Shikantaza is a deep meditation practice that grew out of the Anapanasati (breath awareness) meditation. As taught by Mugen Roshi, there is a three-stage process to this meditation. The final stage is “opening to the vastness of the Absolute supported by grace.” We rest our direct Awareness in the spacious, unbounded qualities of the Absolute, the source of all creation and manifestation. Steeping directly, non-conceptually, in the Absolute promotes and invites kenshō, or awakening.
Shikantanza often provides the opening steps to Mugen’s guided meditations into the Absolute.
Shikantaza, which is also known as silent illumination meditation, is a practice that became established in China as Buddhism geographically migrated from India and Nepal to China. It is meditating silently while remaining open to the radiance, the illumination, of the Presence of the Absolute. Silent illumination meditation is mostly associated with the Chinese Chan Buddhist or Japanese Zen Buddhist traditions.
The silent illumination practice effectively involves transforming our awareness to a more unconditioned awareness. In reality, these awarenesses are not two. We appear to separate our personal awareness from unconditioned awareness through the application of conceptual convictions.
The benefit of shikantaza is that it assists us in softening the concepts of identification, relaxing perception, and blurring all separation. That is, this meditation begins to gently challenge our beliefs that we are exclusively a separate self whose life success is entirely dependent for survival upon each of our individual actions.
― Stephen Snyder, Liberating the Self: Buddhist Practices for an Authentic Life
How to Do Shikantaza – 30 Minute – Guided Meditation
This is a great beginner meditation or to help support daily practice when you don’t have a lot of time available.
Everything, including all aspects of direct experience, is always right here, always. The core quality of the universe is hereness, also called thusness or suchness in Buddhism. That means there is nowhere other than right here that we can ever abide. These are the important experiential learnings shikantaza affords us. Our connection with awareness in this meditation softens to the point that we can feel what should be an end point to awareness, yet there is no end point. Awareness is vast and without any kind of limitation, end point, or boundary.
― Stephen Snyder, Liberating the Self: Buddhist Practices for an Authentic Life
Shikantaza with Sando Roshi
Shikantaza is taught multiple ways at Awakening Dharma. In this video Mark Sando Mininberg, Roshi gives a more traditional presentation.
Shikantaza Instructions
Mugen Roshi discusses instructions for Shikantaza.
There is a wonderful Zen expression of true reality: “not two, not one.” This means that the concept, the idea, the belief in duality is a position of the mind. It is not real. Through sustained spiritual practice, the divisions or barriers of separation soften and drop. When the divisions of separation fall away, we are in contact with what feels like a unity, a Oneness.
With further spiritual work, we can realize that even the Oneness is a concept, an idea we project on the reality of the Absolute. When we fully grok, or fully get, that Oneness and unity are concepts, too, we can release those and be fully in a world of “not two, not one.” It is just this. Just this moment. Just this direct experience of reality. This realization of “not two, not one” is called suchness or thusness in Buddhism.
One of the meditative methods we can use to contact “not two, not one”—thusness—is through shikantaza (from the Zen tradition).
― Stephen Snyder, Liberating the Self: Buddhist Practices for an Authentic Life
Shikantaza – Guided Meditation
This is a longer guided meditation on Shikantaza and is good for beginners because it includes extra preamble and instruction.
Related
More videos about Shikantaza are available on the YouTube Channel.
To receive instruction in this practice, consider signing up for an online mentoring program or in-person retreat.