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Thursday, July 4, 2024

Koan Practice and Shikantaza

You may think it is nonsense for a Rinzai student [laughs] to come to Tassajara and practice shikantaza, but it isn’t so. Koan practice could be shikantaza. Shikantaza could be koan practice. Actually, if you really practice koan practice under right instruction, that is shikantaza. If you practice shikantaza under the right teacher, it will be koan practice. If you understand our practice, there are not two practices. Your practice is pointing one way. It looks like various ways because you understand it in terms of Rinzai or Soto, shikantaza or koan practice. You may say I am a Soto teacher, but actually, our way directly came from Buddha.

cuke.com/ig for links to the source of the photo. Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 69-03-10 as found on shunryusuzuki.com, edited by PF. Go to instagram.com/cuke_archives for the Instagram version.