In Sōtō Zen, shikantaza—“just sitting”—is understood as the direct embodiment and manifestation of inherent Buddha-nature. The sitting itself is not treated as a technique to acquire enlightenment at some later point, but as the very expression of enlightenment here and now. This perspective rests on the view that all beings already possess Buddha-nature, and that the simple, wholehearted act of sitting allows this awakened reality to reveal itself. Rather than striving for special experiences, the practitioner entrusts body and mind to the posture and the present moment, allowing practice and realization to be a single, unified event.

The attitude in shikantaza is deliberately non-goal oriented: nothing is pursued, nothing is rejected, and no particular state is sought. Thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations are permitted to arise and pass away without interference, judgment, or manipulation. In this way, awareness ceases to stand apart from what is experienced; the usual division between “meditator” and “object of meditation” is gently loosened. What remains is a direct, unmediated awareness of reality as it is, free from the habitual grasping and resistance that normally shape perception.

Through this simple yet radical form of sitting, shikantaza cultivates non-attachment and equanimity. By neither clinging to pleasant experiences nor pushing away unpleasant ones, the practitioner learns to meet all phenomena with evenness and openness. Over time, this fosters a loosening of identification with passing thoughts and narratives, revealing that ordinary awareness—just as it is—is already the field of awakening. The purpose, then, is not self-improvement in the conventional sense, but the full and sincere enactment of “just sitting,” in which Buddha-nature naturally manifests without adornment.