JUST SITTING

SHIKANTAZA is meditation practice without meditation techniques. Shikan means “just,” “simply,” “solely,” or “single-mindedly.” Taza means “sitting.”

So shikantaza is often translated as “just sitting”—and nothing else. There is no contemplation, for example, of Buddhist concepts such as the impurity of the body, the suffering inherent in sensation, the impermanence of the mind, or no-self. Nor does it involve the concentration of our attention on activities such as counting the