Zen Practice for What?: Nothing to Gain, Nothing to Become

What are you trying to get from Zen?

Enlightenment, a teacher’s approval, a deeper understanding of Dōgen, or simply more hours on the cushion—each can become another way to make the self important.

Drawing on years of Sōtō Zen practice in Japan and the United States, Kosho Kinpu asks what these accomplishments mean in the life we actually live. He examines kenshō, kōan recognition, spiritual authority, scholarship, and the use of Zen to pursue desired results. His questions apply to his own practice as well.

At the heart of the book is shikantaza: just sitting, undertaken wholeheartedly without demanding a future spiritual reward. Practice and realization are inseparable. Sitting is a time to put down the oar and acknowledge the life that sustains us. When we rise, there are people to care for and things to do.

For lay practitioners, family, work, culture, and existing faith need not be discarded. For someone struggling, the next step may be as small as getting up when morning comes.

Direct in its criticism and warm toward the reader, Zen Practice for What? invites us to stop postponing life until we become someone special.

Nothing to gain. Nothing to become. A life to live.