Mike, I did read this newsletter and thought it was excellent!
The only exception I would have with it is its claim that "When the method of silent illumination was taken to Japan it was changed somewhat. The name given to it, "just sitting", means just paying attention to sitting or just keeping the physical posture of sitting, and this was the new emphasis." This was not the way shikantaza (just sitting) was explained to me from two different Japanese Zen Buddhist roshis. In fact shikantaza was explained exactly as the way "silent illumination" is defined in this newsletter. The only difference I could find was the breaking the experience into three stages as is done at the bottom of this article. The zen training I received did not at all emphasize a lot of stages of things or a specific number of this or that like Buddhism in general does. My training was very sparse on explanation, especially explanation which goes down into great detail. Teaching was by example accompanied with very terse explanations, and emphasized doing (experience) over learning (understanding). ...Bill! --- In [email protected], uerusuboyo@... wrote: > > Bill!,<br/><br/>If you have time, take a look at this 1995 newsletter from > Chan Center. > <br/><br/>http://chancenter.org/cmc/1995/02/01/shikantaza-and-silent-illumination/<br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/><br/>Sent > from Yahoo! Mail for iPad > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
