只管打坐

Shikantaza

The term shikantaza is attributed to 道元禅師, Dōgen's teacher, 天童如淨, Tiāntóng Rújìng (1162-1228), and it literally means, "nothing but sitting." In other words, Dōgen means, "doing only zazen whole-heartedly" or "single-minded sitting."

Shikantaza is the Sino-Japanese reading of the Chinese words zhǐguǎn 只管 "by all means; merely, simply; only concerned with" and dǎzuò 打坐 "[Buddhism/Daoism] sit in meditation". The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism translates shikan or zhǐguǎn 只管 as "to focus exclusively on", taza or dǎzuò 打坐 as "to squat, sit down cross-legged", which corresponds with Sanskrit utkuṭuka-stha, and translates shikan taza from zhǐguǎn dǎzuò 只管打坐 (or qíguǎn dǎzuò 祇管打坐 with qí "earth god; local god") as "meditation of just sitting", explained as the "Zen form of meditation chiefly associated with the 曹洞宗, Sōtō-shū, Sōtō school, which places emphasis on emptying the mind, in contrast to the kōan method".

James Ishmael Ford says some authors hypothetically trace the root of shikantaza "just sitting" to vipassana meditation, but "this is far from certain." Japanese has many homophones pronounced shikan, and this etymological mix-up about shikan 只管 "only; just" stems from a more commonly used word that translates the Sanskrit "śamatha and vipaśyanā," names for the two basic forms of Buddhist meditation: Japanese shikan 止観 "concentration and observation" (as practised by the Tendai sect), from Chinese zhǐguān 止觀 "[Buddhism] keep mental calm while observing the universe" (cf. the Mohe Zhiguan), which compounds shi or zhǐ 止 "stop; stabilize; śamatha" and kan or guān 觀 "observe; contemplate; vipaśyanā". An instance of the confusion of 止観 for 只管 is Steve Hagen's claim that "shi [Hagen is referring to Dōgen's '只'] means tranquillity [= '止'], kan [Hagen is referring to Dōgen's '管'] means awareness [= '観'], ta means hitting exactly the right spot (not one atom off), and za means to sit."

Silent illumination

"Just sitting" is the term that Rujing used for "silent illumination" or "silent reflection" (Chinese mòzhào 默照; Japanese mokushō) which may be understood as the integrated practice of shamatha (calming the mind) and vipashyana (insightful contemplation), and was the hallmark of the Chinese Caodong school of Chan.

It is not merely just the union of calming and insight, which had already been developed within the Tiantai Buddhist tradition in medieval China. Rather, it is a description of the natural essence and function of the mind. In this sense, it can be traced back to the earliest Chan teachings of Bodhidharma.

The first Chan teacher to articulate silent illumination was the Caodong master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091—1157), who wrote an inscription entitled "silent illumination meditation" (Mokushō zen 默照禅 or Mòzhào chán 默照禪). According to Taigen Dan Leighton, this practice is a "nondual objectless meditation" which:

...involves withdrawal from exclusive focus on a particular sensory or mental object to allow intent apprehension of all phenomena as a unified totality. This objectless meditation aims at a radical, refined nondualism that does not grasp at any of the highly subtle distinctions to which our familiar mental workings are prone and which estranges us from our experience. Such subject-object dichotomization is understood as artificial, a fabrication. Silent illumination is also objectless in the sense of not seeking after specific limited goals. The ultimate purpose of spiritual practice, universally awakened heart/mind, cannot be set apart from our own inherent being and our immediate, moment-to-moment awareness