In Soto Practice, we “just sit”, letting thoughts drift out of mind, dropping “likes” and “dislikes” and other judgments, even allowing the hard sense of “self” to soften, or fully fade away. We combine this with study of the same Buddhist philosophy as the Vipassana folks, but just NOT DURING ZAZEN. In fact, my talks on the HEART SUTRA are a good example, because the Heart Sutra is about that philosophy of how the “sense of Self” develops, how our attachments, desires and aversions develop … same philosophy and theory.

We believe that our “Shikantaza” Practice brings one to same same insights as “Vipassana” Practice. We also think (although it could be pure bias on our part) that it does so more effectively, because there is something really nifty about our discovering truths by “non seeking” for them.

But, also, we are not so “analytical” about it. So, instead of saying something like “note seeing seeing seeing”, and what it feels like and from where the sensation arises … in Soto Practice, we might say “just see, don’t think” or “be aware of seeing without judging or categorizing”.

Jundo Cohen, my preceptor

(Source: treeleaf.org)