Shikantaza Feels So Good

[Noidea]

Whatever practice i do, everytime i come back to shikantaza. It feels so complete and peaceful.
Why isn't this practice known by more people?

[Shujin]

As you say, just sitting can be peaceful and feel complete. In other moments, however, it can be uncomfortable or monotonous. In my life, it is a vital practice, but also a difficult one to sustain. Perhaps this is why it isn't more popular. Of course, I am a priest in training so I could have it all wrong.

Gassho,
Shujin
St/lah

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[Doshin]

Noidea, same with me

Shujin

I identify with both of you

Doshin
Stlah

[Nengei]

Whatever practice i do, everytime i come back to shikantaza. It feels so complete and peaceful.
Why isn't this practice known by more people?

I am a priest in training, with no depth of knowledge for teaching the Dharma or Zen Buddhist practice. Please take my words accordingly.

It is nice to be able to find peace for sitting and all parts of our practice. May it ever be so for us, and for more sentient beings.

Shikantaza feels complete, and it should! It is the complete realization of enlightenment, fulfilling all that we practice for. It isn't always comfortable, and we don't always feel peaceful. Whether this moment of practice is uplifting and peaceful to us, or uncomfortable, or we have a cold, or we are mad at someone, whatever we are sitting with, our shikantaza done with the intent of freeing sentient beings, is wholly perfect. Nothing else is needed.

Noidea, would you do us a favor and sign your posts with the name you wish to go by here? And possibly add a photo. We don't need to identify you, only to have a face and name to associate you with. When you have a chance, take a look at this post: https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...before-CHAT%21

Gassho,
Nengei
Sat today. LAH.

[Bion]

Whatever practice i do, everytime i come back to shikantaza. It feels so complete and peaceful.
Why isn't this practice known by more people?

I'm glad to read that it is a practice that fits you well. A thought that comes up for me here is that “complete and peaceful”, though enjoyable feelings, are nonetheless transitory and conditioned and sometimes they might not accompany shikantaza or better yet, we might forget to label the sitting with those terms. Sitting is an always new and surprising experience, so no wonder you come back to it again and again.

gassho
sat and lah

[Hōzan]

When I sit, I argue with my wife.
Complete yes, but peaceful…?
I exaggerate a bit, but not completely off the mark.

Gassho, Hōzan
Satlah

[Jundo]

Yes, Zazen is the open boundless sky.

Some days peaceful, some days rainy or even stormy, some days sunny, some days grey, some days cold, some days hot or snowing or a hurricane ...

We sit as the sky, letting the weather of the mind's passing clouds just to pass. We do not demand that the weather always be pleasant peaceful and sunny.

Zazen is funny that way: An overarching Peace and Joy (Big P and J) so Peaceful and Joyous that it is even at Peace and Joyous to not always feel peaceful (little p) all the time, to sit Calmly and Accepting of sometimes feeling afraid or bothered, and is even Happy to sit crying with a broken heart.

Even with the darkest clouds, the sky and moon are still shining ... seen or unseen by the eyes. No need to chase away all the clouds to have trust in this fact.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Myojin]

This morning I sat with knee pain and head full of dark thoughts and half remembered dreams that rise up at that time, pre-coffee.

I can’t say it was particularly peaceful, but that’s how Zazen often is for me; thundery clouds on a dark night, with occasional glimpses of the starlit sky through gaps.

Satlah
Myojin

[Tom M]

This morning I sat with knee pain and head full of dark thoughts and half remembered dreams that rise up at that time, pre-coffee.

I can’t say it was particularly peaceful, but that’s how Zazen often is for me; thundery clouds on a dark night, with occasional glimpses of the starlit sky through gaps.

Satlah
Myojin

Me too, Myojin. Up at 2am because of the knee pain. Somehow it's the hardest hour. Monkey mind doesn't cover it: there is the whole zoo.

Sat today
Tom

[Myojin]

Me too, Myojin. Up at 2am because of the knee pain. Somehow it's the hardest hour. Monkey mind doesn't cover it: there is the whole zoo.

Sat today
Tom

I used to think of it as my menagerie of little imps and demons, it’s really a jungle in there.

Over the years I’ve given up on the idea of inner peace, the mind is what it is, and it’s not stopping for me.

Another kind of peace is found in the decision not to fidget over these things, rather than stopping them. You can’t till water with your hand, you just have to leave it alone.

Gassho
Myojin

[Ankai]

[When I sit, I argue with my wife.
Complete yes, but peaceful…?]
...do you win?

ST
LAH

[Hōzan]

[When I sit, I argue with my wife.
Complete yes, but peaceful…?]
...do you win?

ST
LAH

While sitting, always
Otherwise, never

Gassho, Hōzan
Satlah

[Chikyou]

I used to think of it as my menagerie of little imps and demons, it’s really a jungle in there.

Over the years I’ve given up on the idea of inner peace, the mind is what it is, and it’s not stopping for me.

Another kind of peace is found in the decision not to fidget over these things, rather than stopping them. You can’t till water with your hand, you just have to leave it alone.

Gassho
Myojin

Shikantaza is the only meditation practice that I've ever stuck with for longer than a month (I've tried a few!) There is indeed something very different about it.

Gassho,
SatLah
Chikyō

[Kaitan]

I've heard not only in this community that the means are the ends.

Gasshō

stlah, Kaitan

[Jundo]

Another kind of peace is found in the decision not to fidget over these things, rather than stopping them. You can’t till water with your hand, you just have to leave it alone.

One of the very first video talks I ever made at Treeleaf, now lost to time I think, was me trying to quiet and still a bowl of swirling water by slapping the water down, then trying to push down the waves with my hand. Of course, that just made more waves and disturbance.

Then, I just left it alone, and it settled on its own.

I should redo that old skit.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Shujin]

This morning I sat with knee pain and head full of dark thoughts and half remembered dreams that rise up at that time, pre-coffee.

I can’t say it was particularly peaceful, but that’s how Zazen often is for me; thundery clouds on a dark night, with occasional glimpses of the starlit sky through gaps.

Satlah
Myojin

[Jundo]

thundery clouds on a dark night, with occasional glimpses of the starlit sky through gaps.

Sometimes there is only sky. We are this sky.

Sometimes there are clouds, with glimpses of sky.

Sometimes there are only clouds, not a hint of sky. At those times, we must keep trust in our bones that the sky is still there, even though not seen.

For the sky is always there, seen or unseen, on even the stormiest day ...

... and (though hard to realize sometimes) even the clouds are just the sky.

We need not demand to always see the open sky, and that there are never clouds.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Myojin]

One of the very first video talks I ever made at Treeleaf, now lost to time I think, was me trying to quiet and still a bowl of swirling water by slapping the water down, then trying to push down the waves with my hand. Of course, that just made more waves and disturbance.

Then, I just left it alone, and it settled on its own.

I should redo that old skit.

Gassho, J

stlah

This used to come up in Aikido classes when describing to to keep one-point (臍下の一点), you can no longer force it than you can still water with your hands, you just have to stop fussing.

For some reason this comes to mind:

Sattday
Myojin