Shikantaza — “nothing but precisely sitting” — is the central practice of Soto Zen. It has no object, no technique, no stages, and no goal, and it is among the most demanding practices in Buddhism precisely for those reasons.

Given no instruction beyond “just sit,” most practitioners either drift into daydreaming or manufacture a technique to hold onto. Avoiding both is the whole of the practice.

Dogen #

The practice as it exists derives from Dogen Zenji (1200–1253), who travelled to China, trained under Rujing at Tiantong, and returned to Japan in 1227 to found what became the Soto school.

Dogen’s central claim is the identity of practice and realisation (shusho itto). Ordinary religious logic is instrumental: practise now, attain later. Dogen rejects this. Zazen is not a method for becoming a buddha; it is the activity of a buddha, performed now. Awakening is not the result of sitting but is what sitting already is.

The autobiographical account has him troubled by a question before going to China: if all beings are originally enlightened, why did the buddhas and ancestors have to practise? Shikantaza is his answer. Practice is not the cause of realisation; it is its expression.

This has an immediate and difficult practical consequence. Any sitting undertaken in order to get something — calm, insight, kensho — has already missed the point, because it treats the present sitting as a means to a future state. The instruction is to sit without the gaining idea, which is considerably easier to state than to do.

The instructions #

Dogen’s Fukanzazengi (“Universal Recommendations for Zazen”), written shortly after his return, is the primary text and is remarkably short.

On posture: a quiet room, moderate food and drink, put aside all involvements. A thick mat with a round cushion; full or half lotus; loosened clothing; right hand on left foot, left hand on right palm, thumb tips lightly touching. Sit upright, not leaning in any direction; ears in line with shoulders, nose in line with navel; tongue against the palate, lips and teeth closed; eyes always open; breathe gently through the nose. See Meditation Posture.

Then the key passage, adapted from an older Chinese exchange:

Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen.

Three terms are in play. Shiryo, thinking — the ordinary discursive mode. Fushiryo, not-thinking — the deliberate suppression of thought, which is still an operation performed on the mind. And hishiryo, non-thinking — neither engaging thought nor suppressing it. Thoughts arise and are not pursued, not fought, not developed into positions. They pass.

Dogen closes: zazen is not “step-by-step meditation.” It is “the dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realisation of totally culminated enlightenment.”

What it is not #

The negations are the clearest way in.

Not concentration on an object. No breath count, no koan, no mantra, no body scan. Beginners are often given breath counting as a preliminary, and shikantaza proper begins when it is dropped.

Not observing thoughts. This is a genuine difference from vipassana noting, and it is subtle. Noting establishes an observer watching mental events and labelling them. Shikantaza has no such position. The practitioner is not standing back from experience and monitoring it; they are just sitting, with thinking as part of the situation rather than as the object of it.

Not emptying the mind. Suppression is fushiryo and is explicitly rejected.

Not aiming at kensho. The Rinzai orientation towards a breakthrough experience is exactly what Dogen is arguing against. Soto’s position is that sitting is already complete, and that pursuing an experience is a form of greed.

Not relaxation. The posture is alert, the eyes are open, and the effort involved is considerable — just not directed at anything.

What it is #

Harder to say, which is characteristic.

The usual descriptions: alert, open awareness without a focal point. Sitting in the full presence of whatever is occurring — the room, the body, sounds, sensations, thoughts — without selecting among them and without following any.

Uchiyama Kosho’s often-quoted formulation is “opening the hand of thought”: the mind’s habitual grasping is released, repeatedly, as one might open a fist. Not preventing the grasping, but letting go each time it is noticed.

Suzuki Shunryu’s version, in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, gives the image of a very large pasture: giving the sheep a wide field is the way to control them. Thoughts are not fenced in; they are given so much space that they stop dominating.

The modern Soto teacher Shohaku Okumura’s practical formula: let go of thought, and return to the posture and the breath — not as objects of concentration but as the reality of this moment.

Why it is difficult #

There is nothing to hold onto. Every other practice offers a place to put attention and a way to tell whether you are doing it. Shikantaza offers neither, and the mind reaches for structure.

There is no feedback. No stages, no progress markers, no attainments to check against. Soto is largely uninterested in maps of progress, which removes both the distraction of measuring and the reassurance of it.

The gaining idea is persistent. Practitioners repeatedly discover they have been sitting in order to get somewhere. Noticing this is not a failure — it is most of what the practice consists of.

It is easy to do badly without knowing. The two failure modes are drifting into daydream and manufacturing a covert technique. Both feel like sitting. A teacher who can see the difference is the standard remedy, and it is one reason Soto retains a strong emphasis on practising in a hall with others.

Soto and Rinzai #

The contrast is real but is regularly overstated.

Rinzai works with koans and the deliberate generation of great doubt, aiming at breakthrough. Soto sits without object, treating practice as already complete.

But Dogen studied and quoted koans constantly — the Shobogenzo is saturated with them — and his objection was to their instrumental use rather than to the koans themselves. And Rinzai practitioners sit shikantaza-like zazen between koan periods.

The twelfth-century Chinese argument between Dahui, who advocated kanhua koan practice, and Hongzhi, who taught “silent illumination” (mozhao), is the ancestor of the dispute. Dahui accused silent illumination of quietism; Hongzhi’s writings do not obviously support the charge. The same argument has continued in one form or another ever since, and appears again in the Tibetan context around Dzogchen and Mahamudra.

Starting #

Most teachers recommend a preparation period rather than beginning here.

Breath counting first — counting exhalations one to ten, restarting on losing count — until attention is reasonably stable. This is standard in Soto training and is not regarded as a lesser practice.

Then following the breath without counting.

Then dropping it, and just sitting.

The transition is not marked by an event. Practitioners typically find they oscillate between shikantaza and covert technique for a long time, and that noticing the oscillation is itself the practice.

Sit with others if possible. Soto’s emphasis on communal sitting in a hall, with a fixed schedule and formal kinhin between periods, exists partly because the practice is so hard to sustain alone.

Common questions #

How is this different from doing nothing? In posture, in alertness, in the eyes being open, and in the continuous letting go of the grasping at thought. From outside they look similar; the difference is that doing nothing involves no effort and shikantaza involves effort without a target.

How do I know if I am doing it right? You largely cannot, from inside, which is why the tradition emphasises a teacher and a hall. The rough indicators are whether you are drifting and whether you have installed a technique.

Isn’t sitting without a goal pointless? On Dogen’s account the question assumes the instrumental frame he is rejecting. The reply usually offered is that sitting without a goal is the only way to sit that is not organised around the self’s projects — which is the point.

Can shikantaza be my only practice? In Soto it is, alongside ethical conduct, ceremony, study, and work practice. Soto is not a meditation technique with a monastery attached; the whole of the daily schedule is treated as practice.

What about insight? Soto’s position is that sitting is the expression of realisation rather than a method for producing insight, so the question is framed differently than in the vipassana traditions. Practitioners report insight; the tradition declines to make it the aim.

Sources & further reading #

Dogen, Fukanzazengi, in Moon in a Dewdrop, ed. Kazuaki Tanahashi (North Point, 1985) — the primary instructions, a few pages. Shohaku Okumura, Realizing Genjokoan (Wisdom, 2010) — the clearest modern exposition of Dogen’s practice and thought. Uchiyama Kosho, Opening the Hand of Thought (Wisdom, rev. ed. 2004) — the best practical book on shikantaza. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (Weatherhill, 1970). Taigen Dan Leighton, Cultivating the Empty Field (Tuttle, 2000) — Hongzhi’s silent illumination writings, the Chinese antecedent.