as a Buddhist. I became free from my desire to be a good Buddhist. Finally, I think I found [the] real meaning of “zazen is good for nothing” or “practice without expectation or gaining mind.” So just be there with this body and mind.
When we sit, we don’t really listen to anything, we don’t pay any attention. Even if the birds are singing, and we are sitting, if I listen to their singing, and think these are the birds, then it’s not Zazen any more. Even when I do this, there is a separation between a person sitting and the sound. There is an interesting koan story in Zen, (and Dogen liked this [koan],) a teacher asked a student, showing, pointing to the wind bell, and the teacher asked does the wind make the sound, or does the bell make the sound? Then the student said my mind makes the sound without wind or bell. That means when the wind blows, the wind bell makes a vibration. When that vibration of the air reaches my ear, then it becomes sound. So before the vibrations reaches my ear, there is no sound. Sound is only inside of our mind. But Dogen said that is not true. Even if my mind is working, if the wind doesn’t blow, and the wind bell doesn’t shake, and the air doesn’t vibrate, then there is no sound. So all of them are making the sound, that means the entire universe is making the sound. So there is no subject who listens or sound that is heard, that is what Dogen called Total Function. We are part of it, so there is no such person who is listening, no sound that comes to me, but this entire world is making that sound through this person, and this person is only a tiny part of it.
This is from the dharma talk, “Zen Master Shohaku Okumura Explains Why Meditation is Good for Nothing,” which can be found at: https://www.upworthy.com/zen-master-explains-why-meditation-good-for-nothing?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2
By Rev. Issho Fujita
Meditation practices which emphasize something psychological—thoughts, perceptions, feelings, visualizations, intentions, etc.—all direct our attention to cortical-cerebral functions, which I will loosely refer to as “Head.” Most meditation, as we conventionally understand it, is a work that focuses on the Head. In Oriental medicine we find the interesting idea that harmony among the internal organs is of greatest importance. All the issues associated with Head are something merely resulting from a lack of harmony among the internal organs, which are the real bases of our life.
Because of our highly developed cortical-cerebral function, we tend to equate self-consciousness, the sense of “I,” with the Head—as if the Head is the main character in the play and the body is the servant following orders from the Head. However from the point of view of Oriental medicine this is not only a conceit of the Head, but is a total misconception of life. Head is just a small part of the whole of life, and need not hold such a privileged position.
While most meditation tends to focus on the Head, zazen focuses more on the living holistic body-mind framework, allowing the Head to exist without giving it any pre-eminence. If the Head is overfunctioning, it will give rise to a split and unbalanced life. But in the zazen posture it learns to find its proper place and function within a unified mind-body field. Our living human body is not just a collection of bodily parts, but is an organically integrated whole. It is designed in such a way that when one part of the body moves, however subtle the movement may be, it simultaneously causes the whole body to move in accordance with it.
The entire article may be found in the Spring 2002 issue of Insight Journal, a publication of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
To harden into a Buddha is wrong.
Ikkyu (1394-1481)