Hi from St. Louis,

It's wonderful to have a teacher and a sangha so accessible. It's kind of amazing. Thank you.

Practicing shikantaza is new to me. I come from the tradition of vipassana and, most recently, of Joko Beck and Ezra Bayda. Joko and Ezra provide highly skillful ways of working with emotion -- mindfully observing, observing, observing the physical sensations and patterns of thought emotions give rise to. This has been very helpful for me, as I often have strong emotions coursing through.

My question is: do we sit with emotions in shikantaza in just the same way we sit with thoughts? I see that "thought" is often mentioned in this tradition, but "emotion" perhaps less so (?) Do we pay attention to body sensations, thought patterns when, say, anger or grief arise? Or do we just try to let them go?

The newcomer videos are helpful, but I'm only partway through them (no Internet connection at home for now) and would be grateful for some guidance.

Thank You,

Jeff