Shikantaza (say "shee-kahn-tah-zah") is the Soto Zen school's name for just sitting: not sitting in order to get somewhere else, but sitting as the complete act itself. Dogen (say "doh-gen"), the thirteenth-century teacher who brought this teaching from China to Japan, wrote that this kind of sitting is not a technique for learning meditation, and not a ladder toward some later enlightenment still owed to you. He called it a dharma gate of enjoyment and ease, already complete the moment you take it up. That's a strange claim for anything you do before breakfast. Most of what we do is aimed at some later payoff: the workout for the body it will build, the meeting for the deal it might close. This morning, sit still for a few unscheduled minutes with no goal for the sitting itself, not to prepare for the day, but as the day's first finished thing.