Again, I have nothing in my mind [laughs, laughter]. I think I want you to hit my head, you know, like this, and see what kind of sound I my head makes. Would you hit my head like this? If possible, hit my head with a long, long talk, maybe one hour long. It will be a great help. Do you have some long, long stick to hit my bell? If you have some long stick-- longer the better. Do you have some question? Long, long question [laughter]. No question? Some question? Hai.

Student A: [4-6 words unclear] on shikantaza?

SR: Shikantaza? Oh. Practice of shikantaza? We say there is no such thing like shikantaza, you know, actually. But in comparison to koan practice, we-- because we don't use, you know, koan, people say that is shikantaza.

Shikan means, you know, to be involved in zazen completely. That is shikan. Taza is zazen. So to-- if you practice our way without any gaining idea, or even without any idea of enlightenment, that is shikantaza. So sometime koan practice may be also shikantaza. When you are completely involved in koan practice, that is actually shikantaza.

From 69-07-15. For more go to this entry on the Suzuki lecture archive found on Shunryu Suzuki dot com. - Edited a tiny bit by DC, posted 12-28-14