For those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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When I practiced Zen Buddhism formally, yes.
Though I still do open sitting for a few minutes to conclude whatever meditation I was doing. My nonduality teacher recommended it and I found it useful.
Edit: for those interested, The Way app from Henry Shukman is a decent intro to this. Though finding actual Zen Buddhist community is better.
I do it daily by myself and irregularily with a group of friends of mine (sort of weekly our timetables permitting). I've also participated in a few day sesshins once or twice a year for over ten years.
I do it too. Pleased to meet you.
Do you do concentration meditation (anapanasati, samatha...) in preparation for shikantaza? (I used to, now I don't).
Do you prefer the shikantaza state and find concentrative states distasteful? (I do somewhat)
Nice to meet you too.
I occasionally do counting/following breathing at start, especially if there is lots of "noise" in my head. Not sure that would count as actual anapanasati, but I guess that's a line drawn on water in the end.
I do not find concentrative states offputting as such, just maybe not all that useful for me in the long run.
I perform isha kriya which seems similar but you have a yogi (in my case Sadhguru) repeat a phrase repeatedly for several minutes.
However the ending of it has about a 6 minute time of silence. Why do you ask?
Because I do shikantaza and I'm looking for peers to discuss a few points with.
I wouldn't mind learning it, actually.
For some reason I saw schizophrenia medication.
Now I can't stop seeing it