Coaching practices for Shunryu Suzuki Shoshin
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Shunryu Suzuki Shoshin, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Sitting alone, every single day becomes a negotiation over whether to skip it, and my practice keeps collapsing
- I’ve been sitting for a while and I want the old writings to deepen it, but every time I open Dogen the words tie my head in knots
- I sit faithfully but the rest of my life is a mess of small dishonesties and unresolved conflicts I keep ignoring, and I’m starting to suspect that noise in how I’m living is exactly what’s clouding the practice and keeping me stuck.
- On the cushion I can find that open, present quality, but the instant I stand up it evaporates
- Even in meditation I’m secretly grading myself, chasing some better state, treating sitting as a means to an end
Practices that may help
- Beginner's Mind (Shoshin), Made Practical
Beginner's mind (shoshin in Japanese) is the Zen practice of approaching experience — including familiar tasks, relationships, and ideas — as if for the first time, free of the assumptions expertise accumulates. Shunryu Suzuki articulated it as the foundation of Zen practice; in contemporary psychology it overlaps with research on actively open thinking, curiosity, and the documented cognitive costs of expert blindness. - Practicing with a sangha (community sitting)
Sit with others regularly — group practice stabilizes individual practice in ways solitude cannot.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Study of Dogen’s writings alongside practice
Read Dogen’s Shobogenzo as a mirror for direct experience, not as philosophical doctrine.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Koan practice and daily ethical conduct (sila)
Ground koan inquiry in the ethical precepts — insight without conduct is unstable.
Zen Koans: Inquiry Beyond Reason - Extending shikantaza to daily activity
Bring the same non-grasping, present awareness from formal sitting into ordinary tasks.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Shikantaza — "just sitting" in the Soto Zen tradition
Sit with complete presence and nothing to achieve — no goal, no technique, no observer separate from sitting.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Silent illumination: the quality of awake stillness
Cultivate a stillness that is lit from inside — quiet and alert, not blank and dull.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Approaching a familiar situation with fresh eyes
Before entering a recurring conversation or task, set aside your established conclusions and look again.
Pu: Taoist Simplicity and the Uncarved Block - Shikantaza: Just Sitting
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
Related concerns
- Shikantaza Just Sitting
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
- Shikantaza Just Sitting After A Loss
Cultivate a stillness that is lit from inside — quiet and alert, not blank and dull.
Silent illumination: the quality of awake stillness
- Shikantaza Just Sitting As A Caregiver
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
- Shikantaza Just Sitting As A Parent
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
- Shikantaza Just Sitting At Work
Shikantaza ("just this sitting") is the central meditation practice of Soto Zen, formulated by Dogen Zenji (1200–1253). It is objectless, open-awareness meditation: you sit with alert presence, not focusing on any particular object and not trying to achieve any state. Dogen taught that shikantaza is not a means to enlightenment but the expression of it — sitting is itself the practice. Benefits overlap with studied open-monitoring meditation, though shikantaza’s specific claims are experiential rather than clinically validated.
- Shikantaza Just Sitting During A Big Change
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
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