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只管打坐 is Dogen's Japanese translation of the Chinese language phrase zhǐguǎn dǎzuò (只管打坐 / 祇管打坐), "focus on meditative practice alone", although many modern Western practitioners have interpreted this very differently. The phrase was used by Dogen's teacher Rujing, a monk of the Caodong school of Chan Buddhism Buddhism, to refer to the meditation-practice called "silent illumination" (), or "serene reflection", taught by the Caodong master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157). In Japan, it is associated with the Zen Soto school, Dogen'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. However, the 13th-century origin of the expression indicates a general emphasis on meditation in any form as sufficient for spiritual enlightenment. The original teaching was meant to criticize the complicated ceremony, abstruse study, endless tracing of spiritual lineage, and other aspects of Buddhism that even by the 12th century had been identified as excessive.
According to Buswell and Lopez, the Sōtō school presents shikantaza as a radical simplification of practice which is necessary in the degenerate age of the Dharma, or mappō. That is, rather than try to master a range of concentration techniques, such as breath counting or the investigation of Koan, by simply adopting the posture of the buddhas and ancestors, the practitioner becomes identical to them in body and mind, thus becoming stabilized in "a state of full clarity and alertness, free from any specific content," which is also described as the state of body and mind dropping off.Robert Buswell Jr. and Donald Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, page 805, Princeton University Press, 2014
The inspiration for this teaching derives from a pivotal episode reportedly occurring sometime in the early 1220s (Song dynasty), at Tiantong Temple (天童寺, also known as Jingde Monastery 景德寺, east of modern-day Ningbo). An exchange took place between the eminent Chinese Caodong school teacher Rujing and his disciples. In particular, it focuses on an inspiration by one of Rujing's Japanese disciples, Dōgen, who would later found the Sōtō Zen sect:
While T.G. Foulk's translation here reads only "sit", he and other interpreters clarify that the meaning of 打坐 is generally broad, meaning more than simply sitting. The original exchange between Rujing and his disciples indicates a clear meaning of the teaching: that high-flung ceremony and study are unnecessary and irrelevant, that zazen, dhyana, and similar meditation practice of whatever kind (whether sitting, resting, breathing, gazing at a scene, walking, or simply engaging in silence) should be sufficiently effective.
James Ishmael Ford states that "some trace the root of this word shikantaza to the Japanese pronunciation of Sanskrit vipassana, though this is far from certain." This etymological error about 只管 ( shikan, "only", "just") is rooted in the fact that Japanese has many homophones pronounced shikan. It stems from a more commonly used Japanese word, namely 止観 ( shikan, "concentration and observation") (as practiced by the Tendai sect) that translates the Sanskrit " śamatha and vipaśyanā," the two basic forms of Buddhist meditation.
The phrase zhǐguǎn dǎzuò ("just sitting") was used by Dōgen's teacher Tiantong Rujing (1162–1228) for silent illumination (Chinese mòzhào 默照; Japanese ). According to Koten Benson, in mochao
With the phrase shikantaza Dōgen means "doing only zazen whole-heartedly" or "single-minded sitting." According to Merv Fowler, shikantaza is described best as "quiet sitting in open awareness, reflecting directly the reality of life." According to Austin, shikantaza is "an alert condition, performed erect, with no trace of sluggishness or drowsiness." Fred Reinhard Dallmayr writes,
Commenting on Loori's words, meditation expert Eric Harrison likens shikantaza to a psychology process of extinction, in which repeated reduction of a behavioral response eventually leads to no response.
Loori describes awareness as the one thing necessary to the practice of shikantaza. This requires a heightened state of mental alertness, which he warns cannot be maintained for too long periods of time. He recommends to practice shikantaza half an hour to an hour, then stand up and practice kinhin in order to relax the mind before sitting down and continuing.
Shunryū Suzuki states about shikantaza, "do not try to stop your mind, but leave everything as it is. Then things will not stay in your mind for so long. Things will come as they come and go as they go. Eventually your clear, empty mind will last fairly long." For his part, describing the practice's goal as being simply aware of thoughts without getting caught by them, Sean Murphy cites Taizan Maezumi as advising to "regard our thoughts as if they were clouds, watching them as they drift from one end of the mind to the other, but making no attempt to hold onto them - and when they pass over the horizon, as they inevitably will, making no attempt to grasp after them.Sean Murphy, "Guided Meditation: Passing Thoughts", Yoga Journal, January–February 2003
Jundo Cohen warns that its meaning of "just sitting" must not be taken too literally, and underlines the importance of awareness. When faced against strong emotions or anxious thoughts, Cohen instructs to simply observe them with equanimity, "treating them like passing weather clouds". At the same time, he stresses not to play with and be pulled in by thoughts. He compares shikantaza to "the children's puzzle of Chinese finger cuffs, which are escaped not by forceful effort, but by non-resistance". Only by dropping the hunt for enlightenment, accepting everything without grasping or avoiding, can enlightenment be found.
Another similar description comes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, in I Am That, where he recommends "letting thoughts flow and watching them and to keep the mind quiet. "The state of freedom from all thoughts will happen suddenly and by the bliss of it you shall recognize it."Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That, p.224-225
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