Hi Gary - nice piece as always. One slight addition about Shikantaza and one little story about bowing.

it's true that initially, in Shikantaza, you may be aware of your sensory environment, and there's certainly no instructions to shut out your senses. But keeping open awareness, it may be possible that your awareness spontaneously turns inward, such that you're so absorbed in inner thoughts and images there's no conscious awareness of the sensory surround. It may also happen later, as the awareness further turns inward, that even thoughts and images fade away and there's simply awareness of awareness. (And you're right; you can't engineer this; I wrote this not as something to "do" but simply to be aware of the spontaneous possibility).

As for bowing - I assume you wrote this for the readers who are wary of anything religious. It calls to mind one of my favorite stories about "wary religiosity."

Two Americans had traveled to Japan to meet a famous Zen teacher. As they entered the Zendo, they saw him bowing to a statue of the Buddha. They were incensed!!

"Bowing to the Buddha!" one of them exclaimed. "I thought when you meet the Buddha on the road, you should kill him. At least, spitting would be better than bowing."

The Zen teacher, unphased, smiled kindly and replied, "If you wish to spit, please spit. I prefer to bow."