Kobun Chino Otogawa had this to say about shikantaza:
Shikan taza sounds very strong. Shikan is understood as identical to taza. Shikan means “pure”, “one”, “only for it”. Ta is a very strong word. It shows moving activity. When you hit, that movement is called ta, so “strike” ...
Thanissaro Bhikku wrote:
Emptiness as a quality of dharmas, in the early canons, means simply that one cannot identify them as one’s own self or having anything pertaining to one’s own self… Emptiness as a mental state, in the early canons, means a mode of perception in which one neither adds anything ...
