Shikantaza, Just Sitting

A regular meditation practice is like
a bridge connecting our busy mun-
dane minds to a peaceful sense of
silence and illuminating awareness.

            Buddhism is full of techniques for dealing with an overly active mind during meditation.  From what I have learned about meditation, the mind is supposed to be alert and aware during meditation (not drifting off somewhere in space, nor listening to "voices"or zoning out to "meditation music," etc.).  Yet, it's not to be caught in a parade of discursive thoughts, either...somewhere on a Middle Path between the two extremes.

             Of course, discursive thoughts have their place: they are great when one is trying to write something, like a blog post for instance, or give a speech, or chat with a beloved friend.  But they are obviously problematic to a meditator, someone trying to get away from them for a while.

           One method (or an approach to living, really) is that of shikantaza,“just sitting” in Japanese.  This method is a wonderful bridge leading one beyond the endless chitter-chatter of one’s thoughts, into a peaceful and empowering experience of pure awareness.  It involves only concentrating on the awareness of one’s body just sitting as one meditates, nothing more.  

Using a meditation bench like this one

is helpful when sitting for long periods

in this posture (called "seiza" in Japan-

ese).  You could buy one online, or even
make one.  Click here: seiza on Google

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With this practice, one doesn’t allow one’s mind to indulge in mental commentary, a bunch of opinions, facts and surface thoughts with little to no relevance and depth.  For instance, we often habitually beat ourselves up about one thing or another, “Look at me, I haven’t meditated in a week [a month, a year ....ever],” “I’m late on paying that phone bill….”  Or we mentally criticize someone or something else, “My co-worker makes me so angry….”  “I hate the color of my house….”

 These are unproductive, discursive thoughts that muliply like little rabbits, constantly giving birth to more and more discursive thoughts!  Shikantaza helps us cut out these unnecessary, drama-filled mental “stories” our minds tend to create and wrap around things.  Through this practice we give such thoughts a rest, and keep life simple.

Our Bodies and Thoughts as Training Wheels

            In this practice, we bring our awareness to one of the simplest things imaginable, the awareness of our bodies just sitting there in meditation.  We actually use the body as a meditative tool, an entry to deeper awareness.  Our bodies really are the best tools for this, better than prayer bracelets, mala necklaces, Buddha statuary, meditation music, and so forth, because they are always with us after those things drop away.

And we can also train our thoughts to help, rather than hinder us, as well.  One could gently and slowly repeat mentally, “I am just sitting.  I am just sitting” to return to focusing on being  aware of just sitting.  You start thinking about your laundry?  Just come back to this little phrase.  You start thinking about how your nose is itching, or how during group meditation your neighbor's stomach is growling awfully loudly?  Come back to the phrase.  Continue to do this each time you catch your mind straying, with no self-criticism. 

          This is like using training wheels to learn to ride a bike. As the focus of your mind begins to wobble and fall back into a ditch of distracting thoughts, use this simple phrase to aright it again, to get it back on its peaceful path. Gently return it to an awareness of just sitting, nothing more than that. Keep it simple.

Mistakes are part of this practice.  When
we fall off the wagon, we simply get back 
on the path again, with no self-defeating
mental diatribes about past mistakes,
nor potential future ones.

          And doing this gently is the key to success with this method; it never helps to command the mind to do anything!  Doing so will only cause it to rebel somehow, and rebel it will.  It will  "decide" to get very sleepy, or frustrated and bored, or just not focus.  So, never try to bully your mind. 

          On the contrary, be gentle and respectful to your mind.  It works hard for you every day, whether you are a homemaker, or a CEO.  Just mentally repeat this phrase in a no-pressure, patient manner, and before long the mind willingly cooperates.  As its discursive thoughts quietly die down, it will even surrender the training wheels,  even this little phrase itself drops off.  You won't realize when it's done so; you'll just enjoy the silence of pure awareness.

Shikantaza by Extension

           It helps to think of the rest of the room with the same attitude also, an extension of your body "just sitting."  The room is "just there," nothing more, and in the mind of one practicing this technique, the wall across from the meditator is not light blue, nor has it pictures hanging from it, nor a white moulding —though physically it may possess all these characteristics. 

Teaching kids to meditate, giving them
a gift that will continue giving to them
for the rest of their lives. 

But in the mind of one practicing shikantaza, there is no discourse on these things, no naming and describing.  At most, there may be a faint awareness of a wall being in close proximity, but not much more than that.

The same goes for every other detail of the room, the furniture, the smell of the room itself, even other people.  In this light, one could even meditate while people in the room are talking or making noises.  Someone talking is just another sound the meditator hears, nothing more.  As far as the sitter is concerned, the person could be speaking an unknown language because there is no mental discourse about the content of what's spoken, no agreement with it, and no disagreement with it.  There is only the awareness of a sound, if even that much.  The rest is silence. 

Likewise, there is no mental commentary about the hour of the day it is, the day of the week it is, the year it is, the "phase of life" one is currently in.  For the moment, there are no regrets about the past, no worries about the future, no such commentary at all.  There is only awareness of just sitting. 

Such a Simple Power

A young Steve Jobs, known for his longtime
meditation practice.  Meditation is an excel-
lent practice for business people, keeping 
them focused and calm during challenging 
times.

At first, this technique sounded ridiculously simplistic to me.  I did not think it would be effective.  Later, however, I began to experience how amazingly powerful this technique truly is.  I began to discover different applications for it.  When we are in a crowd of people, for instance, if we can maintain an awareness of just standing in a line, or just walking, we can avoid getting caught up in other peoples' frenetic energy.  This is very effective in helping one stay centered and relaxed.

 After all, what often makes us feel off-centered is when we allow our attention to get overly focused on people, places and things around us.  It’s not these things themselves which are the cause of our distractions; it’s our choice to continually focus upon them that is.  This meditation practice trains us to not be so helpless against our own rampant, distracted thoughts and emotions.

          Regarding our interpersonal relationships, the simplicity which a regular “just sitting” practice cultivates helps us stay calm and focused, without getting distracted by the emotionalism of others and of ourselves.  This improves our relationships with children, spouses, work mates, because we retain a sense of peace and clarity as we work through our challenging responsibilities.  This makes us better parents, lovers and employees.

          "Just sitting" is one of the many simple yet useful techniques of Buddhist meditation, available to all.

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