At the risk of starting a more contentious conversation than I'd like to start, I heard something from a talk that got me thinking about this practice and my approach to it.

Shikantaza is pretty radical. Radically normal, but still pretty radical.

I think there's a difference between tranquilizing the ego (that's the phrase that was used and it seemed pretty appropriate) and really coming to each moment with a willingness to throw out everything you know and start at zero. It's not that you have to actually throw it out (although maybe for actual Shikantaza sitting practice you do), but I think you have to be able to.

I think that's why this practice is, as Taigu has said (as I seem to recall), that this is a practice of subtraction, not one of addition.

So, is our practice one of ego tranquilizing or Shikantaza? What is your honest assessment of your practice?

Chet