Originally Posted by
PeterE
Alan, terrific, thank you for this thread.
I haven’t read Bassui’s book, but I resonate with the view, “the whole point of practice, regardless of what practice you are doing (Rinzai or Soto), is that you need to find your True Nature”. (Some like to argue that practice is pointless, and that’s fine, that’s just another “point”.)
Furthermore, after many years of shikantaza, I have become very attracted to the question “who am I?”, as I have grown to be more interested in the perceiver, rather than the perceived.
Having said this, the question occurs within the context of shikantaza. Sitting quietly, watching, allowing, a sense of ‘I’ appears……….. “who is this ‘I’, and where has it come from?”
Very interesting question. Seems to have the power to untangle.