... with or without Samadhi ...
Someone asked recently, what is the relationship of Shikantaza Zazen and attaining Samadhi states?
Shikantaza is a practice of Just Sitting, letting thoughts go without becoming tangled, in radical equanimity, allowing all as it is, with mind in "open awareness" or, as an alternative, following the breath (or similar variation, such as centering attention on posture). One sits with the attitude of nothing in need of attaining, no other place to be, nothing more to do, for all is complete just by sitting, Sitting for Sitting's sake, sitting as a sacred act, with the posture of sitting embodying a Buddha Sitting.
Samadhi is a concentration state, often accompanied by a feeling of peace, wholeness, a softening of the hard borders of self/not self, life's frictions dropped away, timelessness and the like. Sometimes, Samadhi can be quite deep and profound, with a true quieting, even silencing of thought, and a complete drop of self/other division. Shikantaza often results in Samadhi of varying depths of concentration, even if such states are not sought.
Paradoxically, in fact, the act of goalless sitting without seeking to experience Samadhi states, dropping goals in open awareness etc., may actually facilitate such attaining of Samadhi, even if that is not sought ... like finding gold right in hand precisely because one stops mining for gold.
The trick is that Shikantaza may or may not result in Samadhi at various times, but Shikantaza is ALWAYS good Zazen, with or without Samadhi on a particular day, for there is no need or hunger to attain Samadhi or any other state. Some folks chase Samadhi, or feel that Zazen is only good and effective when Samadhi is attained. Soto Zen folks sitting Shikantaza also experience and learn from times of Samadhi, and we cherish such times, but we also wisely learn to put down all hunger and chasing, and thus we also learn that times without Samadhi are lovely too and to be cherished as well. In fact we might realize that all the world is always, already in perpetual Samadhi, whether or not we might feel so in a particular moment ...
... like knowing that the moon is always shining, seen or unseen, at times of clear skies or even on cloudy or stormy nights. We learn to know the moon that is the clouds AND the clear sky, and are not only seeking to have always clear skies. I hope that explains it a bit.
This guy wrote a wonderful essay about it.
https://tricycle.org/article/soto-zen-goallessness/
Gassho, J
stlah
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